4YO Colt Favored in One-Mile Optional Claiming Allowance
Response Time, Princess Kokachin Set to Meet Again Friday

LAUREL, MD – SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Robert Masterson, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital, Catherine Donovan, Golconda Stable and Siena Farm’s Doppelganger, victorious in his return to racing last month, chases a second straight victory when live racing returns Friday to Laurel Park.

Twice graded-stakes placed and fourth behind Cyberknife in the Arkansas Derby (G1) last year, the 4-year-old Doppelganger went unraced from July until posting a 2 ½-length open allowance triumph Jan. 27 going 1 1/16 miles at Laurel in his debut for new trainer Brittany Russell.

Doppelganger is the 8-5 program favorite in Friday’s Race 5, a one-mile optional claiming allowance for 4-year-olds and up where he drew Post 3 in a field of seven. Also among the entries are Shaft’s Bullet, a nose shy of being undefeated in three starts, and Jalen Journey, promoted winner of the 2021 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3).

Similar connections to Doppelganger also recently transferred San Vicente (G3) third-place finisher Fort Warren to Russell from Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. The 3-year-old Fort Warren has yet to register a timed work since the Jan. 29 San Vicente.

Friday’s Laurel feature comes in Race 7, an open allowance for fillies and mares 4 and up sprinting 5 ½ furlongs that drew a field of seven led by Mens Grille Racing’s Response Time, favored at 2-1 on the morning line. The 5-year-old mare has alternated running first and second in her last four starts, exiting a three-quarter-length triumph at the distance Feb. 4.

Princess Kokachin, winner of the 2021 Politely at Laurel, was second to Response Time last out and seeks her eighth career win over her home track. Cheetara, a Group 2 stakes winner in Chile that owns two stakes wins in North America, returns to dirt in her first start since last October looking to snap a four-race losing streak.

Both races are part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 sequence, which spans Races 3-8 and begins with a $2,522.76 jackpot carryover from Monday’s Presidents Day holiday program.

Friday’s card will also mark the U.S. debut of seven-pound apprentice jockey Axel Concepcion, who is named on Crimson Rocket for trainer Kieron Magee in Race 1 and the Hugh McMahon-trained entry of Pudge Boy Palace and Practical Sense in Race 2. Concepcion won 22 races since turning pro Jan. 1 at Camarero in Puerto Rico, also finishing third in the Clasico Eugenio Maria de Hostos (G3).

Post time for the first of eight races Friday is 12:25 p.m.

Five-pound apprentice Jeiron Barbosa holds a 28-26 advantage over Jaime Rodriguez atop the winter meet rider standings and is also tops with more than $1.1 million in purse earnings. Jamie Ness, who frequently uses Rodriguez at Laurel, leads Brittany Russell in the trainer standings, 16-15, though Russell is first with $750,575 in purses earned. Anthony Farrior, who leads all North American trainers with 45 wins in 2023, is third with 12 wins from 37 starters (32 percent).