First Laurel Park Stakes of 2017 Attract 51 Nominations

First Laurel Park Stakes of 2017 Attract 51 Nominations

$75,000 Fire Plug, $75,000 What a Summer Set for Saturday, Jan. 14
 
LAUREL, MD – Graded stakes winners Heaven’s Runway, Res Judicata, Stallwalkin’ Dude and Hot City Girl are among 51 horses nominated to a pair of $75,000 stakes that kick off Laurel Park’s 2017 winter meet stakes schedule Saturday, Jan. 14.
 
The six-furlong Fire Plug for 4-year-olds and up drew 28 nominees topped by Heaven’s Runway, winner of the Dave’s Friend Dec. 31 at Laurel and Fall Highweight (G3) in his last two starts, both at the Fire Plug distance.
 
Res Judicata, upset winner of the Salvator Mile (G3) last June at Monmouth Park, and Bold Ruler (G3) winner Stallwalkin’ Dude, who has won multiple stakes and nearly $1.2 million in purse earnings, are also nominated along with multiple stakes winners Chublicious, Never Gone South and Sonny Inspired, and Maryland Million Sprint winner Nicaradalic Rocks.
 
Hot City Girl, winner of the 2015 Charles Town Oaks (G3), heads 23 nominations for the six-furlong What a Summer for fillies and mares 4 and older. The multiple stakes-winning 5-year-old City Zip mare returned from a four-month layoff to run third in the Willa On the Move Dec. 10 at Laurel behind fellow What a Summer nominee Lovable Lady, who has earned six of her seven career wins in 13 starts at Laurel, three of them in stakes.
 
Stakes winners Clothes Fall Off, second in the 2016 Barbara Fritchie (G2); High Ridge Road, who captured the Thirty Eight Go Go Dec. 31 at Laurel; Flatterywillgetyou, Southern Girl, Sweet On Smokey; Rowd E Allie, a front-running winner of her last three races; and back-to-back winner Indulgent are also among the nominees.
 
Fire Plug was a multiple stakes-winning sprinter that won 28 of 54 races and $705,175 in purses from 1986-1991. His local wins included the 1987 J. Edgar Hoover Handicap and 1990 Resolution Handicap at Laurel, and the 1988 Maryland Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap and 1988 Roman Handicap at historic Pimlico Race Course.
 
Bred in Maryland by Milton Polinger, What a Summer was a multiple graded stakes winner of 18 races and $479,161 in purses from 31 career starts. Winner of the 1976 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) at Pimlico, she was named the Eclipse Award-winning sprinter of 1977 after winning the Distaff Handicap (G3), Fall Highweight (G2) and Maskette Handicap (G2).