Turf Sprint First of Three Stakes Worth $250,000 Sunday
Multiple GS Winner Sparkle Blue Tops $100K Big Dreyfus Nominees
1 1/8M Turf Stakes Shares July 21 Program with $75,000 Miss Disco
Trainer Scott Wolfendale Notches First Career Win Saturday
Jockeys Rodriguez, Torrealba Register Saturday Hat Tricks

LAUREL, MD – Second or third in four of her five races on the grass, Shamrock Farm homebred Money’s Worth will look to break through with her first turf win when she returns for the second straight year in Sunday’s $75,000 Jameela at Laurel Park.

The Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares 3 and up is the first of three stakes worth $250,000 in purses on a nine-race program along with the $75,000 Ben’s Cat for Maryland-bred/sired horses 3 and older – also scheduled for six furlongs on the Fort Marcy turf course – and listed $100,000 Prince George’s County for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles over the Kelso turf course.

First race post time is 12:25 p.m.

Money’s Worth, now 5, ran twice as a 2-year-old for trainer Tim Keefe, winning a six-furlong waiver maiden claimer second time out in December 2021 at Laurel. Moved to trainer Graham Motion to start her sophomore campaign she raced just once in 2022, finishing eighth in Laurel’s Wide Country, returning 12 months later to capture an optional claiming allowance in February 2023 at Tampa Bay Downs. Both races came at seven furlongs.

Motion first put Money’s Worth on the grass last spring at Pimlico Race Course, where she ran second as the favorite in a restricted five-furlong allowance, beaten 1 ½ lengths. Two starts later she made her stakes debut in the Jameela, racing wide and on her left lead through the stretch in finishing third behind former stablemate Coconut Cake.

“This is a filly that I struggle with - does she want to go 5 ½ [furlongs] on the grass or a mile, and I think three-quarters really helps her,” Motion said. “She ran well in this race last year. We freshened her up over the winter and she came back with a strong effort.”

Money’s Worth went unraced from a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance in November over Laurel’s main track to a similar spot sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the Laurel turf April 28, when she came with a steady run to be second behind Mystic Seaport, a six-time winner last year.

“I just thought this was a good opportunity for her to run against Maryland-breds,” Motion said. “I didn’t realize a couple of these nice fillies that had been running around here are actually Maryland-breds. It’s a pretty competitive race. I do like this filly a lot and I also really like the idea of six furlongs, which you don’t get to do very often on the grass.”

Jorge Ruiz gets the call from Post 8 in an overflow field of 12 for Motion, who has eight wins from 14 starters (57 percent) at Laurel’s summer meet. Among those winners are Toupie in the June 16 Stormy Blues and 2-year-old filly Sharedashenanigans, the first foal out of Grade 1-winning millionaire mare Sharing.

Motion has nine of the 26 nominees to the $100,000 Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and up scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the Laurel turf Sunday, July 21 led by two-time graded-stakes winner and defending champion Sparkle Blue. Catherine Parke and Augustin Stable’s 5-year-old mare was a popular 2 ¼-length winner of last year’s race and her one win from four starts this year came in front-running fashion in the 1 1/8-mile Hillsborough (G2) March 9 at Tampa Bay Downs.

Among other Motion nominees are For Flying, a two-time Group 1 winner in her native Brazil that won her North American debut June 27 at Delaware Park; Heavenly Appointed, who put together a three-race win streak over the winter in Florida; No Show Sammy Jo, a comeback winner May 19 at Aqueduct that was entered Thursday at Saratoga but scratched when the race came off the turf; and turf stakes-placed Sun Bee and Thegirlfromireland, the latter a restricted allowance winner June 1 on the Laurel grass.

Motion-trained Five Towns, winner of Laurel’s April 20 Dahlia and second in the May 18 Gallorette (G3) at Pimlico, and Marksman Queen are also on the nomination list. Both horses were scratched from Saturday’s Beverly D. Preview at Colonial Downs.

Also prominent among Big Dreyfus nominees are 2023 Flower Bowl (G2) winner Parnac and May 25 Keertana winner Atomic Blonde, a four-time graded-stakes placed mare that is a Group 3 winner in Italy, both from trainer Christophe Clement; British-bred Glittering Lights, trained by Brendan Walsh and seeking her first North American win; Cut From Class, riding a three-race win streak; and 2022 Fort Indiantown Gap winner and 2021 Maryland Million Lassie runner-up My Thoughts.

Joining the Big Dreyfus on the July 21 program is the $75,000 Miss Disco for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-old fillies sprinting seven furlongs on the main track. A total of 18 horses were nominated including Weber City Miss winner Call Another Play, most recently third in the 100th Black-Eyed Susan (G2) May 17 at Pimlico; 2023 Maryland Million Lassie and Feb. 24 Wide Country winner Miss Harriett, third in the Weber City Miss; 2023 Lassie and Maryland Juvenile Fillies runner-up Sheilah’s Warcloud; Daughter of Time, third in the June 29 Maryfield at Monmouth Park; and Repole Stable’s Overly Dramatic, a last out optional claiming allowance winner sprinting 5 ½ furlongs June 7 at Laurel.

Entries will be taken and post positions drawn for both stakes Monday, July 15.

Trainer Scott Wolfendale Notches First Career Win Saturday

Simon’s Choice, a gelded 3-year-old son of champion Bernardini, opened a commanding lead approaching the stretch and went on to a 2 ½-length victory in Race 4 Saturday at Laurel Park to give owner-trainer Scott Wolfendale his first career win.

Under jockey J.G. Torrealba, Simon’s Choice ($5.60) completed six furlongs in 1:15.22 over a fast main track as the 9-5 favorite over six rivals in the claiming event for maidens ages 3, 4 and 5. One of four horses in for a $12,500 tag, he was not claimed.

“It feels good. It’s nice to get the first one out of the way,” Wolfendale said. “It felt like it took forever.”

Breaking from the rail, Simon’s Choice dueled up front with Category Cinco racing in the clear two wide through a quarter-mile in 23.93 seconds before opening up a three-length lead after a half in 48.67. Simon’s Choice extended his advantage to 5 ½ lengths straightening for home and cruised through the stretch to turn back late-running A B C Ya.

“He showed a lot more speed than he normally does, but he was coming off those 5 ½-furlong races on the grass. Before he was showing no speed and was coming from way out of it,” Wolfendale said. “I was surprised to see him right there head-and-head for the lead the first quarter of a mile. When he opened up, I knew if I got beat from there I’m in trouble.”

A third-generation horseman, the 29-year-old Wolfendale is the son of late William Wolfendale III, a Maryland-based trainer that won nearly 1,700 races from the mid-1960s until his passing in 2019 at age 74. Wolfendale’s uncle, Howard Wolfendale, won more than 1,500 races as a trainer from the mid-1970s to 2020. His cousin, Maggie, is an on-air analyst for the New York Racing Association.

“I first started working on the racetrack for my uncle and aunt, Howard and Tammy, at Laurel when I was 16. That was my first job,” he said. “This is always what I wanted to do. I grew up on a farm where my dad broke babies. My dad won 1,600 races before I was even born. He didn’t have me until he was 50, so I wasn’t really around my dad much when he had his racehorses. But I started galloping there on the farm when I was younger.”

Simon’s Choice was Scott Wolfendale’s first career starter, finishing sixth in a maiden claimer Dec. 23, 2023 at Laurel. Wolfendale had gone 0-for-10 this year with Simon’s Choice and 6-year-old gelding Bermondsey each racing five times. Simon’s Choice had finished second April 7 and 19 and third May 4, and currently is Wolfendale’s only horse.

“One of my dad’s good friends, Bruno [Mathias], he gave me a shot with him. The first time I ran him he ran better than he did the time before, and then the second time I had him in he cut his eye wide open,” he said. “Bruno had two horses and they both weren’t doing so good. He wanted to get out of it so Bruno gave him to me. He’s a tough horse to gallop. He run off with me one day. I’ve only ever been run off with one time in 13 years. But he’s a lot better now. He’s really a cool horse.”

Notes: Jockeys Jaime Rodriguez and J.G. Torrealba combined to win six of nine races Saturday, each registering a hat trick. Rodriguez won with Missionaire ($4.80) in Race 1, Borracho ($2.80) in Race 6 and Lady Zeta ($10) in Race 7. Torrealba was first on Hot Dance ($4.80) in Race 2, Simon’s Choice ($5.60) in Race 4 and Once An Eagle ($12) in Race 5 … Borracho, Lady Zeta and Brzina ($4.40) in Race 8 are all trained by Jamie Ness … There will be carryovers of $2,339.83 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 4-9) and $1,213.76 in the $1 Jackpot Super High Five (Race 6) Sunday.