Super John Romps by 19 ½ Lengths in Second Career Start
Rainbow 6 Jackpot Carryover Grows to $23,114 for Friday
Juvenile Filly Maiden Race Helps Spice Up Saturday Program
Links: Stronach 5 All Star Ticket, Free PPs

Apprentice Correa Closes Gap in Jockey Race with Three-Win Day

LAUREL, MD – When the competition was nowhere to be found, D. J. Stable and Cash is King’s promising 2-year-old Super John went looking for it himself.

Eight lengths in front of his closest pursuer with the length of the stretch still ahead, Super John drifted toward the outside rail approaching the wire before being corrected by jockey Sheldon Russell and coasted to a 19 ½-length romp Thursday at Laurel Park.

Trained by John Servis and sired by Super Saver, both Kentucky Derby (G1) winners, Super John ($5.20) ran one mile in 1:39.67 in the $40,000 maiden special weight for juveniles that was rained off the grass to a fast main track.

It was the second career start for Super John, a narrow second choice at 8-5 in the field of six and hailing from the same connections that campaigned multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Jaywalk, the 2-year-old filly champion of 2018.

“It was a good race. He broke from the outside and got away nicely and secured a nice, easy lead,” Russell said. “If anything, when I got him to the front he was looking around the whole race. You can see it. I let a horse run up inside and it was just to give him some company. He had his ears pricked and he was never like tugging me along, so he was just waiting for the company.”

Breaking from the far outside, Russell kept Super John in the clear as Christophe Clement-trained favorite Percentage forced the issue along the rail through fractions of 24.01 and 48.14 seconds. After letting Percentage creep within a head at the half-mile mark, Russell let Super John loose and the bay colt opened up before taking the scenic route home. Percentage finished second, with Jasiri third.

“In the stretch, I just felt like he was playing so I tried to open him up because I didn’t really want to get swallowed up. He opened up and he just started wandering around like he was lost,” Russell said. “All of a sudden at the first wire or just before, he just started veering out and I think that was just greenness. I didn’t expect it. He caught me off guard. I was just lucky he kept going forward as he was doing it. Definitely I think blinkers would help him be even better. He gave me the feel of a really nice one.”

Super John was purchased for $180,000 as a 2-year-old in training at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s spring auction in March. He debuted July 15 at Parx, showing late energy to be fourth of 10 in a 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight sprint on the dirt, beaten five lengths.

Rainbow 6 Jackpot Carryover Grows to $23,114 for Friday

No one selected all six winners in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 Thursday at Laurel Park, growing the jackpot carryover to $23,114.94 for Friday’s nine-race program.

First-race post time is 1:10 p.m.

Upsets by Seany P ($26.80) in Race 5 and Fancy Outflanker ($65.40) in Race 6 meant no horses were live to take down the jackpot heading into Thursday’s eighth-race finale. Tickets with five of six winners each returned $161.48.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

Friday’s Rainbow 6 spans Races 4-9 and opens with the card’s two features – a $42,000 allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the Fort Marcy turf course in Race 4, and a $45,000 optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs in Race 5.

There will also be a carryover of $477.28 Friday in the $1 Super Hi-5.

Juvenile Filly Maiden Race Helps Spice Up Saturday Program

Trainers Michael Stidham and Michael Matz, both based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., each entered a pair of first-time starters in an intriguing maiden event for 2-year-old fillies as part of Saturday’s nine-race program at Laurel Park.

Scheduled for one mile over the Kelso turf course, the $40,000 maiden special weight drew a field of nine. Stidham will send out Nial Brennan, Michael Ryan and Mike Anderson Racing’s Melissani and Newtown Anner Stud homebred Hedonism.

Melissani, a $180,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland’s September 2018 sale, shows bullet works over the dirt and synthetic surfaces at Fair Hill for her debut. Hedonism, by two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin, has done much of her preparation at Monmouth Park with a July 30 breeze at Fair Hill.

Matz counters with Amy Moore’s Rising Light and Bass Stables’ homebred Beguiling. Rising Light, by Tiznow, fetched $165,000 at the same sale as Melissani, while Beguiling is a bay daughter of Data Link, a multiple graded-stakes winner including the 2012 Maker’s 46 Mile (G1) for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.

Saturday’s card also includes an open $55,000 allowance for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs on the Fort Marcy turf course led by Oldies But Goodies, front-running winner of the Ben’s Cat Stakes July 14 at Laurel, graded-stakes tested Square Shooter and 2018 Marshall Jenney Stakes winner Fielding.

Links: Stronach 5 All Star Ticket, Free PPs

Friday’s Stronach 5 will offer a $100,000 pool guarantee and an industry-low 12 percent takeout while featuring races at Laurel Park and Gulfstream Park.

Laurel’s Stanton Salter and Gulfstream’s Ron Nicoletti have teamed to construct an All Star ticket for the increasingly popular national multi-race, multi-track wager.

All Star Ticket: Click here to view

The Stronach 5 will kick off with Laurel’s Race 8, move to Gulfstream for its Race 7, head back to Maryland for Laurel’s Race 9 and end with Races 8 and 9 from South Florida. Three races are scheduled to be contested on the turf.

Free Past Performances: Click here to view

The minimum bet for the Stronach 5 is $1 through Laurel Park’s mutuel pool. If there are no tickets with five winners, the entire pool will be carried over to the next Friday.

Notes: Five-pound apprentice Julio Correa closed to within one victory of summer meet-leading rider Trevor McCarthy, 26-25, with a three-win day Thursday. Correa was first with Brushing ($2.10) in Race 1, Marco Island ($8.60) in Race 3 and Quality Matters ($4.40) in Race 8.