G3 De Francis Memorial Dash on Radar for G1 Winner Imperial Hint
G3 De Francis Memorial Dash on Radar for G1 Winner Imperial Hint
G3 Winner Glorious Empire Possible for Laurel Turf Cup on Sept. 15 Card
Toledo Wins Three Sunday, Live Racing Returns Thursday, Aug. 2
LAUREL, MD – Raymond Mamone’s Imperial Hint, who became a Grade 1 winner Saturday in Saratoga, may make his next start in the $250,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) Sept. 15 at Laurel Park on his way to the Breeders’ Cup.
Trainer Luis Carvajal Jr. said Sunday morning that 5-year-old Imperial Hint emerged from his dominant 3 ¾-length victory in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G1) in good shape and had returned to his Parx Racing stable by mid-afternoon.
“I went to see him this morning at the barn [in Saratoga], and he was very alert and he ate everything. He cleaned the feed tub,” Carvajal said. “I can’t describe how amazing it felt. When you go to a race like that … there’s always pressure and you want to see the horse run a really good race, especially when you’re the favorite. I didn’t think he would do it that way, but he’s just amazing. He’s like a little machine.”
Carvajal said Imperial Hint will make his start in September and is considering the De Francis and the Vosburgh (G1) Sept. 29 at Belmont Park, both run at six furlongs. The winner of the Vosburgh earns an automatic bid to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), a race where Imperial Hint finished second in 2017.
Imperial Hint is unbeaten in two races at Laurel, winning the Fire Plug Stakes and seven-furlong General George (G3) – his first of four career graded triumphs – in successive starts to open his 2017 campaign. He went on to win two more stakes including the Smile Sprint (G2) at Gulfstream Park before being beaten a length by eventual sprint champion Roy H in the Breeders’ Cup.
“We’re going to sit down with Mr. Mamone probably in another week or so. We have to see what we’re going to do,” Carvajal said. “Usually I like to run him every seven weeks. Laurel gives me seven weeks and New York gives me about 4 ½ weeks before the Breeders’ Cup if we get to go. We’ll think about it. We’ll see how the horse progresses after this race, how he trains, but so far we have those two races in mind. We’ll probably make our decision in a couple of weeks.”
Also being considered for an upcoming Laurel stakes assignment is Matt Schera’s Glorious Empire, dead-heat winner of Saturday’s 1 3/8-mile Bowling Green (G2) on the Saratoga turf one race after Imperial Hint.
Trainer James ‘Chuck’ Lawrence II said the $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup going 1 ½ miles on the De Francis Dash undercard is a possibility for Glorious Empire, who was back at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. by 2 a.m. Sunday.
“The big horse is good. I checked with my crew and they said he seemed very good and they were very happy with him,” Lawrence said. “We’ll definitely take a look at it. There’s also a race at Belmont that’s appealing. We’ll just take a deep breath and look around because we don’t want to be in a hurry with him. I’d like to run him a couple more times this fall so we’ll space out his runs.”
Glorious Empire opened his 7-year-old season finishing sixth, beaten just 3 ¼ lengths, in the one-mile Henry S. Clark Stakes April 21 over Laurel’s world-class turf course. He has won both his starts since, including an optional claiming allowance June 28 at Delaware Park.
“I’d like to think that I had him ready to fire right out of the box first time, but he made a move like he was going to win the Clark and he just kind of hung a little bit right at the end. Everything was good on the scope and everything but maybe he just needed the race,” Lawrence said. “Then down at Delaware, he won pretty much in hand and Edgar Prado was the one that advised me to try him a little longer, so it worked out. It doesn’t hurt to get a Hall of Famer’s advice.”
Neither Lawrence nor Schera feel the distance of the Laurel Turf Cup would be a deterrent for Glorious Empire, whose win Saturday came over a turf course softened up by rain.
“Matt and I are going to sit down and really map it out,” Lawrence sasid. “The [Laurel Turf Cup] isn’t out of the question. The ground was soft yesterday and he put a hell of an effort up going a mile and three-eighths. I think on good ground he might get a mile and a half, and especially against lesser company, too.”
Wherever he starts next, Glorious Empire will continue to make his preparations at Fair Hill, where he breezed twice over its all-weather surface prior to the Bowling Green.
“It’s nice because it’s like a country club for horses. You have paddocks to turn them out on green grass,” Lawrence said. “I’ll send him out for a good week just out back where they have all kinds of fields and trails and things like that … and get him back happy. I don’t know if we’ll take him back to Saratoga. We’ll probably give him a little bit more time. Looking at his form he does much better spacing his races out, so we’ll see.”
Notes: Jockey Jevian Toledo completed a three-win day with Oh So Lovely ($) in the ninth race, following Southern Wild ($3.60) in the sixth and Hollis ($3.60) in the eighth. Alex Cintron also registered back-to-back wins aboard Done Acting ($7.60) in the third and Brickyard Kitten ($6.40) in the fourth … Hollis was the second of two winners on the day for trainer Dane Kobiskie, following If You Build It ($8.80) in the second. Kobiskie, a former jockey and leading trainer in Maryland, had three wins from five starters over the weekend at Laurel including Still There in Saturday’s $75,000 Twixt Stakes … Live racing returns with a nine-race card Thursday, Aug. 2 featuring carryovers of $1,090.11 in the $1 Super Hi-5 and $428.47 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6. First race post time is 1:10 p.m.
