Multiple Stakes Winner Phlash Phelps Targets $75,000 Find
Multiple Stakes Winner Phlash Phelps Targets $75,000 Find
Daylight Ahead Attempts to Stretch Her Speed in $75,000 All Brandy
Stakes Part of 12-Race Card on Final Saturday of Summer Meet
LAUREL, MD – His last race was just long enough to make Phlash Phelps a winner in his seasonal debut, but he’ll have much more ground to work with when he returns to action in Saturday’s $75,000 Find at Laurel Park.
The 1 1/8-mile Find for 3-year-olds and up over the Dahlia Turf Course layout is one of three stakes highlighting the final weekend of Laurel’s 33-day summer meet, which wraps up Sunday, Aug. 20.
Sharing Saturday’s 12-race card are the $75,000 All Brandy for fillies and mares 3 and older, also over the Dahlia layout, and the $75,000 Miss Disco for 3-year-old fillies going six furlongs on the main track. First race post time is 1:10 p.m.
Now 6, multiple stakes-winning Phlash Phelps was third in last year’s Find after bobbling at the gate and into the first turn, having to steady on the backstretch and mount a rally inside horses down the lane, beaten just a half-length.
Unraced since mid-November, he came back in the six-furlong Mister Diz over Laurel’s world-class turf course June 24, powering down the stretch on the outside to edge English Minister by a neck.
“He’s doing good. I’d like to have had another race for him going a little further heading into this race, being a mile and an eighth, but you’ve got to go by what’s coming up,” trainer Rodney Jenkins said. “One thing’s for sure, he’ll try. He always tries. He’s a good horse.”
Phlash Phelps is a four-time stakes winner including the 2015 and 2016 Maryland Million Turf. He hadn’t sprinted since graduating in his turf debut going five furlongs in April 2015. He has finished in the top three in nine of 11 career grass tries, six of them wins.
“I really didn’t want to sprint him but I had no choice. We got a race under him and he actually surprised me by getting up and winning. He hadn’t sprinted since he broke his maiden in his 4-year-old year,” Jenkins said. “He’ll probably be a little closer after sprinting. He’ll probably be a little anxious, he’s that kind of horse. But I think he’ll be just fine. He had some bad luck in this race last year and he still almost won it.”
Meet-leading rider Victor Carrasco will be aboard from Post 4 of 10 at 118 pounds, two fewer than co-highweights Talk Show Man and Ghost Bay.
Dr. Michael J. Harrison’s homebred Talk Show Man got a confidence-building one-mile allowance win over the Laurel turf in his last start July 22, where he was swung to the far outside for the stretch run after racing near the back of the pack early and got up by a head.
“I was watching the races earlier that day and the week prior and not too many horses were making a big run. You had to up fairly close in order to get there,” trainer Hamilton Smith said. “I was a little concerned the first part of the race, he was a little farther back than I thought he should have been but he dug in and came and got them. It was a pretty good effort on his part, especially the last quarter of a mile. He really dug in to get up.
“He came out of his last race real good and he’s worked real good since. He has no excuses going in at all,” he added “It’s going to be a tough race and be competitive, and that’s what you want. I think he’ll make a good showing. He’s coming into the race fine.”
Prior to his last start Talk Show Man had not reached the winner’s circle since taking the 2015 Henry S. Clark that April. He missed all of 2016 and has made four starts this year, three of them in stakes, improving each time. He was third by a neck in the Mister Diz.
“We have him some time. A lot of things didn’t go right when he was out on the farm. We brought him back here once and he just wasn’t right so we sent him back out,” Smith said. “We were a little concerned when he came back whether he would be up to the task of running against these kinds of horses but he proved that he could and he’s doing good. He looks as well and trains as well as he did before he had all that time off.
“I don’t think the distance will be a problem for him. The farther they go the slower they’re going anyway so I think he’ll run good. I’m not concerned about it,” he added. “He should run his race. He’ll be in mid-pack or so I would imagine and hopefully he’ll give us the same run he gave us the last time.”
Toledo returns to ride from Post 6.
Skeedattle Associates’ Just Howard goes for his third straight win in the Find. The son of grass champion English Channel broke his maiden on his sixth try May 29 at Pimlico, and dueled with stakes winner Bonus Points through the stretch after being rank early to take the 1 1/16-mile Caveat July 15 at Laurel in his stakes debut. Alex Cintron, up for both wins, rides for trainer Graham Motion from Post 3.
Also entered in the Find are Mister Diz runner-up English Minister; Grade 3-placed Tizzarunner, making his season debut for trainer Mike Maker; Daniel Le Deux, Dothat Dance, Ghost Bay, How’s Your Sugar and No Bull Addiction.
Daylight Ahead Attempts to Stretch Her Speed in $75,000 All Brandy
Winners Circle Partners VIII’s homebred Daylight Ahead, a gutsy winner of the six-furlong Jameela last time out, will look to stretch her speed around two turns for the first time in the $75,000 All Brandy.
Daylight Ahead went gate to wire in the Jameela and dueled with multiple stakes winner Lovable Lady through the stretch to prevail by a neck in the Jameela, her first stakes win and the first for jockey Katie Davis, who gets the return call from Post 7. All 10 fillies will carry 118 pounds.
Since the race trainer trainer Hugh McMahon has adjusted her training to get Daylight Ahead accustomed to going longer and having some speed in reserve for a late run.
“She came out of the race really good. Our biggest obstacle is trying to get that speed harnessed and go long for this race,” McMahon said. “She just likes to go fast. We’ve been training her for stamina, doing slow and deliberate two-mile gallops instead of breezing the generic half-mile or five-eighths.
“We’ve been going a mile and then finishing up the last quarter and stuff like that. We’re hoping that it’s sufficient enough for her. She’ll probably get the lead and hopefully she’s not in front by 10. I don’t want her to turn and burn,” he added. “It’s Maryland-restricted and she’s Maryland-bred. It’s on the turf and she likes the turf. The big question mark is the mile and an eighth.”
Sagamore Farm homebred De Marquee is entered to make her 5-year-old debut in the All Brandy for trainer Horacio DePaz. The Tiz Wonderful mare has made just six career starts with three wins, and is two-for-three with one third in three lifetime starts over the Laurel turf. When last seen, De Marquee pulled clear to win an entry-level allowance by 3 ¼ lengths in June 2016 at Pimlico.
“The only thing that really keeps her away is her mind,” DePaz said. “She actually lives outside in the paddock and in the round pen during the day and at night. She’s a very finicky eater and pretty high-strung, so keeping weight on her is a big challenge. She’s out at the farm so we keep her out 24-7, basically.If you bring her in she won’t eat. She’ll go off her feed for two or three days.
“She was supposed to run three weeks ago and then it got rained off the turf so she wasn’t able to run. I think she’s a nice filly and she is in good form right now,” he added. “I was hoping to have a race underneath her. It is a challenge coming off a long layoff and running a mile and an eighth, and if the turf is soft it will be even more challenging.”
Completing the field are 2016 Maryland Million Ladies winner Devilish Love and 2015 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship winner Look Who’s Talking, who were fourth and ninth, respectively, in the Jameela; Bawlmer Hon, Complete St., Good Roll, Nickyrocksforpops, Northern Smile and Shirleys Curls.
