11 Rivals in One-Mile Turf Stakes for Shug McGaughey Trainee

LAUREL, MD – Stuart Janney III’s homebred mare In a Hurry, Grade 3-placed two starts back for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, returns to Laurel Park Saturday seeking her first stakes victory in the $100,000 Dahlia.

The 20th running of the one-mile Dahlia for fillies and mares 3 and up is among five $100,000 stakes on the second of consecutive Spring Stakes Spectacular Saturdays, and one of the first three scheduled for Laurel’s world-class turf course along with the Henry S. Clark, also at a mile, and 5 ½-furlong King T. Leatherbury, both for 3-year-olds and up.

Also on the 10-race program are the Native Dancer for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles and six-furlong Primonetta for fillies and mares 3 and older. The Clark, Dahlia and Primonetta are all part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series that launched its 2022 season April 16 at Laurel.

First race post time is 12:40 p.m.

In a Hurry, a 5-year-old daughter of Grade 1 winner Blame, has raced once previously at Laurel, beating 11 rivals in a one-mile maiden special weight on the turf Sept. 27, 2019, her second career start and last as a juvenile. She raced only twice at 3, both at Gulfstream Park, winning an allowance before going to the sidelines after finishing off the board in the Herecomesthebride (G3).

Last year In a Hurry had a full campaign of eight starts, finishing third or better six times with her lone win coming in a one-mile optional claiming allowance at Belmont Park. That effort earned her a return to graded company, where she ran fourth by 2 ½ lengths in the Noble Damsel (G3) and third, beaten a length, in the Dec. 18 Suwannee River (G3) at Gulfstream, both going a mile.

“I thought she ran good [at Gulfstream],” McGaughey said. “She’s had a few good races. I think it’s time for her to hopefully get stakes-placed [again] somewhere along the line and go from there. She’s been doing well, so we’ll get her down there and see what happens.”

In a Hurry made one start this year in the inaugural 1 1/16-mile Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf (G3) Jan. 29 at Gulfstream. She raced in contention and was within two lengths of the lead after six furlongs before fading to ninth.

“It just didn’t work out,” McGaughey said. “I’ve been pointing her to this race for quite a while. After she ran in the Pegasus, we gave her a little time off and she came back and she’s been breezing and doing well. We’re looking forward to running her.”

In a Hurry owns two wins and two thirds from six previous tries going one mile. McGaughey shipped Doctor Mounty to Laurel to win the 2020 Clark and 2018 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3), also capturing its predecessor, the Commonwealth Cup (G2) in 2015 with Mr Speaker.

McGaughey’s regular Maryland rider, Forest Boyce, has the call from Post 6 in a field of 12.

“I’d like to see her a little bit back off the pace and then finish. A lot of it depends on what’s going on up front, what kind of shape the course is in. We’ll just have to see,” he said. “In a perfect world, [it would be] fairly firm turf with having her laying back four, five lengths off the pace and come running.”

Five Hellions Farm’s Dontletsweetfoolya is a multiple stakes winner on the dirt that is entered to make her turf debut in the Dahlia. She captured the Primonetta and Willa On the Move to end 2020 and went winless in four starts to open last year before an optional claiming allowance victory in November, a race originally carded for the grass. This year she was off the board in the Wishing Well over Turfway Park’s all-weather surface in January and was respectively third and fourth in allowance sprints at Laurel and Parx 17 days apart in March.

William Pape’s Deciding Vote, a 5-year-old homebred daughter of Mr Speaker, won two of three starts to end 2021 including a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance as the favorite in mid-October at Laurel in her season finale. The Dahlia will be her 12th start and first in a stakes.

“All my horses get turned out for the winter after the turf season, so after she won that last race I turned her out and then brought her back in January,” trainer Eddie Graham said. “She just keeps getting more mature as she gets older. Now that she’s a three-other-than we might as well try her in some stakes. The mile is a little short for her, but at least we’re getting a race into her.

“If you look at her form, she’s gotten better as she’s gotten older,” he added. “I always take my time with them. She’s at that point now [where] we’ve got to see where she’s at this year.”

Graham is best known for having campaigned Hardest Core, upset winner of the 2014 Arlington Million (G1). Like Hardest Core, Deciding Vote is primarily trained at his rural Pennsylvania farm consistent with Graham’s steeplechase background, and brought to the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. for timed breezes.

“She does the exact same stuff. She trains in fields, grass gallops, and she does her works at Fair Hill. But, the majority of the time we have uphill gallops,” Graham said. “She likes to be turned out for two hours before she trains, so she kind of likes the farm deal.”

In six tries at Laurel Deciding Vote has a win, a second and a third, the latter by a neck in a 1 1/8-mile optional claiming allowance last September where she took a 1 ½-length lead into the stretch. Angel Suarez is named to ride from Post 10.

“Knock on wood she likes that little cut in the ground, and fortunately at Laurel we’ve been good about getting some cut in the ground,” Graham said. “Her best races are coming off of it. The one time when she was third, she was in front too soon going a mile and an eighth. She prefers to sit off the pace and come with a run.”

Laurel-based Brittany Russell, the Renaissance Award winner as Maryland’s champion trainer of 2021, entered Respect the Valleys’ Adelaide Miss and Out of Sorts. Both 4-year-old fillies spent the winter at Fair Grounds, where Adelaide Miss ran three times including an allowance win and a third in the Marie G. Krantz Memorial. Out of Sorts, winner of the Christiana last July at Delaware Park, went winless in three starts in Louisiana but broke her maiden and was second in the Smart Halo and third in the Gin Talking as a 2-year-old at Laurel.

Rounding out the field are stakes-placed Coconut Cake, who has raced exclusively on dirt since opening her career with back-to-back turf starts in spring and summer of 2020; Double Fireball, Fionnbharr, Foggy Dreams, Mucha Mezquina, Tic Tic Tic Boom and Traffic Song.