Among Five Stakes, Two Graded, Worth $800,000 in Purses Saturday, Feb. 16

LAUREL, MD – Uriah St. Lewis owned-and-trained Discreet Lover, 45-1 upset winner of the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) last fall, will open his 6-year-old campaign as the topweight and 3-1 program favorite for the $100,000 John B. Campbell presented by Fidelity First Saturday at Laurel Park.

The 1 1/8-mile Campbell for 4-year-olds and up is among five stakes, two graded, worth $800,000 in purses on a 10-race Winter Carnival program co-headlined by the $250,000 Barbara Fritchie (G3) for fillies and mares 4 and older and the $250,000 General George (G3) for 4-year-olds and up, both at seven furlongs.

Also on the card are a pair of $100,000 stakes for 3-year-olds, the seven-furlong Wide Country for fillies and the one-mile Miracle Wood presented by Blackwell Real Estate. First race post time is 12:30 p.m.

In addition to live racing, Saturday’s program will include ice sculptures, an ice carving demonstration, an ice wall with $3,000 in prizes and Tech Glove giveaway with program purchase, while supplies last.

Purchased for $10,000 by St. Lewis at Fasig-Tipton’s 2015 Midlantic auction of 2-year-olds in training held at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, Discreet Lover is taking advantage of a Maryland Jockey Club policy initiated for 2019 waiving the entering and starting fees for any Grade 1 winner in the past 12 months that runs in an MJC stakes, excluding the 144th Preakness (G1) May 18 at legendary Pimlico Race Course.

Discreet Lover was last seen finishing eighth, beaten 7 ½ lengths by 2018 older male champion Accelerate, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) Nov. 3. Though he has not had a published work since the race, the bay son of Repent has been training steadily at St. Lewis’ Parx base for his return.

“Since the Breeders’ Cup we gave him about a month off and then we started training him again. We said we’d point him toward this race and if everything is right, we’ll run in it,” St. Lewis said. “Right now, he’s doing good and everything is good. Everything is on go, so hopefully we can run and win it.”

Discreet Lover has yet to find the winner’s circle at Laurel, winless in five career tries including a third in the 1 1/8-mile Harrison E. Johnson Memorial last March to kick off a 2018 campaign that saw him win twice in 10 starts and push his lifetime bankroll over $1.4 million.

In his other Laurel races, Discreet Lover was fifth in the 2015 James F. Lewis III as a 2-year-old, second in the 2016 and 2017 Richard Small and fourth in the 2017 Harrison Johnson. This will be the third straight year he has launched his season over Laurel’s main track.

“He’s never won there, but he’s run good there. Maybe this will be the time,” St. Lewis said. “Our main goal is the Breeders’ Cup. We’d like to win the race, but it’s a race that we’re using to make sure that he’s going in the right direction.”

Discreet Lover was beaten 5 ½ lengths by Something Awesome in last year’s Harrison Johnson, returning to win the Excelsior (G3) in his subsequent start three weeks later. He went off at double-digit odds in each of his last eight races, running third in the Suburban (G2) at 41-1 and Whitney (G1) at 38-1 prior to his shocking neck upset of the 1 ¼-mile Jockey Club, which earned him an all-fees-paid berth to the Classic.

Overall, Discreet Lover has a record of 7-7-7 from 45 races for St. Lewis’ Trin-Brook Stables.

“It was a great year, a dream year. If he could do the same thing or more, we’re in good shape. He’s training good, he’s doing good, he’s feeling good. He’s put on some weight, so all we can do is leave it up to the man upstairs,” St. Lewis said. “We have about an eight or nine-race schedule that will lead us up to the Breeders’ Cup again if we can make it.”

St. Lewis also entered Forewarned, a 4-year-old Flat Out colt that is coming off a 1 ¼-length open allowance score going seven furlongs Jan. 19 at Parx in his second straight race for the owner-trainer after being purchased at Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic December mixed sale in Timonium.

“We bought him after the owner died. He’s Ohio-bred, and he’s as good-looking animal,” St. Lewis said. “He’s like Discreet Lover. He’s real relaxed. You don’t have to do much with him. Hopefully they can run 1-2.”

Anthony Salgado is named to ride Discreet Lover from Post 6 of 12 at 124 pounds, while Daniel Centeno has the call on Forewarned from Post 5 at 120 pounds.

Stronach Stables’ homebred Unbridled Juan enters the Campbell having rallied to be fourth by two lengths in the one-mile Fred W. Hooper (G3) Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park on the $16 million Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational Series program. The 7-year-old gelding is unbeaten in two tries over Laurel’s main track, winning a one-mile allowance last summer and the 1 1/8-mile Richard Small Nov. 10.

“He’s a horse that the longer he goes, the better it is for him,” trainer Jose Corrales said. “I was training him for the longer distance and then we decided to go in the shorter race, and I think it cost him. He ran a good race and he was making a run in the stretch, but he needed a little more distance. He came back very fresh after that race, like he never even ran.”

Alex Cintron, up for Unbridled Juan’s last three races including a win in the Grover ‘Bud’ Delp Memorial Stakes Oct. 17 at Delaware Park, rides back from Post 3 at 122 pounds.

General Downs and Bonus Points, first and fifth, respectively, in the Native Dancer Stakes Jan. 12 at Laurel, will line up side-by-side in the Campbell. West Point Thoroughbreds’ General Downs has won two straight and been first or second in four of his last five starts, his two losses coming by a nose and a neck.

“He seems to have come out of his last race very proud of himself, and has been training much more forwardly,” trainer Kelly Rubley said. “He’s maturing and he seems to really be happy and it’s showing out there. Hopefully, we can keep him that way.”

Julian Pimentel, aboard for the past two wins, has a return call from Post 11.

Three Diamonds Farm’s Grade 3-placed Bonus Points has three wins and three seconds in seven career races at Laurel, topped by his victory in the 2017 Maryland Million Classic. He will be reunited with jockey Feargal Lynch, who has been wintering at Tampa Bay Downs and has been in the irons for each of the 5-year-olds last two wins.

“We feel like the mile and an eighth is a good fit for him and … he’s made a good living at Laurel so we’re hoping to get him back on track,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “He wasn’t beaten badly in his last race. He was much further back than usual. I probably gave the rider bad instructions, we had him a little further off the pace than he needed to be and the pace didn’t really develop the way we thought it would. Despite that he still closed a lot of ground. Feargal Lynch is riding him again and he seems to have a pretty good rapport with him so hopefully that goes well.”

Colonel Juan, a winner of two straight and three of four for Kentucky Derby (G1)-winning trainer John Servis; 2018 Swatara Stakes winner Johnny Jump Up; 2016 Miracle Wood and James W. Murphy Stakes winner Marengo Road; Chilean Group 1 winner Leitone; Monongahela, fifth in last year’s Campbell; multiple stakes winner Grasshoppin and Liberty Lane round out the field.