Stakes-Winning Foursome Highlights Featured Friday Allowance
Nominations Close Friday for Independence Day Stakes Worth $350,000

LAUREL, MD – Louis J. Ulman and H. Neil Glasser’s 3-year-old multiple stakes winner Kenny Had a Notion, who has found success on both turf and dirt, continues to work steadily at historic Pimlico Race Course for his comeback.

Kenny Had a Notion posted his most recent breeze June 20 with a half-mile in 47.60 seconds, second-fastest of 40 horses on the day. It was the Great Notion gelding’s third work this month following a bullet three furlongs in 35.40 June 6 and another half in 50.60 June 13.

“He’s done fine. He’s come back and been training well,” trainer Dale Capuano said. “Hopefully, he’ll be a little better now with the rest than he was before.”

Bred in Virginia, Kenny Had a Notion last ran third behind Maythehorsebwithu in the one-mile Miracle Wood Feb. 20 at Laurel Park. That race came four weeks after defeating the same rival in Laurel’s seven-furlong Spectacular Bid.

“He had a bunch of races in a row and ran hard in all of them, and there really wasn’t anything for him. There weren’t any sprints, so it was good timing to give him a break,” Capuano said. “As it turned out, it really worked out well.”

As a 2-year-old, Kenny Had a Notion won his debut last July and was a troubled sixth in the First State Dash at Delaware Park. Capuano moved him to the turf where he won the 5 ½-furlong Jamestown for Virginia-breds in October at Laurel, then was back on dirt 15 days later to take the Maryland Million Nursery.

Sixth in the James F. Lewis III, a race where he challenged for the lead before flattening out and later was discovered to have displaced his palate, Kenny Had a Notion had surgery to correct the issue and bounced back to be second by a neck in the Dec. 26 Heft to cap his juvenile campaign.

“He’s a real big horse, so you would think he would be able to mature a little bit as he gets older and fill out a little bit, which he has,” Capuano said. “He’s still kind of lanky but that’s his build. We’re hopeful that he’ll do well the rest of this year.”

Capuano is targeting the $100,000 Meadow Stable, a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint for Virginia-bred 3-year-olds and up on Colonial Downs’ July 19 opening day card for Kenny Had a Notion’s return.

“He’s doing well. He should be ready in about a month,” he said. “I’m aiming toward that. He won’t be ready for the Concern here in two weeks. That’s too soon.”

Pimlico will host the open, listed $100,000 Concern for straight 3-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs on dirt Sunday, July 4, one of four stakes worth $375,000 in purses on the Independence Day holiday program.

Capuano is considering Mopo Racing’s Alwaysinahurry for the Concern. Another son of Great Notion bred in Maryland and runner-up to Kenny Had a Notion in the Nursery, he was fourth in his season debut June 9 at Delaware Park, his first race in six months.

“We gave him off and brought him back and he ran in a really good race in Delaware and ran fourth, beaten a length,” Capuano said. “I’m going to nominate for the Concern and take a look at it. He’s doing really well and we’ll see how he fits there.”

Stakes-Winning Foursome Highlights Featured Friday Allowance

A quartet of stakes winners that have combined for 33 victories and nearly $1.3 million in purse earnings from 134 career starts liven up Friday’s feature event at historic Pimlico Race Course.

Ten horses were entered in Race 6, a second-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles on the main track. Three horses are exiting victories including El Samuro, racing for the first time since last September at Gulfstream Park, and narrow 5-2 program favorite Hanalei’s Houdini, making his second start off the claim for owner-trainer Kieron Magee following a May 31 triumph at the course and distance.

Also in that group is V.I.P. Ticket (8-1), like El Samuro a winner of two straight. Trained by Jerry O’Dwyer, off to a seven-for-18 (39 percent) start at the extended Preakness Meet, V.I.P. Ticket is a two-time stakes winner at neighboring Charles Town in the 1 1/8-mile A Huevo last December and seven-furlong Confucius Say May 1.

Forest Fire (10-1) has gone two-for-13 since picking up his lone stakes victory in the 2019 Maryland Million Classic at Laurel Park. Among the 10 rivals he beat that day was the favorite, Clubman, winner of the Maryland Coalition at Timonium and Russell Road at Charles Town in 2019 who is also among Friday’s challengers.

Clubman (20-1), the richest and winningest horse in the field with 10 victories and $468,442 in purse money from 46 starts, will race with blinkers on for trainer Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon.

Coal Truth (8-1), purchased for $275,000 at Keeneland’s September 2016 yearling sale, won the 2019 Dowd Mile at Fonner Park and has changed barns four times since off the claim, most recently for $30,000 out of a Feb. 26 win at Oaklawn Park.

Nominations for Independence Day Stakes Worth $375,000 Close Friday

Nominations are due Friday for four stakes worth $375,000 in purses scheduled for the Independence Day holiday program Sunday, July 4 at historic Pimlico Race Course.

Two of the races are part of the 24-stakes Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series schedule – the $100,000 Lite the Fuse for 3-year-olds and up sprinting seven furlongs and $100,000 Caesar’s Wish for fillies and mares 3 and older going one mile.

Also on the calendar are the $100,000 Concern, a listed, seven-furlong dash for sophomores, and $75,000 Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares 3 and up scheduled for 5 ½ furlongs on the turf.

To be run for the fifth time, the Concern was the only one of the four stakes contested during Maryland’s pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The Jameela has had all but four of its first 32 editions at Laurel Park and was last held at Pimlico in 2001.

The Lite the Fuse, honoring the two-time Carter (G1) and Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G2) winner, has not been run since 2002 at Laurel. The Caesar’s Wish debuted in 1978 at old Bowie Race Course and was held at both Pimlico and Laurel before it was renamed the Beyond the Wire for 2018.

Nominations can be made by contacting the racing office at 800-638-1859 or by emailing stakes coordinator Trish Bowman at trish.bowman@marylandracing.com.