Please Flatter Me Takes Aim at $100,000 Alma North
Among Four Stakes Worth $400,000 in Purses Sunday, June 16

LAUREL, MD – Lael Stable’s No Dozing, unraced since becoming a graded-stakes winner last fall, is set to open his 5-year-old season at both a favorite distance and surface in Sunday’s $100,000 Polynesian Stakes at Laurel Park.

The Polynesian for 3-year-olds and up and the $100,000 Alma North for 3-year-old fillies, both at seven furlongs on the main track, are among four stakes worth $400,000 in purses on a special nine-race Father’s Day program.

Also on the card are a pair of 1 1/16-mile stakes over Laurel’s world-class turf course, the $100,000 Prince George’s County for 3-year-olds and up and the $100,000 Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and older. First race post time is 1:10 p.m.

No Dozing, by 2012 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Union Rags, has won three of six lifetime starts at seven furlongs and twice in three tries at Laurel, including his first career stakes victory in the 2017 Concern. He was last seen romping by 9 ¾ lengths in the Bold Ruler (G3) Nov. 2 at Aqueduct, also at seven-eighths, just his fourth start of 2018 and third straight in graded company.

“The Polynesian is the race we’ve been pointing for. He’s doing well,” trainer Arnaud Delacour said. “He had a little bit of an issue after his last race. He came up with a splint, so we had to take care of the splint. It took a little bit longer than expected, but he’s finally ready to go and I think he looks great.”

No Dozing is actually exiting a shorter layoff than he had going into last year, when he won a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance in late July in his 2018 opener, eight months after running fourth by three lengths in the 2017 City of Laurel Stakes.

“I really had in mind with him to do a race like the Godolphin Mile [G1], the race that Coal Front won,” Delacour said, “but when I realized that was not going to work, timing-wise, we really took our time. I’ve been very happy with him.”

Prior to the Bold Ruler, No Dozing ran fifth behind Whitmore in the Forego (G1) at Saratoga, beaten 3 ½ lengths, and fourth by 2 ½ lengths in the Kelso (G2) to Patternrecognition, who captured the Cigar Mile (G1) in his subsequent start. He had placed in three graded-stakes before his breakthrough win.

“He looks better physically,” Delacour said. “I think he has developed very well physically, he looks a lot stronger and wider, which is great. We also gelded him a year and a half ago which helped to focus on his job a little bit better, so I’m expecting a good performance.”

Daniel Centeno, aboard for stakes wins in the Bold Ruler and Concern, gets the return call from Post 5 in a field of eight, all but one carrying 126 pounds.

“We always have pretty much the same tactics, get him out of there and put him in a good position and see what happens. That will be up to Centeno. I expect him to show some speed,” Delacour said. “I think it is [his best distance]. It seems to hit him right between the eyes, as they say. There’s not that many stakes at seven-eighths, so we try to take advantage of them when we can. He’s got a good record at Laurel, as well.”

Hillwood Stable’s Cordmaker, based at Laurel with trainer Rodney Jenkins, has also enjoyed success over his home track with five wins, two seconds and a third from 12 starts. Two of those wins have come in stakes, the one-mile Jennings to cap 2018 and the 1 1/8-mile Harrison E. Johnson Memorial March 16.

Cordmaker, a 4-year-old son of two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin, cruised by 4 ¼ lengths in a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance at Laurel April 25, then closed from far back despite a troubled trip to be third, beaten a half-length in the 1 ¼-mile Pimlico Special (G3) May 17 at Pimlico Race Course. The three-way photo finish had winner Tenfold a neck in front of You’re to Blame, with Cordmaker another neck back.

“He came out of it good. He was 10 wide in the stretch and he clipped heels when they left the gate. I mean, he had nothing his way and he got beat two necks by the horses they were touting,” Jenkins said. “I thought I could win it; if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have put him in there. That’s a good horse. He’s come around from his 3 to his 4-year-old year. He’s matured a lot.”

Cordmaker will carry regular rider Victor Carrasco from Post 2.

Majestic Dunhill has raced three times at Laurel, winning the 2018 City of Laurel Stakes and running second by a length to Uncontested in the seven-furlong General George (G3) Feb. 16. He has been off the board in two subsequent starts, most recently the Churchill Downs (G1) May 4.

Lewisfield is a six-time winner at Laurel, three in stakes, including a second straight Not For Love triumph March 16. Last out he set the pace into the stretch but had to settle for third in the six-furlong Maryland Sprint (G3) May 18 at Pimlico.

Completing the field are Jacks or Better Farm homebred stablemates Old Time Revival, winner of the seven-furlong Challedon Stakes last fall at Laurel, and multiple graded-stakes placed Fellowship, an earner of $771,364 in 36 career starts; 122-pound low weight Hoffenheim, fourth in the Salvator Mile (G3) May 25 at Monmouth Park; and stakes winner Clubman, seventh in the Pimlico Special.

Please Flatter Me Takes Aim at $100,000 Alma North

Second behind a record-setting performance in her return to racing last month, Heider Family Stables, Madaket Stables and Doheny Racing Stable’s stakes winner Please Flatter Me looks to get back on the winning track in the $100,000 Alma North.

Please Flatter Me hadn’t raced in 10 weeks when she ran into Covfefe’s course record-crushing 1:07.70 for six furlongs in the Adena Springs Miss Preakness (G3) May 17 at Pimlico. Though beaten 8 ½ lengths, the Munnings filly was 3 ½ better than third-place finisher Tomlin.

“She actually came out of the race great. She had missed a little training prior to that, but she’s been like clockwork coming out of the race,” trainer Mark Reid said. “Of course, she ran into a buzzsaw that day. She pulverized [the track record]. I knew our filly was going to run good. The kind of race she ran I thought was outstanding, and she was three or four in front of the third horse in that race, which was a pretty salty group.

“[Hall of Fame trainer Bob] Baffert had a horse in there that was undefeated that he really liked. There were a couple of monsters in there,” he added. “Except for the filly’s just freakish performance, I thought our filly ran well, she came back well, she has not missed an oat or a beat since. So, we decided to go ahead and run her Sunday.”

Please Flatter Me has breezed three times at Pimlico since the Miss Preakness, just her fifth career start. She won her first three races last fall and winter, including the seven-furlong Gin Talking Stakes Dec. 29 at Laurel, and was fourth by a length in the one-mile Busher Stakes March 9 at Aqueduct in her 3-year-old debut.

“We’re going in fairly confident. She bounced out of that race excellent and that’s why we’re running her back in this spot,” Reid said. “Her natural game is to be forwardly placed. She doesn’t have to be on the lead, but second or third or something like that, is her ideal race. Within a length or two of the lead, and she has a very high cruising speed. She just kinds of cruises along up and by.”

Alex Cintron, up for each of Please Flatter Me’s two stakes wins, returns at co-topweight of 122 pounds from the rail in a field of seven.

“I’m expecting a very good race,” Reid said. “At this point I wouldn’t want to trade spots with anybody.”

R. Larry Johnson homebred Never Enough Time suffered her first loss in three lifetime starts when she ran fifth in the Miss Preakness. Prior to that, she was a runaway winner of her debut March 3 and a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance April 14, both at Laurel, by a combined 10 ¾ lengths. Julian Pimentel rides for trainer Mike Trombetta from Post 5 at co-low weight of 118 pounds.

Fairview’s Tomlin is winless in four starts this year with three thirds, including the Santa Ynez (G2) to multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Bellafina Jan. 6 at Santa Anita to open 2019. The Distorted Humor filly won the Golden Gate Debutante at Golden Gate Fields last November to cap her juvenile season.

Parisian Diva, a West Virginia-based stakes winner of five straight races at Charles Town, stakes winners Gotta Be Strong and Victim of Love, and Past Perfect are also entered.