Multiple Stakes Winner Greatbullsoffire Heating Up for Season Debut
Multiple Stakes Winner Greatbullsoffire Heating Up for Season Debut
Talk Show Man Targeting Aug. 19 Find Off Allowance Victory
Ben’s Cat Tribute Nov. 11 to Include Bobblehead Giveaway
Preakness Winner Cloud Computing Returns Saturday at Saratoga
Rainbow 6 Carryover Tops $6,100 for 10-Race Program Friday
LAUREL, MD – Kathleen Willier’s multiple stakes winner Greatbullsoffire, unraced since a dominant victory in the Maryland Juvenile Futurity Dec. 10, continues to make steady progress toward his sophomore debut.
The bay son of Grade 1 winner Bullsbay shows four works this month at Laurel Park for trainer Hamilton Smith, most recently going seven furlongs in 1:27.60 Tuesday morning. Two weeks earlier he went five furlongs in 59.60 seconds, fastest of 25 horses.
“It took a lot longer to get him back than we anticipated but that’s the way it goes sometimes. He’s doing good right now,” Smith said. “He’s pretty much ready to go and as soon as something comes up for him he’s pretty much ready to get in there now.”
Smith is targeting the $75,000 Star de Naskra for 3-year-olds as Greatbullsoffire’s comeback race. The six-furlong sprint is one of four stakes for Maryland-bred/sired horses worth $300,000 in purses to be run on Maryland Pride Day, Aug. 19, closing Saturday of the 33-day summer meet.
“That looks like a good spot to get him going,” Smith said. “We’re happy with how he’s doing. We’ve got him tight enough and he should be ready to go when the race comes up.”
Greatbullsoffire captured his unveiling at Laurel last July 17 and won the Strike Your Colors at Delaware Park in his second start. Smith put him on grass for the 5 ½-furlong Laurel Futurity where he set the pace and took a half-length lead into the stretch before finishing third as the favorite by 1 ½ lengths.
Showing the heart to match his talent, Greatbullsoffire bounced back to take the Maryland Million Nursery by a head over 69-1 long shot Dancing With Maude next time out. Third to O Dionysus in the Christopher Elser Memorial at Parx, he rolled by six lengths in his season finale defeating that rival as well as Parx Derby winner Bonus Points.
“He was awful consistent and the one time he got beat on the grass he just got in front and got too comfortable I guess cruising along there and they got him,” Smith said. “But the last race he ran last year was probably the best race he’s run. He was moving away from horses in that race and it was a pretty impressive from that standpoint.”
“We’re very excited about it. We just hope everything holds together and we don’t have any more complications. If that’s the case he should have a good fall, anyway,” he added. “The only bad thing is the 3-year-old races are about to run out and he’ll have to run 3 and up, but it is what it is. The boys at the barn are excited about him and waiting for him to run. I hope he does everybody justice when he comes back because I know they’re excited about it. He should run well.”
Smith said Dr. Michael J. Harrison’s homebred Talk Show Man would likely come back in the $75,000 Find for 3-year-olds and up on the grass Aug. 19 following his thrilling allowance victory July 22 at Laurel.
It was the first win for the 7-year-old Great Notion gelding since the Henry S. Clark in April 2015. Assorted ailments kept him unraced for 17 months from Nov. 2015 until his April 22 return, when he was 12th in the Clark.
Talk Show Man has progressed in each start, finishing fifth in the Longines Dixie (G2) May 20 and third in the Mister Diz June 24 prior to his most recent effort.
“We were very pleased. He made it exciting, that’s for sure. He ran a good race,” Smith said. “Around the turn he was kind of sluggish and once he got straightened away he got in gear and had enough to catch them.
“It should set him up good for the next one. It was a nice bunch of horses in there,” he added. “I was sure glad to get this race between stakes for him. It should benefit him. He came out of it good and everything looks fine.”
Ben’s Cat Tribute Nov. 11 to Include Bobblehead Giveaway
A tribute to late Mid-Atlantic legend Ben’s Cat will go on as planned Nov. 11 at Laurel Park and include a bobblehead giveaway in the likeness of the 26-time stakes winner and four-time Maryland Horse of the Year bred, owned and trained by Hall of Fame horseman King Leatherbury.
Maryland Jockey Club officials originally set aside the date as a ceremony to honor Ben’s Cat on his retirement at age 11 just days after he ran ninth in the Mister Diz June 24 at Laurel. Ben’s Cat was sent to the Kentucky farm of Bayne and Christina Welker June 28 but developed colic and underwent surgery July 6. He was euthanized July 18 due to post-surgical complications.
Laurel remembered Ben’s Cat on its first day of live racing following his passing with a moment of silence prior to the first race July 21. Maryland’s state flag was also lowered to half-staff in the infield in honor of the Parker’s Storm Cat gelding, a winner of 32 races, four Grade 3 stakes and more than $2.6 million in purse earnings from 63 lifetime starts.
“As you know by now, on Tuesday July 18 Maryland racing lost a thoroughbred legend, Ben’s Cat,” track announcer Dave Rodman said as a video montage of Ben’s Cat played. “Ben’s Cat had a fan base that stretched far and wide, outside of Maryland as well, through his eight years of racing.
“Our condolences go out to King Leatherbury, King’s assistant Avon Thorpe, Ben’s groom Fern Augusti; Doug Leatherman, who was on his back many, many mornings, and everyone who helped Ben throughout his unforgettable career.”
In addition to the Ben’s Cat tribute, Laurel will host six stakes Nov. 11 – the $100,000 Smart Halo and James F. Lewis III for 2-year-olds; $100,000 City of Laurel and Safely Kept for 3-year-olds; and $100,000 Richard W. Small and $75,000 Geisha for 3-year-olds and up, the latter for Maryland-bred/sired horses.
Preakness Winner Cloud Computing Returns Saturday at Saratoga
Klaravich Stables’ Cloud Computing is set to race for the first time since his upset victory over Classic Empire in the 142nd Preakness Stakes (G1) May 20 at historic Pimlico Race Course in Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Jim Dandy (G2) at Saratoga.
Trainer Chad Brown hopes to use the Jim Dandy as a springboard to Saratoga’s $1.25 million Travers (G1), run at 1 ¼ miles Aug. 26. He shares topweight of 123 pounds in an abbreviated field of five with Always Dreaming, the Kentucky Derby (G1) winner that finished eighth as the Preakness favorite and also making his return.
Multiple Grade 1 winner A.P. Indian, the defending champion, is one of two Maryland-based horses to face off in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G1) Saturday at Saratoga. Based at Fair Hill with trainer Arnaud Delacour, A.P. Indian was second by a half-length to Whitmore in the Maryland Sprint (G3) May 20 at Pimlico, just a head in front of Laurel-based Awesome Banner, trained by Ken Decker.
Trainer Graham Motion, also based at Fair Hill, will be represented at Saratoga Saturday by Ascend, upset winner of the Manhattan (G1) at odds of 27-1 June 10 at Belmont Park, in the Bowling Green (G2). He has also entered Painter’s Rags, frequent workmate of multiple Grade 2 winner and Belmont (G1) runner-up Irish War Cry, in a one-mile turf allowance; juvenile Beta Max for his career debut at 5 ½ furlongs on turf; and 5-year-old grass mare Affileo for her first start since Nov. 2015.
Irish War Cry will make his first start since the Belmont in Sunday’s 1 1/8-mile Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.
Rainbow 6 Carryover Tops $6,100 for 10-Race Program Friday
The 20-cent Rainbow 6 will have a jackpot carryover of $6,154.41 when live racing resumes with a 10-race program Friday.
First race post time is 1:10 p.m.
Friday’s Rainbow 6 will span Races 5-10, opening and closing with a pair of 5 ½-furlong turf sprints for 2-year-olds. A field of nine fillies was entered in the fifth, to be run over the Bowl Game Turf Course, while nine juveniles will contest the finale on the Exceller Turf Course layout.
A total of 55 horses were entered for six races on Laurel’s world-class turf course Friday, an average of 9.2 starters per race.
