Irish War Cry Sibling to Make Career Debut Friday at Laurel
Laurel Park Moves to Four-Day Race Week Thursday, Oct. 3
Pre-Entry Deadline Oct. 9 for Jim McKay Maryland Million

LAUREL, MD – As a former steeplechase jockey and U.S. Olympic athlete, Suzanne Stettinius is always up for a challenge. Training her own Thoroughbred fits the bill nicely.

Stettinius won her second career race Sept. 29 at Laurel Park with 5-year-old gelding Mokheef, who provided the 31-year-old Parkton, Md. native with her breakthrough victory May 27 on closing day of Pimlico Race Course’s Preakness Meet.

“It’s been fun,” Stettinius said. “He’s my first winner and actually my first horse. The first and only in our little one-horse stable.”

A son of Street Cry out of the Green Desert mare Yaqeen, Mokheef was claimed for $5,000 out of a fifth-place finish Dec. 2 at Laurel. Stettinius raced him for the first time May 5 as Mint Meadows Farm LLC, named for the property near the Pennsylvania border where she grew up.

“I loved the Street Cry sire and I love the way he runs. He just wants to go long and he comes from way back. Every race that he placed in before I claimed him, that’s exactly how they liked him to run,” Stettinius said. “It’s hard to claim a horse, in my eyes, that goes straight to the front and holds it. I wanted a horse that I could train off the farm. I wanted a good, pure turf horse, too. My eye caught him, they dropped him down to [$5,000] and that was our moment.”

Mokheef has earned more than 10 times his claiming price with two wins, one second, one third and $52,704 in purses over seven starts with Stettinius. All but one of them have come in Maryland – an eighth-place finish in a 1 5/16-mile allowance Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs.

“He’s definitely a closer. What happened in Kentucky is they went off in 51 [seconds] and he didn’t have anything to close into,” Stettinius said. “When I’m in the paddock with the jockeys, I don’t really have many instructions.”

A graduate of Hereford High School in Parkton and McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., Stettinius began riding horses for her cousin, Maryland-based trainer Ann Merryman, at age 16. A two-time participant in the Maryland Hunt Cup, she represented the U.S. in the 2012 Summer Games in London as a modern pentathlete, a competition that includes equestrian, shooting, fencing, running and swimming events.

“I did the Olympics and I continued to run for a little bit after that, but the horses have kind of taken over my life now,” Stettinius said. “I kind of told everybody, ‘I’m going to train [Mokheef] like I would train myself,’ and it seems to be working.”

Working as a sales manager for Pepsi, Stettinius is limited to training one horse – at least for now. She doesn’t hide a desire to turn training into a full-time job.

“That’s a big discussion I have with my husband. That would be the ideal situation, I think,” Stettinius said. “I’ve always been involved with the horses. I was a steeplechase jockey myself and I galloped for my cousin since I was 16. It definitely wasn’t a surprise when I finally went ahead and got a horse.

“I admit that Ann Merryman was a big player in all of this,” she added. “She was the one that pushed me over the edge to drop the claim.”

Irish War Cry Sibling to Make Career Debut Friday at Laurel

Irish Charmer, a 2-year-old half-sister to multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire Irish War Cry, is entered to make her career debut Friday at Laurel Park.

Isabelle Haskell de Tomaso’s New Jersey homebred, trained by Graham Motion, drew Post 6 in the $40,000 maiden special weight for juvenile fillies sprinting six furlongs on the main track, which attracted a field of nine. Jorge Vargas Jr. is named to ride.

Irish Charmer is a gray or roan daughter of Graydar out of the Polish Numbers mare Irish Sovereign, who produced 2018 Pimlico Special (G3) and 2017 Holy Bull (G2) and Wood Memorial (G2) winner Irish War Cry as well as 2017 Red Bank (G3) winner Irish Strait, whose most recent victory came in the Henry S. Clark Stakes April 20 at Laurel. Both horses were also trained by Motion.

“The mare has been phenomenal,” he said. “It’s just a terrific family.”

Irish Charmer shows five works since Aug. 25 over the main track at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. Each of her last three works have been bullet half-mile moves in 49 seconds Sept. 7, 14 and 20 – the fastest of 29, 39 and 15 horses, respectively.

“She has done things well,” Motion said. “She’s a little bit of a handful in the morning and I think that’s why we got her a little bit later than normal, but she’s done things pretty forwardly. She’s not straightforward; she is a little quirky. I think she has plenty of ability.”

Irish Charmer is third choice in the program at 9-2, behind fellow first-time starter Jara (7-2) and Leaveuwithasmile (4-1), racing for the third time. D J Stable’s Jara is a daughter of 2014 Florida Derby (G1) and 2015 Donn Handicap (G1) winner Constitution that fetched $240,000 as a 2-year-old in training in April and is stabled with Kentucky Derby (G1)-winning trainer John Servis at Parx, where she shows a dozen works since early June.

Jeremiah Englehart owned-and-trained Leaveuwithasmile raced twice at Saratoga this summer, finishing fifth in a pair of 5 ½-furlong sprints Aug. 9 and 30, the first on turf and the second on dirt. She remained at Saratoga following her most recent races and has worked three times over its training track, going a half in 48.41 seconds Sept. 27.

Motion said Grade 3 winner Colonia exited her runner-up finish in the $150,000 Fasig-Tipton All Along Stakes Sept. 28 at Laurel in good order, despite a troubled trip where she stumbled badly after clipping heels on the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile route around the Dahlia turf course.

Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, Maurice Lagasse and Haras d’Etreham’s 4-year-old mare raced ahead of only two rivals in the 12-horse field and trailed by as many as 11 ¾ lengths before commencing a rally that saw her close stoutly on the outside to get within a half-length of front-running winner Notapradaprice.

“I think at the end of the day she was the best horse, she just got a very unlucky trip,” Motion said. “She was shuffled much further back than we wanted to be, which was a shame. She closed a lot of ground on a course that was pretty tough to close on, as well.”

Favored at 5-2 in the All Along, Colonia was making just her second start of the year 26 days after finishing fourth in the PTHA President’s Cup at Parx. Winner of the Valley View (G3) last fall at Keeneland, she hadn’t raced since a fourth-place finish in the Dec. 29 American Oaks (G1) at Santa Anita.

“I’m not sure [what’s next],” Motion said. “I ran her back fairly quickly after her Parx race, so I’m not going to be in a hurry to run her back.”

Laurel Park Moves to Four-Day Race Week Thursday, Oct. 3

There will be carryovers in the 20-cent Rainbow 6, 50-cent Late Pick 5 and $1 Super Hi-5 when live racing returns to Laurel Park Thursday, Oct. 3.

The 10-race program begins at 1:10 p.m. and marks the start of a Thursday through Sunday schedule for October and November of the calendar year-ending fall meet. Live racing returns to a Friday through Sunday schedule Dec. 6.

Thursday’s Late Pick 5, which offers an industry low 12 percent takeout, will have a carryover of $14,694.82 after going unsolved Sunday, Sept. 29. The sequence covers Races 6-10, kicked off by a six-furlong maiden special weight sprint for juveniles that attracted a field of 10 including $300,000 yearling First Degree, by Bernardini, and Sagamore Mischief, an Into Mischief colt that cost $290,000 as a 2-year-old in training in May.

The Rainbow 6 spans Races 5-10 and begins with a carryover of $954.49. There will be a carryover of $1,412.30 in the Super Hi-5 for Thursday’s opener.

A total of 69 horses were entered in six races scheduled for Laurel’s world-class turf course Thursday, an average of 11.5 starters per race. Friday’s 10-race card includes six scheduled grass races which drew 70 entries, an average of 11.6 horses.

Pre-Entry Deadline Oct. 9 for Jim McKay Maryland Million

Wednesday, Oct. 9 is the deadline for pre-entries to the 34th renewal of the Jim McKay Maryland Million scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 19 at Laurel Park.

All Maryland-breds that are not Maryland-sired, along with Maryland Million-sired horses, must be pre-entered to be eligible for when entries are taken Wednesday, Oct. 16 for a program of 12 races worth $1.02 million in purses led by the $150,000 Classic for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles.

Horses may be placed on an also-eligible list. A race with less than eight Maryland Million-eligible entries will open up to registered Maryland-breds. Registered Maryland-breds will draw in based on total earnings over dirt or turf since Oct. 21, 2018 and/or total earnings since Oct. 21, 2018.

Horsemen are asked to contact the Laurel Park racing office at 800-638-1859 or Maryland Million Ltd. at 410-252-2100 for more information.