Multiple-Stakes Winners Greatbullsoffire, Phlash Phelps Top Stakes Noms
Multiple-Stakes Winners Greatbullsoffire, Phlash Phelps Top Stakes Noms
Maryland Pride Day Features Four Stakes Worth $300,000 Saturday, Aug. 19
Wise Gal Smart Winner of Career Debut on Turf Friday
Late Pick 5, Rainbow 6, Super Hi-5 Carryovers for Saturday
LAUREL, MD – Multiple-stakes winners Greatbullsoffire and Phlash Phelps are among 49 horses nominated to a quartet of stakes worth $300,000 in purses on Maryland Pride Day, Saturday, Aug. 19, at Laurel Park.
Highlighting closing weekend of Laurel’s 33-day summer meet are four $75,000 stakes for Maryland-bred/sired horses – the Star de Naskra for 3-year-olds and the Miss Disco for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs on the main track, and the Find for 3-year-olds and up and All Brandy for females 3 and older at 1 1/8 miles on the world-class turf course.
Kathleen Willier’s Greatbullsoffire, bred in Maryland by Sycamore Hall Thoroughbreds, is expected to make his 3-year-old debut in the Star de Naskra for trainer Hamilton Smith. The sophomore son of Grade 1 Bullsbay has not raced since winning the Maryland Juvenile Futurity by six lengths Dec. 10 at Laurel, his third stakes win of 2016 following the Strike Your Colors and Maryland Million Nursery.
Expedited Vision, who suffered his first career loss running a game second by a half-length in the $100,000 Quick Call Wednesday at Saratoga, is nominated to make the 10-day turnaround in the Star de Naskra. Also among the nominees are stakes winner Unrideabull, stakes-placed No More Talk and Victory Talk, a winner of three of his last four starts for trainer Mary Eppler.
Stakes winner Crabcakes, second to Shimmering Aspen in the June 17 Alma North at Laurel last out, tops 13 nominees to the Miss Disco along with stakes-placed Lucky in Malibu and Hailey’s Flip and Faze the Nation, a six-time winner from 11 lifetime starts at Laurel.
The Find drew 14 nominations including Hillwood Stable’s Phlash Phelps, coming off a rallying neck victory in the six-furlong Mister Diz June 24 at Laurel in his 6-year-old debut, and fellow multiple-stakes winner Talk Show Man, the third-place finisher by a neck in the Mister Diz who came back for a head triumph in a one-mile allowance July 22.
Also nominated are Graham Motion-trained stablemates Just Howard and Good Reasoning, who ran first and third, respectively, in the 1 1/16-mile Caveat over the Laurel turf July 15, and Grade 3-placed Tizzarunner.
Stakes winners Daylight Ahead, Devilish Love, I’m Betty G and Look Who’s Talking are among a dozen nominees to the All Brandy. Daylight Ahead won the six-furlong Jameela by a neck June 24 at Laurel, a race where 2016 Maryland Million Ladies winner Devilish Love was fourth, beaten two lengths.
I’m Betty G has won her last two races including a front-running nose victory in the 1 1/16-mile Pearl Necklace against fellow state-breds July 15 at Laurel in her stakes debut. Look Who’s Talking, the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship winner of 2015, exits a ninth-place finish in the Pearl Necklace.
Laurel closes its summer meet Sunday, Aug. 20 and kicks off the 60-day fall stand Friday, Sept. 8. Racing moves to Timonium for the Maryland State Fair meet Aug. 25 – Sept. 4.
Wise Gal Smart Winner of Career Debut on Turf Friday
Eric J. Wirth homebred Wise Gal kicked off her career in winning fashion Friday, stalking the early pace before pulling even on the far turn and steadily drawing away down the stretch to spring an 18-1 upset a $40,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies.
Ridden by Steve ‘Cowboy’ Hamilton for trainer Dove Houghton, Wise Gal ($38.80) ran 5 ½ furlongs in 1:04.24 over a firm Fort Marcy Turf Course layout to win by a half-length over Lake Geneva. War Tweet finished third while Sagamore Farm homebred Drops and Buckets, favored at 8-5, never got involved and finished ninth in the field of 10.
Wise Gal is a bay daughter of Einstein, a Grade 1 winner on turf and dirt, out of the Not For Love mare Spirited Game that showed three works over Laurel’s main track for her debut. Hamilton kept her in the clear from Post 9, moving up to third after a quarter-mile in 23.29 seconds, swinging three wide to engage Lake Geneva straightening for home, running a half in 46.74 and edging clear late.
“I knew she was going to run well but I didn’t know she was going to run that well, to be honest with you,” Houghton said. “She’s been training well on the dirt for us and I thought her pedigree would lean toward turf so when I saw this race I said, ‘Let’s just try it and give her a run.’
“The [owners] were happy with her and she, I believe, is the last foal out of Spirited Game, so we’re happy with her today, absolutely,” she added. “We’ll just have to get together with Mr. Wirth and see where we’re going to go [next]. It’ll be here in Maryland, though. That’s for sure.”
In Friday’s co-features, a pair of second-level $45,000 optional claiming allowances at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-olds and up, Motivational ($36) posted a 17-1 upset in Race 9 for trainer Jack Fisher, while favored Bombshell ($5.60) held off Analyze in Race 10 for fillies and mares.
Notes: Three jockeys posted two-win days Friday. Feargal Lynch was first on Miss Nosy ($5.20) in the second race and Motivational ($36) in the ninth, Kevin Gomez scored aboard Easy River ($3.40) in the fourth and Bombshell ($5.60) in the 10th, and Alex Cintron captured back-to-back races with Believe in Angels ($11) in the fifth and Miner’s Quest ($12.60) in the sixth.
Rainbow 6 Carryover: $1,457.89
Late Pick 5 Carryover: $4,457.35
Super Hi-5 Carryover: $466.68
