Among Five $100,000 Stakes Saturday, Three Scheduled for the Turf

LAUREL, MD –Calumet Farm’s well-traveled multiple stakes-winning homebred English Bee, who has raced at 11 tracks in six states during his career, will add another venue to the list when the 7-year-old gelding makes his Laurel Park debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Henry S. Clark.

The 23rd running of the one-mile Clark for 3-year-olds and up is among five $100,000 stakes on the second of consecutive Spring Stakes Spectacular Saturdays at Laurel, and one of the first three scheduled for its world-class turf course, along with the one-mile Dahlia and 5 ½-furlong King T. Leatherbury.

Also on the 11-race program are the 1 1/8-mile Native Dancer for 3-year-olds and up and six-furlong Primonetta for fillies and mares 3 and older. First race post time is 12:25 p.m.

Based with Graham Motion at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., English Bee has raced twice nearby at historic Pimlico Race Course, where he earned his first stakes victory in the one-mile James W. Murphy on grass on the undercard of the 2019 Preakness Stakes (G1). Later that year the son of turf champion English Channel would go on to win the Virginia Derby (G3) at Colonial Downs and Parx Derby in successive starts.

Since then, English Bee has run 19 times with two wins and has been beaten by five lengths or less in 11 graded-stakes. Most recently he was fifth by 2 ¾ lengths in the March 4 Canadian Turf (G3) at Gulfstream Park, where he returned from eight months between starts with a determined neck victory in a one-mile optional claiming allowance Jan. 13.

“I’ve kind of run him in some tough spots,” Motion said. “He came back and ran super in the allowance race to start the year. This race just sort of appealed to me as a place to kind of get him back on track. He’s doing really well. I couldn’t be happier with him.”

The Clark will be the third start this year for English Bee, who raced only four times in 2022 and went to the sidelines following his fifth-place finish in Pimlico’s Dinner Party (G2), also on Preakness Day. Overall, he has seven wins and $563,825 in purse earnings from 29 starts, and is 5-for-11 at the one-mile distance.

“He’s such a cool horse. He’s kind of become a barn favorite really because he’s been with us so long,” Motion said. “He’s very straightforward in his routine. We really don’t change a whole lot. Obviously, we know him well so we know his intricacies, but he’s basically pretty straightforward.”

Jorge Ruiz has the mount from Post 8 of nine on English Bee, who continues to please Motion with how he came back for a sixth season of racing. Motion previously won the Clark with Ascend in 2017 and Irish Strait in 2019.

“He loves it,” he said. “It’s funny because the boy that gets on him in Florida, an English rider that I have, he feels like he’s always trying to get him off. He’s a very good rider, but he always gets nervous riding English Bee because he feels like he’s always one step away from coming off him. He’s very perky. He loves his job.”

DATTT Stable’s Smokin’ T, a 4-year-old homebred son of War Front, looks to snap a six-race losing streak and earn his first stakes victory for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, winner of the 2020 Clark with Doctor Mounty. Smokin’ T began this year with a pair of thirds at Gulfstream, beaten 3 ¾ lengths from Post 11 going a mile and 70 yards on the all-weather Tapeta Jan. 28 and 2 ½ lengths from Post 12 in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance on turf March 4.

“I think his race on the Tapeta, he had [outside] post and I think that got him beat. I thought he ran good the next time we ran him. It was a bit hard to catch up over the turf course at Gulfstream and it’ll be a little bit easier [at Laurel] to do that. I’m looking forward to running him,” McGaughey said. “He has had some bad luck in his races, but he shows up when we run him. I think he’ll make his presence known there Saturday.”

Paco Lopez has the riding assignment on Smokin’ T from Post 2.

“I think the distance is fine. I think eventually we’ll get him to where we can get him stretched out farther, maybe the [1 1/8-mile] Dinner Party there at Pimlico,” McGaughey said. “But he’s got enough [where] he can finish with them. Unless something gets in his way and slows him down too much, I think he’ll be running at the end.”

Built Wright Stables’ Double Crown, winless since his 42-1 upset of the one-mile Kelso (G2) on Aqueduct’s main track last fall, is entered to make just his second career turf start and first since running sixth in the 5 ½-furlong Ben’s Cat last July. He comes out of a runner-up finish behind Nimitz Class in the one-mile Harrison E. Johnson Memorial March 18 at Laurel.

R. Larry Johnson and R.D.M. Racing Stable’s Sky’s Not Falling, a five-time winner at distances ranging from five furlongs to 1 1/16 miles, returns to a one-turn mile after finishing fifth in a March 10 optional claiming allowance sprinting 7 ½ furlongs at Gulfstream. The 5-year-old gelding capped last year by winning the 5 ½-furlong Maryland Million Turf Sprint in October and a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance in December, the latter at 48-1 odds.

Ocala Dream, winner of the 1 1/16-mile Kingston against New York-breds on the Belmont Park turf last May; Dee Jay, first or second in six of seven career starts, all but one on the main track; You Must Chill, third or better in 21 of 29 starts including 10 wins; multiple stakes-placed Cannon’s Roar and Helms Deep are also entered.

Regarded as the ‘Dean of Maryland trainers,’ Henry S. Clark spent 80 of his 95 years on the backstretch of the state’s racetracks and remained active until his death in February 1999. The grandson of famed horseman William Jennings Jr. was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1982. In the 1940s he trained for the Lungers’ Christiana Stables and had horses such as champion Tempted; Delaware Handicap winners Obeah, the dam of champion Go for Wand, and Endine; Travers winner Thinking Cap and Blue Grass winner Linkage, who finished second in the 1982 Preakness.

Live action returns to Laurel Thursday with an eight-race program starting at 12:25 p.m. The feature comes in Race 7, a third-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles that drew six older horses including stakes winners Armando R and Galerio; multiple stakes-placed Excellorator, the 2-1 program favorite; and Shaft’s Bullet, a winner of three of five career starts including a 5 ¼-length second-level triumph March 17 at Laurel.