Live Racing Returns Friday with Double Carryovers & Stronach 5
Laurel Hosting Breakfast with Santa Saturday, Dec. 14
Recent Stakes Winner Laddie Liam Sold in Besecker Dispersal

LAUREL, MD – Hillwood Stable’s Cordmaker, a three-time stakes winner at Laurel Park who ran third by two necks in the historic Pimlico Special (G3) in May, is getting the winter off in preparation for his 5-year-old campaign in 2020.

Laurel-based trainer Rodney Jenkins said the gelded son of two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin was sent to Dark Hollow Farm in northern Maryland two days before Thanksgiving for his annual break.

“He’s sound, so we’ll give him some rest,” Jenkins said. “He looked like he ran real well off the layoff this year, so we’re going to go that way with him.”

Cordmaker won just two of his first eight starts before breaking through with a stakes victory in the one-mile Jennings for Maryland-bred/sired horses last Dec. 29. After finishing eighth in the General George (G3) to kick off 2019, he won three of his next four starts including the Harrison E. Johnson Memorial and Polynesian Stakes.

The exception came in the Pimlico Special, lengthened to 1 ¼ miles this year, where he came from far back to finish behind Tenfold and You’re to Blame as the third betting choice in a field of 13.

“He surprised me, to be honest,” Jenkins said. “I thought he was an OK colt as a 3-year-old but he didn’t wow me, and the first time I worked him back as a 4-year-old I want to tell you I thought, ‘This son of a gun must have gotten in somebody else’s skin.’ The interesting part of it is how they mature from one year to the next.

“He ran up against some nice horses all year,” he added. “He was exciting. He ran as good at seven-eighths as he did at a mile and a quarter. It’s nice to have a horse where you don’t have to dig in every book to find his distance. He can pretty much do it all.”

Jenkins won’t start looking for races until Cordmaker rejoins his string, but the veteran trainer is hopeful a return to Pimlico Race Course is in the cards.

“I think the first big one that I’ll go in will be the Special,” he said. “I’ll place him around in a few other stakes probably, but the first big race will probably be the Special if he’s doing well.”

Live Racing Returns Friday with Double Carryovers & Stronach 5

There will be carryovers in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 and $1 Super Hi-5 as well as the return of the weekly national Stronach 5 wager when live racing resumes at Laurel Park Friday, Dec. 13.

Post time for the first of nine races is 12:25 p.m.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot carryover stands at $13,336.32 after going unsolved during the last live program Sunday, Dec. 8. Friday’s sequence spans Races 4-9 and includes a $40,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies going seven furlongs in Race 7. SF Racing’s Evocative, a daughter of Pioneerof the Nile, is a narrow 4-1 program favorite in her second career start.

A carryover of $2,801 is available in the Super Hi-5 starting in Race 1, a $22,000 maiden claiming event for 3-year-olds and up scheduled for six furlongs.

Friday’s Stronach 5, offering a $100,000 guaranteed pool and industry-low 12 percent takeout, kicks off with Races 8 (3:52 p.m.) and 9 (4:22 p.m.) from Laurel Park and continues with Gulfstream Park’s Race 9 (4:30 p.m.), Golden Gate Fields’ Race 3 (4:45 p.m.) and Gulfstream’s Race 10 (5 p.m.).

All Star Video Link: Click here to view

The minimum bet for the Stronach 5 is $1 through Laurel Park’s mutuel pool. If there are no tickets with five winners, the entire pool will be carried over to the next Friday.

Laurel Hosting Breakfast with Santa Saturday, Dec. 14 at Laurel Park

In addition to a full card of nine races, Laurel Park will host its annual Breakfast with Santa family buffet and more Saturday, Dec. 14.

Featuring a breakfast buffet, hot chocolate bar and kiddie canvas painting, Breakfast with Santa will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the second-floor clubhouse. Tickets are $25 for adults and $13 for kids age 6-11. Children 5 and under eat free.

Reservations are accepted by calling 301-725-0770. To view the full buffet menu, click here.

Recent Stakes Winner Laddie Liam Sold Tuesday in Besecker Dispersal

Laddie Liam, a front-running 4 ½-length winner of the Maryland Juvenile Futurity Dec. 7 at Laurel Park, fetched $450,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic December Mixed and Horses of Racing Age sale Tuesday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

Leonard Green’s D J Stable purchased Laddie Liam, a 2-year-old son of multiple graded-stakes winner Golden Lad bred in Maryland by Ellen Charles’ Hillwood Stable, as part of owner Joseph Besecker’s dispersal. Originally acquired by Besecker out of the same sale last December for $14,500, Laddie Liam has three wins and two thirds from five starts with $128,556 in purse earnings.

In all, the Besecker dispersal brought $3,005,300 for 95 horses sold, with two going unsold and 20 withdrawn. Mine Not Mine, fourth in the Maryland Juvenile Futurity in his second lifetime start, was sold to Chuck Zacney for $210,000.

Other horses to bring six figures out of the Besecker dispersal were 2-year-old Super Saver filly Panthera Onca, sold for $175,000 to Lane’s End Bloodstock, and 2-year-old Raison d’Etat colt Lebda, third in the Iroquois (G3) Sept. 14 for Maryland’s leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez, that Valter Ramos purchased for $100,000.

Besecker was the leading owner in wins (20) and purses ($497,827) at the Laurel winter meet which opened 2019. He also tied for most wins (four) at Laurel’s short spring stand, was second with 10 wins at the summer meet and is tops with $404,806 in purse earnings and second with 11 wins at the current fall meet that runs through Dec. 29.

Another prominent name at the sale was O Dionysus, a 5-year-old stakes winner on turf and dirt for Peter Angelos’ Marathon Farms that most recently ran eighth in the Richard W. Small Stakes Nov. 30 at Laurel. He was purchased for $135,000 by Irv Naylor.