Inaugural $150,000 Bald Eagle Derby Fills Void for Horsemen
Inaugural $150,000 Bald Eagle Derby Fills Void for Horsemen
Live Racing Returns Friday with Launch of National Stronach 5 Wager
Maiden Ready to Run Favored in Friday’s $75,000 Jamestown Stakes
LAUREL, MD – Saturday’s debut of the $150,000 Bald Eagle Derby for 3-year-olds as part of a 12-race ‘Class on the Grass’ program attracted nine horses and drew praise from horsemen seeking what they feel is a sorely needed late-season spot for sophomores.
Among the trainers with horses in the Bald Eagle Derby, set for 1 ½ miles over the All Along turf course, are seven-time Eclipse Award winner Todd Pletcher, Canadian Hall of Famer Mark Casse, Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Graham Motion and Chad Brown, who has been voted the Eclipse Award in 2016 and 2017.
Calumet Farm’s homebred Channel Cat, trained by Pletcher, is the slight 2-1 program favorite over Admission Office, from Brown’s barn, at 3-1. Channel Cat enters the Bald Eagle Derby with a gutsy win in the 1 5/16-mile Dueling Grounds Derby Sept. 12 at Kentucky Downs.
“I was happy to see it on the calendar. It’s a new race and not one that I was actually aware of until a month or so ago,” Pletcher said. “It’s great to have those kind of options. Usually at this time of year wanting to go that far you have to step up and run against older horses and that’s always a tall order when you’re running 3-year-olds that don’t have nearly as much experience, especially at those type of distances.”
Casse counters with Chiefswood Stable’s Ontario homebred Neepawa, most recently a front-running winner of the Breeders’ Stakes, the third leg of Canada’s Triple Crown, contested at the Bald Eagle Derby’s 1 ½ miles on the Woodbine turf.
“I think there’s not enough 3-year-old racing in the fall. It’s still extremely tough for a 3-year-old to run against older horses,” Casse said. “I hardly will do it, so I’m always looking for 3-year-old races as I think many do and I think there’s not enough of them so this is a welcome addition to the calendar, for sure. Having a 3-year-old right now would be having probably an older teenage kid and asking them to go up against college-age competition. It’s a tall task.”
Motion will send out Bill Crager and Paul Hondros’ improving Nakamura, a son of Motion’s 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom that was second in his only previous try at 1 ½ miles against older horses July 5 at Delaware Park.
“You don’t get a chance to run these kinds of distances very often, especially against straight 3-year-olds. It’s definitely something he’s shown us he wants to do,” Motion said. “It’s awesome. It’s great to be able to stay with 3-year-olds as long as you can. I think it provides these kinds of horses with a great opportunity. It’s a great spot. It’s something that horsemen going forward can now point to in the fall.”
Live Racing Returns Friday with Launch of National Stronach 5 Wager
Laurel Park’s ninth race Friday will serve as the launching pad of the inaugural Stronach 5, an action-packed national wager featuring five races at four tracks across the country and offering an industry low 12 percent takeout.
A field of nine was entered in the $22,000 maiden claiming event for 2-year-olds going five furlongs on the main track. The narrow 3-1 program favorite is Mens Grille Racing’s Unequivocal, a chestnut son of Grade 3 winner Congrats trained by Hamilton Smith that drew Post 4 under Jevian Toledo, Maryland’s champion rider of 2015 and 2017.
Smith will also send out first-time starter Aces and Faces and is listed with his wife, JoAnn, as co-breeder of Bay of Rocks, a son of Grade 1 winner Bullsbay making his third start and first with Lasix and trained by Smith’s son, Jason. Aces and Faces and Bay of Rocks, both 6-1 on the morning line, will break from Post 3 and 7, respectively.
Following Laurel’s ninth, which has a post time of 5:26 p.m., the Stronach 5 will continue with Race 4 from Santa Anita (5:32 post), Race 8 from Gulfstream Park (5:38), Race 4 from Golden Gate Fields (5:50) and Race 9 from Gulfstream (6:08). A total of 52 horses were entered in the five races, an average of 10.4 starters per race.
The inaugural Stronach 5 will have a guaranteed pool of $50,000 and the Maryland Jockey Club will serve as host for the multi-race bet as a separate wagering platform. The first 100 fans that purchase a program at any of the four participating tracks Friday will receive a free Stronach 5 Quick Pick.
The Stronach 5 will be shown live on all track simulcast feeds. If there are no winners in the Stronach 5, which requires bettors to select the winner in each of the five races, the entire pool will be carried over to the following Friday.
For the Stronach 5, if a change in racing surface is made after the wagering closes, each selection on any ticket will be considered a winning selection. If a betting interest is scratched, that selection will be substituted with the favorite in the win pool when wagering closes.
In addition to the Stronach 5, live racing returns to Laurel with a 10-race card Friday that includes carryovers of $5,360.80 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 5-10) and $1,280.59 in the $1 Super Hi-5 for the opener, a 5 ½-furlong waiver maiden claimer on the Dahlia turf course that drew a field of 16.
Maiden Ready to Run Favored in Friday’s $75,000 Jamestown Stakes
Bred, owned and trained by Susan Cooney, maiden Ready to Run is favored at 2-1 on the morning line in Friday’s 12th running of the $75,000 Jamestown for Virginia-bred/sired 2-year-olds at 5 ½ furlongs on the All Along turf course.
Ready to Run is among eight juveniles that were entered in the Jamestown. Last time out, in his second career start, he jumped out to the lead along the rail and held it into the stretch before weakening to third behind next-out winner Burnin Ring O Fire Aug. 10 at Laurel. Daniel Centeno rides for the first time from Post 2.
Cooney will also send out Quest Realty’s Payneful, a first-time starter by Grade 1 winner Paynter, and Drosselmoon, a son of 2010 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Drosselmeyer that has finished off the board in his first two races.
Morgans Ford Farm’s River Gal, younger half-sister to multiple Virginia-bred stakes winner River Deep, also makes the jump into stakes company in her third start. One of two fillies facing males in the Jamestown, the daughter of Grade 1 winner Blame was third in an off-the-turf open maiden special weight going one mile Sept. 8.
