Needs Supervision Rolls in $100,000 Imagining Safely Kept

LAUREL, MD – Juddmonte Farms Inc. Grade 2-placed homebred Honest Mischief, blocked in traffic at the head of the stretch, found room late to run down leader Chilly in Charge and earn his first career stakes victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Force the Pass City of Laurel at Laurel Park.

The seven-furlong City of Laurel for 3-year-olds going seven furlongs was the first of four stakes worth $400,000 in purses on the program and served as a ‘Win and In’ qualifier for the $300,000 Malibu (G1) Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.

Should the connections of Honest Mischief opt to make the trip to southern California, they will also be given a $2,500 stipend toward travel costs.

Favored at 2-5 in a field of six sophomores, Honest Mischief ($2.80) completed the distance in 1:23.06 over a fast main track to win by a neck. Chilly in Charge, sent off at 6-1, was two lengths ahead of Hall Pass in third.

Rohrbacher, a 13-1 long shot making his stakes debut, jumped out to the early lead and went the opening quarter-mile in 23.43 seconds flanked by Amundson, a winner of his last two races. Amundson passed Rohrbacher on the far turn after going a half in 46.48 followed to his outside by Chilly in Charge, who took over the lead at the top of the stretch.

Jockey Trevor McCarthy waited patiently behind horses after turning for home and steered Honest Mischief to the middle of the track, where they set their sights on Chilly in Charge and got up in the final jump after a steady drive.

“I just wanted to sit in a nice stalking spot and be patient with him,” McCarthy said. “I let him sit in the pocket and made one move with him, and it really was an exciting race. I was just very proud of the horse and so thankful for the privilege to ride him today. I’m very pleased to get the job done and ride such a nice horse.”

Hanalei’s Houdini, Rohrbacher and Amundson completed the order of finish.

Colts Neck Farm’s homebred Force the Pass won five races and more than $1.3 in purse earnings from 21 starts between 2015 and 2019, when he was retired to stand at T.K. Kuegler’s Wasabi Ventures Stallions in Maryland in 2020. His biggest victory came in the 2015 Belmont Derby Invitational (G1).

The City of Laurel honors the municipality founded as a mill town in the early 19th century that sits halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and has been home to Laurel Park since the track opened Oct. 11, 1911.

Needs Supervision Rolls in $100,000 Imagining Safely Kept

Howling Pigeon Farms, Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable and Madaket Stables’ Needs Supervision, who began her season with a stakes victory in January, returned to the winner’s circle for the first time since with a dominant 3 ¼-length triumph in the $100,000 Imagining Safely Kept.

Contested at seven furlongs, the Safely Kept for 3-year-old fillies was the last of four stakes worth $400,000 in purses on the program and served as a ‘Win and In’ qualifier for the $300,000 La Brea (G1) Dec. 26 at Santa Anita, with an additional $2,500 stipend toward travel costs.

Ridden by Feargal Lynch for trainer Jeremiah O’Dwyer, Needs Supervision ($6) hit the wire in 1:23.51. Parx shipper Hey Mamaluke was second, followed by long shots Victim of Love (23-1) third and Passionof the Nile (25-1) fourth, separated by three-quarters of a length.

Lynch and Needs Supervision found themselves in fifth early on as Philanthropic took the field of 11 through a quarter-mile in 22.57 seconds and a half in 45.58, pressed to her outside by Victim of Love. Needs Supervision found her way through to the lead after going six furlongs in 1:10.80 and left her rivals behind with a powerful stretch run.

“She’s not a great breaker,” Lynch said. “She just breaks little bit slow every time. She just wants to get on with it and she gets a little bit anxious, but she’s got a great kick.”

Needs Supervision broke her maiden in her second start last November at Laurel, then traveled to Kentucky to beat winners in an optional claimer to cap her juvenile campaign. She won the Silverbulletday Stakes Jan. 19 and was fifth in the Rachel Alexandra (G2) before going to the sidelines, returning to run second in the six-furlong Weathervane Stakes Sept. 21 at Laurel. Last out, the sophomore daughter of Paynter was seventh in the seven-furlong Raven Run (G2) Oct. 19 at Keeneland.

“She’s just taken us on a hell of a ride from the day we got her – breaking her maiden, and winning her allowance and having the new owners come on board,” O’Dwyer said. “It’s been a big help to my career, this filly has. We’ve got great owners, great staff and a much nicer quality of horses in the barn now.”

Imagining put together a record of 9-5-2 with purse earnings of $1,177,394 from 2011-15 for owner-breeder Phipps Stable and Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. Three of his wins came in graded-stakes, topped by the 2014 Man o’War. He currently stands at Anchor & Hope Farm in Maryland.

The Safely Kept pays homage to the late Maryland-bred mare that won 24 of 31 career starts and nearly $2.2 million in purse earnings, earned the 1989 Eclipse Award as champion sprinter and was elected to National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2011. Twenty-two of her wins came in stakes, 12 in graded-stakes, led by the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) and 1989 Test (G1).