Joins $100,000 Prince George’s County & Big Dreyfus on Grass July 15
Rainbow 6 Carryover of $22,223 When Live Racing Returns Friday

LAUREL, MD – Over the course of five weeks last summer, Stuart Grant watched as Hybrid Eclipse became a stakes winner for the first time before purchasing her from previous connections at auction. Coming up on the year anniversary of that acquisition, Hybrid Eclipse will attempt to defend her title in the $100,000 Caesar’s Wish Saturday, July 15 at Laurel Park.

The one-mile Caesar’s Wish for fillies and mares 3 and up co-headlines a nine-race program with two $100,000 stakes scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the grass – the Prince George’s County for 3-year-olds and up and Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and older.

Post time is 12:25 p.m.

Grant spent the weekend in Lexington, Ky. scouting horses for Keeneland’s upcoming Selected Horses of Racing Age sale, the same auction where he paid $107,000 for Hybrid Eclipse, who was coming off a 3 ¾-length triumph in the Caesar’s Wish, her second start with trainer Brittany Russell.

Founder of owner-breeder The Elkstone Group, Grant kept Hybrid Eclipse with Russell following the sale and from seven subsequent starts the now 5-year-old mare owns two wins – both in Laurel stakes – three thirds, including last fall’s Beldame (G2) behind Nest, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2022, and $181,000 in purse earnings.

“She has certainly produced over the last year,” Grant said. “Regional stakes are where she’ll make her bread and butter, but we will strategically look to give her a shot to win a Grade 3 when we find a good spot for her. If they’d all turn out like her, it would be an easy game.”

Though he was well aware of her achievements, Grant got a substantial reminder of Hybrid Eclipse’s success over the past year when he arrived in Lexington for this year’s sale.

“At one of the consignments here there’s a very large poster of her. It’s about four feet tall and six feet wide, basically talking about her and her accomplishments since we bought her,” Grant said. “We’re pleased. We have a couple of stakes wins and we have a graded-stakes placing, so her resume certainly improved. Brittany has done a great job.”

Following the Beldame, where she went off at odds of 48-1, Hybrid Eclipse won the 1 1/16-mile Thirty Eight Go Go by three lengths before capping 2022 finishing third to multiple stakes winner Malibu Beauty in the 1 1/8-mile Carousel.

Hybrid Eclipse opened this year with a popular 2 ¼-length triumph in the 1 1/16-mile Nellie Morse Feb. 18. A disappointing seventh in the one-mile Heavenly Cause April 15 at Laurel, she rebounded to be third in the May 27 Obeah at Delaware Park – the same finish in the same race she used as a prep for last year’s Caesar’s Wish.

“She’s doing really well. We’re really happy with her,” Grant said. “We think this is a good spot. We were actually considering the Delaware Handicap, that’s how much we thought of her. Then we decided we’d rather be in this one. I expect if we’re not the first choice we’ll be pretty darn close. I’m happy with the spot and I’m happy with how she’s doing.”

With her husband, champion jockey Sheldon Russell, named aboard Ocean City in Saturday’s Kent at Delaware, Brittany Russell has enlisted Joe Rocco Jr. to ride Hybrid Eclipse in the Caesar’s Wish from outermost Post 6 at co-topweight of 124 pounds.

Among the competition for Hybrid Eclipse will be stakes winners Award Wanted, Deco Strong and Misty Mauve. No Guts No Glory Farm and Erica Upton’s Award Wanted exits a front-running nose victory in the Obeah over Grade 1-placed Morning Matcha, who came back to be third in the July 8 Delaware Handicap (G2). A 10-time career winner, Award Wanted scored by 5 ¾-lengths in the one-mile Geisha Jan. 21 at Laurel to launch her 6-year-old season before running second to Hybrid Eclipse in the Nellie Morse.

Steve and Debbie Jackson’s Penn National-based homebred Deco Strong is seeking her first win at Laurel after three seconds and three thirds in nine previous tries. Winless since taking the Penn Ladies Dash over her home track last August, the 6-year-old mare stretches out to a mile for the first time since finishing sixth in the Heavenly Cause following back-to-back thirds in six-furlong allowance sprints at Laurel, the latter July 1.

Designated Hitters Racing’s Misty Mauve won two straight races this spring after being claimed for $16,000 by trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon including an off-the-turf edition of the one-mile Dahlia April 29 at Laurel. The 4-year-old Paynter filly cuts back after running fourth in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance also previously scheduled for the grass May 13 and sixth in the 1 1/8-mile Allaire du Pont May 19, both at historic Pimlico Race Course.

“She has her ups and downs. She’s a big filly and she’s had some muscle issues. Joint-wise, she’s fine, and when she breezes she does really good,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “She works great. She worked unbelievably good [Saturday]; really, really good. We always hope to have something, and that’s when we get lucky.”

The Caesar’s Wish will be the second start of the year for Paul Fowler Jr.’s Maryland homebred Intrepid Daydream, who kicked off her 4-year-old campaign running second as the favorite in a dix-furlong optional claiming allowance June 16 at Laurel, her first start since mid-October. Respectively fourth and fifth in two prior stakes attempts, both sprinting at Delaware Park, the 4-year-old Jess’s Dream filly has raced once previously going a route of ground, breaking her maiden by 16 ¾-lengths in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight in October 2021, also at Delaware.

“Going two turns, she’ll relax. She’s fast, but she’ll relax, too,” trainer Gary Capuano said of Intrepid Daydream, cross-entered in a turf allowance Wednesday at Delaware where she is second on the also-eligible list. “She came back really running nice. She’s a big, strong, strapping filly.”

Completing the Caesar’s Wish field is David Bernsen’s Cashing Big Checks, racing first time for trainer Lacey Gaudet following a $40,000 claim out of her fifth-place finish in a June 3 optional claiming allowance going 1 1/16 miles on the Pimlico turf. Winner of the 5 ½-furlong Blue Hen in 2021 at Delaware in her second career start, she has run second in two prior tries at Laurel, both going one mile on the main track, the most recent March 11.

The Caesar’s Wish debuted in 1978 at old Bowie Race Course and was held at both Pimlico and Laurel before it was renamed the Beyond the Wire for 2018. Returned to the stakes schedule in 2021, it honors the Maryland-bred mare that won 11 of 16 starts over two seasons including the 1978 Mother Goose (G1) and Black-Eyed Susan (G2) and 1977 Demoiselle (G2) and Villager (G3) and was inducted into Maryland’s Thoroughbred Hall of Fame in 2018. Her winning time in the Mother Goose broke Hall of Famer Ruffian’s stakes record and stood until 1994.

Notes: Hamilton Smith-owned and trained Haint Blue ($9.60), cut back to a mile and facing her own kind after back-to-back starts around two turns against older horses, went last to first to register a 1 ¼-length victory in Race 5 Sunday, a maiden special weight for 3-year-old fillies, completing the distance in 1:38.95 over a fast main track. She is a daughter of Done Talking, who provided Smith with his only career Kentucky Derby (G1) starter after winning the 2012 Illinois Derby (G3) …. Indian Lake ($3.60) dueled with Pit Stop Man into mid-stretch then held off a late surge from Cynergy’s Star to capture Sunday’s featured Race 7, a second-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up, in 1:03.15 for 5 ½ furlongs. Winner of the 2021 Bald Eagle Derby at Laurel, Indian Lake was claimed for $40,000 by trainer Ferris Allen III in a three-way shake … Indian Lake was the second of successive wins on the day for trainer Hugh McMahon following Carmel Sunrise ($8.60) in Race 6 … Jockey Jeiron Barbosa also doubled with Haint Blue and Spycraft ($4.40) in Race 8 … Live action returns to Laurel with nine races Friday, July 14 and carryovers of $22,223.45 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 4-9) and $422.35 in the $1 Jackpot Super High Five (Race 6). Post time is 12:25 p.m.