Grand Cru Classe Goes the Distance in $100,000 Weber City Miss
Grand Cru Classe Goes the Distance in $100,000 Weber City Miss
Completed Pass Overcomes Stumble to Capture $100,000 Laurel Dash
Change of Tactics Suits Doctor Mounty in $100,000 Henry S. Clark
G2 Winner Nay Lady Nay Much the Best in $100,000 All Along
LAUREL, MD – Speedway Stable’s Grand Cru Classe, making just her third career start and first in a stakes, led every step of the way and held off late-running Market Rumor by a neck to stay unbeaten in Monday’s $100,000 Weber City Miss at Laurel Park.
The Weber City Miss for 3-year-old fillies at about 1 1/16 miles was the last of five $100,000 stakes on a special Labor Day holiday program that capped Preakness Prep Weekend and also featured Happy Saver’s victory in the Federico Tesio, which serves as a ‘Win and In’ event for Triple Crown-nominated horses to the 145th Preakness (G1) Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course.
Monday’s card included three stakes contested over Laurel’s world-class turf course – the 5 ½-furlong Laurel Dash and 1 1/16-mile Henry S. Clark for 3-year-olds and up and 1 1/8-mile All Along for fillies and mares 3 and up.
The winning time of 1:44.02 over a fast main track was the second-fastest in five editions of the Weber City Miss, trailing only Goodonehoney’s 1:43.49 from 2018 and earning Grand Cru Classe an automatic berth in the 96th Black-Eyed Susan (G2) on Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course on the Preakness undercard.
Sent off as the even-money favorite off an 8 ¾-length maiden win in the slop May 24 at Gulfstream Park and a four-length open allowance score July 9 at Belmont Park, both over her elders, Grand Cru Classe found herself on the lead from her rail post pressed on the outside by Malibeauty through fractions of 23.86 and 48.45 seconds.
Market Rumor loomed a threat on the far outside after Grand Cru Classe went six furlongs in 1:13.29 and saw her lead shrink to a head at the top of the stretch. Set down for the drive, Grand Cru Classe put away Malibeauty and dug in tenaciously through the stretch to turn back Market Rumor, who was exiting a sixth-place finish in the Monmouth Oaks (G3) Aug. 1.
“She’s pretty quick out of the gate and that was the plan, to break out of there and let them come get us,” winning jockey Julian Pimentel said. “She bobbled a little bit but she’s pretty quick and she pressed on. She found another gear when they came to her.”
Market Rumor was three-quarters of a length better than Grade 1 winner Perfect Alibi in third. It was three lengths back to Ankle Monitor in fourth, with Lasting Union, Princess Cadey, Breviary, Malibeauty and Grade 3 winner Project Whiskey completing the order of finish.
Bred in Kentucky by Daniel J. Burke, Grand Cru Classe fetched $335,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale last May at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.
Completed Pass Overcomes Stumble to Capture $100,000 Laurel Dash
Robert D. Bone’s Completed Pass stumbled in tight quarters leaving the far turn but recovered to split horses in mid-stretch and sprint to a three-quarter-length victory in the 22nd running of the $100,000 Laurel Dash.
Ridden by Angel Cruz for Laurel’s summer meet-leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez, 6-year-old gelding Completed Pass ($7) picked up his second career stakes win, both coming in Maryland, following the Jim McKay Turf Sprint last spring at Pimlico Race Course.
The winning time for 5 ½ furlongs over a Bowl Game turf course rated good was 1:04.41.
Singanothersong and Oldies But Goodies duked it out on the lead through fractions of 21.99 and 45.93 seconds midway into the turn, with Tempt Me Twice tracking on the outside in third and Completed Pass saving ground on the inside in fourth. Completed Pass stumbled as he went to move between Tempt Me Twice and Oldies But Goodies, got his legs back under him and took advantage after finding daylight between those rivals again inside the eighth pole.
“I had so much horse under me. Claudio told me to break good and, if not, to just sit patient and that’s what I did,” Cruz said. “I was waiting and waiting but I had tons of horse and my horse was just taking me to that hole. The hole closed on me real quick but then it opened back up and I just drew off. He loves it here. He’s a nice horse. Claudio had him ready and he did the job.”
So Street rallied on the far outside to be second, holding off Love You Much by a head. It was another half-length back to Lemon Zip in fourth, while Grade 1-winning favorite Wet Your Whistle checked in sixth.
Change of Tactics Suits Doctor Mounty in $100,000 Henry S. Clark
Larry Pratt and Dave Alden’s multiple graded-stakes winner Doctor Mounty continued to show his affinity for Laurel Park, snapping a five-race losing streak with an atypical front-running 1 ¾-length triumph in the 20th running of the $100,000 Henry S. Clark.
With Forest Boyce aboard for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, Doctor Mounty ($6) completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.98 over a Bowl Game turf course rated good. It was the 7-year-old’s fourth win from five career tries over Laurel’s world-class turf course, and first anywhere since taking last summer’s Prince George’s County over the same course and distance.
Doctor Mounty has won six races overall at Laurel, two on the dirt, and four of them with Boyce in the irons including previous stakes triumphs in the Prince George’s County and 2018 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3). Doctor Mounty and Boyce also finished second in that year’s Clark.
The normally late-running Doctor Mounty found himself in front breaking from Post 1 and loped along an easy lead, going in splits of 25.18 seconds, 50.41 and 1:14.49 tracked by Taxable Goods. Boyce said her mount felt strong as the group approached the stretch and they powered through the lane unchallenged.
“Shug always has them ready so I’m always pretty confident they’ll run from wherever they place themselves. He wanted to go today, which is not normally his style, but rather than fight him I just went on and went with it and it worked out really well,” Boyce said. “I felt pretty good because he was relaxed and happy as a clam. The other horses weren’t really pressing him. I thought they were going to go and I’d be sitting three or four off [the lead]. I had plenty of horse so I knew I had a good shot.”
Ninety One Assault got up to be second, a half-length ahead of 3-2 favorite Serve the King. O Dionysus was fourth.
G2 Winner Nay Lady Nay Much the Best in $100,000 All Along
Following double-digit upsets in the first four races on the Labor Day holiday program, First Row Partners and Hidden Brook Farm’s Nay Lady Nay restored order with a popular and easy 5 ½-length triumph in the 49th running of the $100,000 All Along.
Under jockey Victor Carrasco, two-time graded-stakes winner Nay Lady Nay ($4) completed 1 1/8 miles in 1:51.88 over an Exceller turf course rated good. No Mo Lady, fourth in last year’s All Along, edged Beautiful Lover by a length for second, with pacesetter Jabuticaba running fourth.
Jabuticaba, off at 15-1 in a field reduced to four by scratches, was left alone to dictate a moderate pace up front of 24.71 seconds for a quarter-mile and 49.26 for the half. Nay Lady Nay on the inside and stakes-winning stablemate Beautiful Lover to her right ran together in behind, with No Mo Lady trailing.
Rounding the far turn, Jabuticaba began to drop back as Beautiful Lover swung to the outside and Nay Lady Nay waited for room along the rail. A spot opened up as they straightened for home and Nay Lady Nay shot through and opened up to earn her fifth win from eight career starts and fourth in a stakes, following the Parx Fillies Oaks and Mrs. Revere (G2) last fall and the Matchmaker (G3) last out July 18 at Monmouth Park.
“The instructions were not much. The assistant just said, ‘The eight horse is going to go, you guys sit together, save some ground and let her run at the end,’ and she got the job done,” Carrasco said. “I stayed patient and I stayed inside and I waited. I said, ‘If she opens up a little bit I’ve just got to go,’ and when I got out there she gave me everything she had.”
