Sophomore Duo Faces Elders in Featured Allowance Friday at Laurel
Connections Weighing Options After Skyscanner Misses G3 Peter Pan
Double Carryovers, Stronach 5 When Live Racing Resumes Friday

LAUREL, MD – All but one of eight career starts have come over her home track of Laurel Park, including a pair of juvenile stakes victories, but standout 3-year-old filly Hello Beautiful may hit the road for her next, and biggest, race yet.

Trainer Brittany Russell said Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stable and Magic City Stables’ Hello Beautiful is under consideration for the seven-furlong Test (G1) Aug. 8 at Saratoga Race Course.

It would be the first time in graded company for Hello Beautiful, the highest-earning offspring of second-crop sire and multiple graded-stakes winner Golden Lad bred in Maryland by Ellen Charles’ Hillwood Stable.

“It looks like we’re going to take a look at the Test. It’s going to depend on who comes. There’s been some good fillies running the last few weeks and it’s just going to kind of depend on where they go,” Russell said. “She’s going to have the big test up there if we go. We’ll nominate and take a look and if she’s doing well we might take a shot up there.”

Hello Beautiful owns four wins, two seconds and a third for purse earnings of $199,360, having raced exclusively in Maryland since her unveiling last May at Pimlico Race Course. She captured the Maryland Million Lassie and Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship last fall at Laurel by a combined 15 ½ lengths.

The combination of a planned break and a 2 ½-month pause in live racing from mid-March to late May amid the coronavirus pandemic pushed Hello Beautiful’s sophomore debut to a June 1 sprint over Laurel’s world-class turf course, where she faded to seventh, her only time off the board. She rebounded with a front-running 8 ¼-length allowance romp 19 days later on a sloppy and sealed main track.

“She’s certainly answered each question on the dirt for us, and that’s what we have to stick with. She’s a good dirt filly, and if she’s going to be that kind she’s going to have to run against good horses,” Russell said. “So there’s no time like the present, as long as she’s doing well.”

Hello Beautiful has had one timed work since her most recent race, a half-mile breeze in 49.40 seconds July 8. Russell plans to give Hello Beautiful another work this weekend over Laurel’s main track, which was closed for training July 12-14 to undergo routine maintenance.

“We’re moving forward, just kind of doing the same thing I did with her going into the Maryland Juvenile [Filly] Championship. She works about every 10 days,” Russell said. “We’ll just try and keep it simple, but she’s doing really well and that’s all we can really ask.”

“[The Test is] not for a couple weeks, and a lot can happen in a couple weeks,” she added. “We just have to focus on keeping her happy so at least we can take a fresh, happy filly up there and see what we can do.”

Sophomore Duo Faces Elders in Featured Allowance Friday at Laurel

Stakes-placed My Friends Beer, off the board two starts back in the Arkansas Derby (G1), and impressive debut winner Russeldoingthings will take on five older rivals as the lone sophomores in Friday’s featured ninth race at Laurel Park.

Both bred in Maryland, Designated Hitters Racing’s My Friends Beer and Michael Dubb, David Simon and Bethlehem Stables’ Russeldoingthings will break side by side from Post 4 and 5, respectively, in the one-mile, first-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up.

The two horses head into their latest engagement from different angles. My Friends Beer is cutting back to a one-turn mile off successive two-turn efforts for Laurel-based trainer Jerry O’Dwyer, one of them a well-beaten ninth behind Charlatan in the first of two divisions of the 1 1/8-mile Arkansas Derby May 2.

My Friends Beer rallied to be third in a one-mile allowance April 11 at Oaklawn in his Derby prep, and followed up by running fifth in an about 1 1/16-mile allowance for Maryland-bred/sired horses June 26 at Laurel, also over his elders.

“He’s been training good,” O’Dwyer said. “He’s just a very happy horse. He’s come out of all his races and his works in good order. You never get to the bottom of him, so we put him back in this weekend.

“He likes a bit of pace and to come from behind and run them down, that’s kind of been his thing. The last time he ran well, but he was a lot closer to the pace than he normally is, they didn’t go very fast, and it didn’t play to his strength,” he added. “We’re quite happy to go back to the one-turn mile here at Laurel with him.”

My Friends Beer has finished in the top three six times, including a runner-up finish in the March 14 Private Terms at Laurel to multiple stakes winner Lebda, who is running in Saturday’s Haskell (G1) at Monmouth Park.

“The biggest part of him is his heart. He’s just not a big horse in stature but he’s got a big heart, he’s very hardy and very competitive,” O’Dwyer said. “We did run him in the Arkansas Derby but that was more for lack of opportunity. He went down to Oaklawn and ran super in the allowance race when we first shipped him down and we figured we might as well leave him down there.

“That’s the only disappointing race he’s ever ran. Off his numbers he wasn’t good enough to win the Arkansas Derby, but I think if he’d have finished mid-division we’d have been happy. When he finished so far back, as well another horse of mine who ran the same day, even though they looked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, the journey must have just caught up with them,” he added. “He came back bouncing from his last race, he’s raring to go, so hopefully there’s enough speed in the race and he gives a good account of himself.”

A previous commitment to ride Graham Motion-trained Saintly Samurai, the 5-2 program favorite, in Friday’s race will take Feargal Lynch off My Friends Beer, replaced by Jevian Toledo. They are 9-2 on the morning line.

Russeldoingthings, 5-1 in the program, stretches out off an eye-catching triumph June 8 at Laurel, where he came from far back in a field of 13 to weave through traffic and get up by 1 ½ lengths in the six-furlong waiver maiden claiming sprint, beating older horses in the process.

“It was a pretty impressive run,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “We gave him plenty of time and he’s been training really well so hopefully he can duplicate that effort going a mile. I think he’ll really like the mile, but we’ll find out.”

A bargain $20,000 yearling purchase in October 2018, Russeldoingthings fetched $175,000 as a 2-year-old in training last May, both Fasig-Tipton sales conducted at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

Though trained by Russell and ridden by her husband, summer meet-leading jockey Sheldon Russell, Russeldoingthings was already named by the time he joined her string at Laurel.

“We call him ‘Rusty’ in the barn,” Russell said. “I kind of got that because a couple of the guys in the jocks’ room call Sheldon ‘Rusty,’ so he’s either Sheldon or Rusty now. That’s his nickname.”

Russeldoingthings’ morning workmate is fellow 3-year-old Wondrwherecraigis, who won each of his first two starts at Laurel including a 5 ½-furlong allowance sprint two days before his stablemate’s graduation. Last out, Wondrwherecraigis finished second by a head in the July 10 Gold Mover Stakes at Belmont Park but was disqualified to third for interference.

“It’s July, so there comes a point where he’s going to have to step up because the 3-year-old options are limited unless you’re kind of going into a stake,” Russell said of Russeldoingthings. “It’s not my biggest concern. You just want to see them take that step forward so we kind of know what we have moving forward. Hopefully he’s a horse that wants to route because that what it seems like to me.”

Connections Weighing Options After Skyscanner Misses G3 Peter Pan

O G Racing’s stakes-placed Skyscanner missed a planned start in the Peter Pan (G3) July 16 at Saratoga, leaving his connections looking for another spot to run their promising 3-year-old colt.

Skyscanner breezed five furlongs in 1:02.20 July 9 at Laurel Park for trainer Jerry O’Dwyer, his lone work since being beaten a head in a one-mile entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up June 20 at Delaware Park.

“We were looking at the race, but he breezed a bit flat in his last work and he scoped with some mucus. You can’t be going to a Grade 3 half-hearted and half-cooked, so we skipped that. I did have him nominated to the West Virginia Derby but they called me [July 14] and told me that it’s been canceled,” O’Dwyer said. “I’ll look for another two-turn, maybe allowance race for him somewhere. I’d just like to give him another shot against 3-year-olds. He’s lightly raced.”

A bay son of champion Bernardini, Skyscanner broke his maiden at first asking last July at Laurel, then ran second by a neck to fellow long shot Big City Bob in the one-mile Sapling Sept. 1 at Monmouth Park in what would be his juvenile finale – a half-length ahead of subsequent two-time Grade 3 winner Mischevious Alex.

Skyscanner didn’t make his sophomore debut until May 31, the day after live racing returned to Maryland following a 2 ½-month pause amid the coronavirus pandemic, and wound up seventh in the one-mile allowance for 3-year-olds.

“He kind of just ran even – probably needed the cobwebs blown away,” O’Dwyer said. “I probably got him beat the last time. I told [jockey] Angel [Suarez] to go forward on him and keep going, don’t take him back at all. He was in front a long way, he got a bit lonely, pricked his ears and just got outbobbed, and then he galloped out three in front. He ran a nice number, as well, so I still think he’s pretty decent. Is he a Derby horse? I doubt it, but he’s going to be a nice horse. I think he’ll win a stake or two along the way for us.”

O’Dwyer reported that Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable, Pantofel Stable and Howling Pigeon Farms’ Grade 2 winner Shotski was doing well at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., where he is recovering from minor bone bruising.

Shotski was sent to trainer Bruce Jackson’s facility in May, having not run since finishing fourth in the Fountain of Youth (G2) Feb. 29 at Gulfstream Park. He made the trip to Dubai for the March 28 UAE Derby (G2) but returned without running after coronavirus concerns caused the race to be canceled five days out.

“I spoke to Bruce Jackson [July 14]; they’re very happy with him,” O’Dwyer said. “I think at the start of August he’s going to start putting him back on the treadmill and getting him back in action. He’s doing really good and we’re very happy. The time goes by pretty quick when you’re up there.”

Double Carryovers, Stronach 5 When Live Racing Resumes Friday

Carryovers in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 and 50-cent Late Pick 5, along with a $100,000 guaranteed pool in the weekly national Stronach 5 wager, highlight the return of live racing to Laurel Park Friday, July 17.

Post time for the first of 10 races is 12:40 p.m.

Six of Friday’s races are scheduled for Laurel’s world-class turf course over the Exceller and Bowl Game layouts, attracting a total of 71 entries, an average of 11.83 horses per race.

The Rainbow 6 begins in Race 5, a 5 ½-furlong starter optional sprint over the Exceller for 3-year-olds and up, with a carryover jackpot of $6,458.59. A maiden claiming event over the Bowl Game kicks off the Late Pick 5 in Race 6 with a carryover of $7,984.17. Both wagers went unsolved during Laurel’s last live program July 11.

Both sequences include the day’s features, a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint for Maryland-bred/sired horses in Race 8, and an open one-mile allowance for 3-year-old and up in Race 9 where Saintly Samurai is the narrow 5-2 favorite in his first start since last August for trainer Graham Motion.

For the third straight week, Laurel will alternate with Gulfstream Park in the Stronach 5, kicking off the sequence with Race 6 followed by Race 8 from Gulfstream, Race 7 from Laurel, Race 9 from Gulfstream and Race 8 from Laurel.

The multi-race, multi-track Stronach 5 is a $1 minimum wager. If there are no tickets with five winners, the entire pool will be carried over to the next Friday. The Maryland Jockey Club serves as host of the Stronach 5.

Laurel will host another 10-race program Saturday, July 18 that includes five turf races that attracted a total of 59 entries, an average of 11.8 horses per race.

Highlighting Saturday’s card is an optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up sprinting 5 ½ furlongs over the Bowl Game in Race 3 that includes Grade 3-placed Tricks to Doo and stakes winners Completed Pass and Oldies But Goodies, and a 1 1/8-mile optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up on the Exceller in Race 9, led by Kevin P. Morgan homebred Mr. d’Angelo, racing for the first time since his 17-1 upset victory in the 2019 Maryland Million Turf last October; Sixty Five, a winner over jumps making his first start since July 2018; and 4-year-old Irish-bred Rambaldi in his North American debut.

Starting July 23, Laurel Park will add Thursdays to the live racing calendar through the end of the current summer meet, which began with the resumption of live races in Maryland following a 2 ½-month pause amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Laurel Park will race Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from July 23 through Saturday, Aug. 22. Post time each day remains 12:40 p.m.