Competitive field of 3-year-old fillies at Laurel Park on Saturday
LAUREL, MD—Horse Racing Nation installed NK Racing and LNJ Foxwoods’ Sneaky Good as the 2-1 morning-line favorite in the $100,000 Weather Vane Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs on Saturday at Laurel Park.
The Weather Vane is the ninth race on a 10-race card. The first post time is 12 pm ET, and there are two “Value Pick 5” wagers, each with a low 12% takeout.
Trained by Brad Cox, Sneaky Good won both of her starts last year, including the Sandpiper Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. Since then, the daughter of perennial leading stallion Into Mischief has competed exclusively in stakes races and has placed in three graded stakes.
In her most recent start, the Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes at Saratoga on July 10, Sneaky Good stumbled at the start but rallied to finish fourth.
Sneaky Good’s family is very familiar with success at Laurel Park. Her dam, Gale, by Tonalist, won the Geisha Stakes for Maryland-breds in 2021.
Jaime Rodriguez rides Sneaky Good from post 4.
D. J. Stable’s French Friction ships up from her Kentucky base for trainer Mark Casse. The speedy daughter of City of Light won her first two races by a combined 11 ¾ lengths before finishing off the board in two tough graded stakes.
The stakes-winner returned from a three-month layoff to finish second in a high-level allowance race on turf at Ellis Park on August 8. Sheldon Russell will pilot French Friction, the potential controlling speed, from the inside post position. She was listed at 7-2 on the morning line.
Eric Rizer’s Slewperstitus, last year’s Maryland Million Lassie winner, defends her home turf for trainer Robbie Bailes. The Great Notion filly has never finished off the board in 11 career starts and exits a runner-up effort in a second-level allowance at Colonial Downs on August 27. Jevian Toledo rides Slewperstitus, 5-2 on the morning line, from post 6.
Red White and Blue Racing and London Reid Thoroughbreds’ Just Philtored has been in a career-long rivalry with Slewpertitus, and they’ll clash again in the Weather Vane.
Also by Great Notion, Just Philtored secured three stakes wins last year, notably the Maryland Juvenile Filly Stakes at Laurel on December 6. Her latest race was a restricted turf handicap against older horses at Colonial Downs on August 29, where she finished fourth.
“We were hoping for a little better than what we got out of her that day,” said trainer Michael Trombetta. “I’ve always gone back and forth, trying to figure out whether she’s better on the turf or on the dirt. But now that I’ve had a few more opportunities on each, I’m pretty much leaning toward the idea that she’s maybe just a tick more competitive on the dirt than on the turf.”
Trombetta is happy to have another chance to race against fellow 3-year-olds. “They’re getting slim,” he said. “We’re going to be running out of those here real shortly. She needs to get a little bit better. She did so well at two. She’s right in the ballpark. Her race before last [third in the restricted Miss Disco Stakes] was a solid race. She was just a little unlucky not to be half a length better.”
Jorge Ruiz rides Just Philtored for the first time. She drew post 2 and is 10-1 on the morning line.
Nazario Racing Stable and Heart’s Desire Farm’s For the Ladies has won her last three starts, including a breakthrough performance in Timonium’s Shine Again Stakes three weeks ago.
Rallying from off the pace in the Shine Again under jockey Raul Mena, For the Ladies gave her trainer, Pedro Nazario, his first stakes win.
“Raul and I had a plan,” Nazario said in the winner’s circle after the Shine Again. “There was a lot of speed in the race, so we tried to relax her and make a run, and it worked out perfectly.”
For the Ladies was claimed for $25,000 following a win at Delaware Park on July 25. “She came out of that race really good,” Nazario said. “We brought her back three weeks later in a starter allowance, and she got it done. She was bouncing out of that race.”
Mena retains the mount from post 5 at 15-1 on the line.
Mag Racing Stable’s Embrace the Moment won wire-to-wire in a second-level allowance at Timonium on August 30.
“I think it’s not necessarily the front, but [you have] to let her do her thing,” said trainer Greg Compton about Embrace the Moment’s running style. “I like that she’s on the outside. She can break and let everything settle inside her. She’s a big, leggy filly. She covers a lot of ground and has a huge stride.”
A debut winner at Delaware last year, Embrace the Moment then finished sixth in a field of seven in the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs.
“She ended up with a tiny chip in her ankle, and we gave her plenty of time off,” Compton said. “Ever since she came back, she has been firing on all cylinders. She’s a really nice filly and easy to train.”
Vincent Cheminaud rides Embrace the Moment from post 8. The horse was listed at 4-1 on the morning line.
Stakes-placed Late Night Text and Celtic Harp complete the field.
The Weather Vane is named after the Maryland-bred mare who won 17 races and $724,532 in purses from 1996 to 1998. Weather Vane recorded 14 stakes victories, including the Grade 3 Safely Kept in 1997. She capped her career by being named the Maryland-bred champion older female of 1998.