Laurel’s ‘Class on the Grass’ Program Attracts 111 Nominations

Laurel’s ‘Class on the Grass’ Program Attracts 111 Nominations

Six Stakes, Four on Turf, Worth $650,000 in Purses Saturday, Sept. 29
Six Graded Winners Among 15 Noms for $200,000 BWI Turf Cup (G3)
Fifteen Nominated to Inaugural $150,000 Bald Eagle Derby for 3-Year-Olds 
 
 LAUREL, MD – Several graded-stakes winners are among a total of 111 horses nominated to six stakes worth $650,000 in purses led by the $200,000 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3) that help comprise the ‘Class on the Grass’ program Saturday, Sept. 29 at Laurel Park.
 
The BWI Turf Cup for 3-year-olds and up at one mile and the inaugural $150,000 Bald Eagle Derby for 3-year-olds at 1 ½ miles are among four stakes scheduled for Laurel’s world-class turf course. They are joined by a pair of 1 1/16-mile events restricted to Maryland-bred/sired horses – the $75,000 Find for 3-year-olds and up and the $75,000 All Brandy for fillies and mares 3 and older.
 
Also on the program are the $75,000 Challedon for 3-year-olds and up and the $75,000 Shine Again for females 3 and older, both seven-furlong springs for non-winners of a sweepstakes.
 
Juddmonte Farms’ homebred Projected is the defending champion in the BWI Turf Cup, his only previous race at Laurel. Most recently third by a head in the 1 1/16-mile Bernard Baruch (G2) Sept. 3 at Saratoga, his fifth graded-stakes placing, the 6-year-old gelding has finished in the money in 18 of 23 career starts with $542,001 in purse earnings.
 
Shadwell Stable’s Qurbaan won the Bernard Baruch in his North American debut, and is one of two stakes winners nominated by trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. The other is Godolphin homebred Zennor, a winner of three straight last spring and summer including the Lure Stakes at Saratoga before going to the sidelines. He returned from a year layoff to run sixth in the Lure Aug. 11.
 
Other horses with graded success nominated to the BWI Turf Cup are Gary Barber’s Conquest Panthera, winner of the 2017 Play the King (G2) at Woodbine; 2017 Arlington Handicap (G2) winner Ghost Hunter; Isabelle Haskell de Tomaso homebred Irish Strait, a half-brother to multiple stakes winner Irish War Cry, third last out in defense of his 2017 victory in the Red Bank (G3); and Dermot Magner owned-and-trained 2015 Dania Beach (G3) and Transylvania (G3) winner Night Prowler.
 
Monticule homebred Archaggelos, winner of the 2017 Grey Cup (G3); Golden Brown, 15-1 upset winner of the Kent (G3) July 14 at Delaware Park; and Chiefswood Stable’s Ontario homebred Neepawa, winner of the third leg of Canada’s Triple Crown, the Aug. 18 Breeders’ Stakes over a yielding Woodbine turf Aug. 18, top 15 nominees to the Bald Eagle Derby.
 
Also prominent among nominees are Channel Cat and Cullum Road, first and second, respectively, in the Dueling Grounds Derby Sept. 12 at Kentucky Downs; 2018 Woodhaven Stakes winner Sand Dancer and Grade 2-placed Way Early.
 
Skeedattle Associates’ Just Howard, Maryland’s champion 3-year-old male, turf horse and Horse of the Year in 2017, tops 15 horses nominated to the Find. The Graham Motion trainee is four-for-seven lifetime at Laurel, winning a second-level optional claiming allowance Aug. 9 last time out. He won four straight races in 2017 including the Caveat Stakes, Find and Commonwealth Derby (G3), all over the Laurel turf.
 
Multiple stakes winners John Jones, O Dionysus, Phlash Phelps and Sonny Inspired; Spartianos and Talk Show Man, first and third, respectively, separated by a head and a nose in the 2017 Maryland Million Turf; and 2016 Find runner-up English Minister are also nominated. Prominent among 18 All Brandy nominees are stakes winners Majestic Reason, I’m Betty G, Monte Crista, My Sistersledge, Participate and Peach of a Gal.
 
Most popular among horsemen was the Shine Again, which drew 27 nominations led by Cairenn and Treble, both Grade 3-placed, and Dream Pauline, undefeated daughter of Grade 1 winners Tapit and Dream Rush. Grade 3-placed Honor the Fleet and Petrov and Old Time Revival, second in the Miracle Wood at Laurel and Gotham (G3) at Aqueduct this spring are among 21 nominees to the Challedon.