Maryland-Bred Filly Edged by Undefeated Chub Wagon in Previous Start

LAUREL, MD – Racing for the first time in nearly four months, Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stables and Magic City Stables’ Hello Beautiful flashed her multiple stakes-winning form and came within a neck of handing undefeated Chub Wagon her first career loss in the June 13 Shine Again at historic Pimlico Race Course.

Trainer Brittany Russell believes the 4-year-old filly is primed for a similar type of effort when she returns as the horse to beat in Saturday’s $100,000 Alma North, seeking her first win in three career tries at Pimlico.

The fifth running of the Alma North for fillies and mares 3 and older is one of three $100,000 stakes on a nine-race program, joined by the Challedon for 3-year-olds and up, also sprinting six furlongs, and Deputed Testamony for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles. All three races are part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series.

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

Hello Beautiful had a three-race win streak, all in stakes, snapped when fifth after dueling for the lead in the seven-furlong Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3) Feb. 20 at Laurel Park. She got some time off at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. and was sharp as ever in her comeback, setting brisk fractions of :22.21, :45.32 and 1:10.21 before grudgingly giving way in the shadow of the wire.

It was only the fifth time in 15 career races – seven of them wins, five in stakes – where Hello Beautiful did not go off as the favorite. Three of those occasions came in her first four starts.

“There’s always a lot of pressure with a horse like her, when she runs a bad race and has a pretty legitimate excuse, but she trains well in the morning and you don’t really know until you walk them over,” Russell said. “Just to have her show up and run hard last time and show that she’s still here and still wants to race and fight like she does, it was really nice to see. Hopefully we can keep her going through the rest of the year.”

Though nominated, Chub Wagon is sitting the Alma North out after improving to 8-0 in the July 10 Dashing Beauty at Delaware Park. Hello Beautiful has breezed three half-miles this month at Pimlico, including a bullet :48.60 July 14. Most recently, she went in :49.00 July 22 under Russell’s husband, jockey Sheldon Russell.

“She’s trained really well. We’re very happy with her,” Brittany Russell said. “Sheldon worked her last week and all systems point to go. Hopefully the time she’s had and as well as she’s done in between and running at Pimlico, which she showed she can absolutely handle, will prove beneficial.

“She’s been working quite forwardly. It’s as if she felt she was going to race a couple times now in this little time period between races,” she added. “She’s been kind of full steam ahead going off of the pole working. I would expect nothing less in the afternoon.”

Sheldon Russell has the call on Hello Beautiful from Post 2 of six at topweight of 126 pounds.

Michael and Catherine Ball’s Club Car rallied to be third in the Barbara Fritchie, three-quarters of a length ahead of Hello Beautiful. Hello Beautiful beat Club Car by a length in the six-furlong What A Summer Jan. 16 at Laurel in the season opener for both horses.

“She’s been a real good filly. She’s versatile, she seems to run her race every time,” trainer Ben Colebrook said. “Last time, we ran her on the synthetic and she ran her race. The only thing she does do is she seems to kind of hang that last bit when she hits the front sometimes a little too soon, when the pace backs up and she kind of inherits the lead. She seems to run better when she has a target in front of her.”

Since the Barbara Fritchie, Club Car won a six-furlong optional claiming allowance April 11 at Keeneland, ran third behind Chub Wagon in the May 15 Skipat, also at six furlongs, in her only previous try at Pimlico, and most recently took a short lead into the stretch of the seven-furlong Chicago (G3) June 26 on Arlington Park’s all-weather surface and wound up second by a half-length.

In the Skipat, Club Car was beaten a nose for second by Casual, placed in three consecutive stakes for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

“She’s very consistent, that’s the main thing about her,” Colebrook said. “She seemed like she was sitting on a good race going into [the Skipat]. Going into that race you knew Chub Wagon was good, but maybe didn’t know how good until after that performance. We kind of got nipped there for second. I don’t know that she even saw the other horse. I thought she held second, but when you saw the replay we just got nabbed. It was a good effort, just like she normally runs. She’s run very consistent numbers and is very consistent in her training.”

Club Car will race with blinkers for the first time in the Alma North after posting a record of 4-7-5 with nearly $400,000 in purse earnings from 20 starts. Victor Carrasco is named to ride from the rail at 124 pounds.

“It’s the only thing I haven’t tried, maybe just to keep her looking forward instead of waiting. The riders have said that when she does hit the front, when she doesn’t have a target to run at, she kind of just waits,” Colebrook said. “She’s coming into the race very well.”

Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson’s Hibiscus Punch was a 41-1 upset winner over Hello Beautiful in the Barbara Fritchie, and though nominated she is not due to return to trainer Justin Nixon’s barn until Aug. 1 following a short vacation to point to a fall campaign. Nixon did enter the Seltzer’s Bluefield in the Alma North.

Though 5, Bluefield has raced only eight times with four wins and two thirds. She debuted at 4 winning maiden claimer last August at Laurel and has had one previous stakes attempt, finishing off the board in the Lightning City sprinting five furlongs on the Tampa grass Feb. 24. Third in a Pimlico grass allowance May 14, she is coming off a 5 ¼-length allowance triumph June 20 at Pimlico at the Alma North distance.

“I actually had her up at Woodbine as a 3-year-old and she got hurt. We sent her back to Solera [Farm in Florida] and they did a great job of rehabbing her. We tucked her in for maiden 16s and she won pretty handy, and she was pretty handy in those starter conditions,” Nixon said. “We tried her on the grass and we were pretty happy with that effort, and we came back on the dirt and she was real good so we think she deserves a shot at a little black type.”

By late Canadian champion sire Field Commission, Bluefield will have Angel Cruz up from Post 5.

“She’s a nice, consistent filly, just as honest as they come. Field Commissions, they get better with age so we’re hoping that she keeps progressing,” Nixon said. “She’s doing everything right. We were really thrilled about the last win and hopefully we can carry forward.”

C & B Stables’ Paisley Singing ran third to Chub Wagon in Pimlico’s Shine Again, three lengths behind runner up Hello Beautiful, for her first stakes placing in in 22 starts. Like Hello Beautiful she is a 4-year-old filly by Golden Lad, and she has been third or better 14 times including five wins and five seconds.

In the Shine Again, Paisley Singing finished ahead of both Never Enough Time, who came back to win an open $80,000 allowance July 26 at Colonial Downs, and 11-time stakes winner Anna’s Bandit, subsequently fifth in the same Colonial race.

“She doesn’t bounce. Even when she ran the other day, she was fourth and got beat [9 ¾] lengths. [Chub Wagon] won by [5 ¾],” trainer Charles A. Frock said. “She tries every single time. The last time I ran her I put Trevor [McCarthy] on her and I told him to close, and he broke in front and tried to chase that horse. She hit herself a little bit, but she’s sound other than that. She’s really wired.”

J.D. Acosta gets the assignment from Post 4.

Completing the field are Down Neck Stables’ Call On Mischief, runner-up by a head in the six-furlong Correction March 13 at Aqueduct for Monmouth Park-based trainer Kelly Breen; and 2019 Blue Mountain Juvenile Fillies winner Precious, second last out in the Power by Far June 22 at Parx and trained by Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) winner John Servis.

The Alma North is named for the Maryland-bred champion 3-year-old filly and Horse of the Year in 1971 and Maryland-bred champion older filly of 1972. Owned by the late Eugene Mori’s East Acres Stable, Alma North won 23 of 78 career starts with $513,597 in purse earnings from 1970-74. Her victories included graded-stakes scores in the Matchmaker (G1) and Vineland (G2), Margate (G3) and Betsy Ross (G3) handicaps in 1973.