Laurel Park News & Notes
Laurel Park News & Notes
Stuart Janney III’s Onus Pointed to Laurel’s Grade 3 Commonwealth Oaks
Forest Boyce Picking Up Steam While Riding Laurel Hot Streak
Lael Stables’ Exaggerated Lives Up to Expectations
BALTIMORE, MD – Stuart Janney III’s Onus, a back-to-back winner by a total of nearly 20 lengths in her last two starts, is likely to return to Laurel Park for a start in the $150,000 Commonwealth Oaks (G3) on Sept. 26.
Trained by Shug McGaughey, the 3-year-old daughter of Blame was winless in two starts last year and in her 2015 debut before breaking through with a maiden romp at Laurel on July 11, easily capturing a mile turf race by eight lengths under jockey Forest Boyce. Janney’s homebred filly was even more impressive in her encore performance last Friday. She scored by 10 1/2 lengths under a hand ride from Boyce in a first-level turf allowance, scooting 1 1/16 miles in a sparkling 1:39.26.
“She ran well in her maiden win and came out of the race well,” McGaughey said. “I was a little surprised by how far she won and by how fast, but we knew she was nice. We had a lot of confidence going into the race.”
By winning her two races at Laurel by a combined 19½ lengths, Onus looks like a filly with a stakes future.
“There's a race down there later on called the Commonwealth Oaks and we're thinking about running her in there next,” said McGaughey, referring to the Grade 3 turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies that will be presented at Laurel for the first time by the Virginia Equine Alliance
Forest Boyce Picking Up Steam While Riding Hot Streak
Onus may have been Forest Boyce’s most impressive and promising mount of the three-day weekend at Laurel Park, but the late-developing filly was just one of five winners for the 30-year-old jockey, who was a 2010 Eclipse Award finalist during her apprenticeship.
Boyce visited the winner’s circle three races in a row, Races 3-5, Saturday, riding two winners for trainer Robin Graham and one for Graham Motion. She came back Sunday to ride another winner for Motion.
“It was a great weekend. I’m really happy. It felt so good to have a weekend like this. Things started off a little slowly coming off the spring at Pimlico, so to have a three-bagger day meant so much. It finally feels like I've got my footing,” Boyce said. “I’ve been fortunate to have out-of-town business shipping in like Graham Motion and Shug McGaughey and local outfits like Donald Barr, Robin Graham and Tim Keefe. Everyone has been super-supportive.”
Boyce, who wintered for the first time at Fair Grounds and finished fourth among jockeys with 13 winners during the spring Pimlico meet, was especially excited about her winning ride aboard Look Who’s Talking, who won her debut in Saturday’s fifth race for Robin Graham and Skeedattle Associates.
“I had been working her in the morning. I didn’t want anyone else working her because I liked her so much. She’s so professional in the morning, you could only hope she would run like that in the afternoon,” said Boyce, whose career was championed by trainers Holly Robinson and Dickie Small.
“You never know with a first-time starter, but I thought she handled herself so professionally. I liked how she won the race as well. The win wasn’t handed to her on a platter. She had to work for it a little bit, which was impressive,” Boyce said. “It’s always nice to win for Skeedattle. You know, they go out and watch her train every morning, so it’s always good win for them.”
Lael Stables’ Exaggerated Lives Up to Expectations
Lael Stables and trainer Arnaud Delacour have had expectations for Exaggerated since last year, and the 3-year-old daughter of Blame finally had the opportunity Sunday at Laurel Park to show her talent on the racetrack.
Exaggerated, who also had the confidence of the bettors who made the Virginia-bred filly their 13-10 favorite, closely attended the pacesetter into the stretch before pulling away to a 2¼-length debut romp. The Lael Stables’ homebred filly ran 5 ½-furlongs on turf in 1:01.83 under Victor Carrasco.
“She’s always shown a lot of speed, so I was kind of expecting her to be fairly well-placed and that’s what she did, you know, she did her thing,” Delacour said. “She broke a touch slow but she’s got enough speed to be right there a couple of strides after that. She just did very well.”
The impressive debut made it worth the wait for Delacour and Lael Stables’ Gretchen and Roy Jackson, the breeders and owners of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro.
“That’s a filly that we liked last year. She got hurt, so we had to give her a lot of time – that’s why she’s only starting now, but we always liked her,” Delacour said. “I don’t know if we are going to keep sprinting her on the turf. We’ll probably find another one and take it from there. One race at a time and see how she comes back and We’ll pick a race then.”
