Rocky Policy Turns Away Crabcakes in $75,000 Jameela
Rocky Policy Turns Away Crabcakes in $75,000 Jameela
Sonny Inspired Springs $19.80 Upset in $75,000 Ben’s Cat
Among Four Stakes Worth $300,000 on Maryland Pride Day Program
LAUREL, MD – Richard Vermillion’s Rocky Policy, stakes placed on both turf and dirt, became a stakes winner for the first time in 27 career starts with a front-running one-length victory over multiple Maryland champion Crabcakes in Saturday’s $75,000 Jameela Stakes at Laurel Park.
The Jameela for fillies and mares 3 and older and the $75,000 Ben’s Cat for 3-year-olds and up, both six-furlong sprints over Laurel’s world-class turf course, were among four stakes for Maryland-bred/sired horses worth $300,000 in purses that helped comprise the 12-race Maryland Pride Day program.
Also on the card were the $75,000 Star de Naskra for 3-year-olds and the $75,000 Miss Disco for 3-year-old fillies, both run at six furlongs over the main track.
The Jameela was the third win of the day for trainer Dale Capuano and the second in a stakes for jockey Daniel Centeno, who also captured the Ben’s Cat aboard Sonny Inspired three races earlier. Rocky Policy ($7.80) ran six furlongs in 1:08.78 over a firm Fort Marcy turf course.
Capuano, a career winner of nearly 3,400 races, decided to swap strategy with Rocky Policy, a 6-year-old Rock Slide mare that typically comes from off the pace. Instead, the trainer instructed Centeno to get out in front early and, after a clean break, they posted fractions of 22.66 and 45.00 seconds, with Crabcakes giving closest pursuit.
“That was the plan. There was no speed in the race, I thought,” Capuano said. “I told Danny that she usually would always break in front but the last couple times she hasn’t. I don’t really know why, but today she did. I thought that he could control the race, and pretty much that’s how it played out.”
Rocky Policy was still in command after going five furlongs in 56.28, but Crabcakes – a multiple stakes winner racing for the first time on turf – loomed a threat at the head of the stretch. Centeno kept Rocky Policy to task and she never wavered in turning back Crabcakes to snap a 10-race losing streak.
“I felt confident because the way I train her, I knew she would finish down to the second wire. I wasn’t too worried about that,” Capuano said. “Crabcakes is a super filly, but it’s tough for them the first time to transition from dirt to turf when you’re running against turf specialists. So, I felt if she was vulnerable today was the day.”
Crabcakes, Maryland’s champion 3-year-old filly and sprinter of 2017 for trainer Bernie Houghton, was three-quarters of a length ahead of late-running 2017 Maryland Million Ladies winner My Sistersledge, who edged Riley’s Choice by a neck in a four-way photo for third. They were followed by Anna’s Bandit, Misty On Pointe and If I Was a Boy.
“It looked to me like coming up the stretch she was kind of spinning her wheels a little bit and couldn’t quite get a hold of it, and she just gutted it out because that’s the kind of filly she is. At the end she almost caught the winner,” Houghton said. “It was a good experience. I knew she would run well … I’m going to go right back to the dirt and hopefully we can get her ready for the Maryland Million. That’s where we want to go and that’s always my goal.”
Capuano also won Saturday’s opener with Come Sundown ($7.60) and the third race with Bridgewater ($21.80), both ridden by apprentice Wes Hamilton. He said Rocky Policy would likely come back in the $100,000 Sensible Lady Stakes for fillies and mares 3 and up going six furlongs on turf Sept. 15 at Laurel.
“The purses are good, so when you win three on a day like today, you’ve got to love it,” Capuano said.
Jameela, whose name means ‘beautiful’ in Arabic, was the first Maryland-bred to top $1 million in purse earnings. Maryland’s two-time Horse of the Year (1981, 1982) won 16 stakes including the Maskette (G1), Ladies Handicap (G1) and Delaware Handicap (G1) and was fourth or better in 52 of 58 starts, retired following the 1982 season. She produced two foals before she died of colic in 1985, her first being champion sprinter Gulch.
Sonny Inspired Springs $19.80 Upset in $75,000 Ben’s Cat
D Hatman Thoroughbreds Sonny Inspired came with a steady run down the center of the track to catch tiring pacesetters Spartianos and Smile for Eternity and surge in the final 50 yards to win the $75,000 Ben’s Cat.
It was the 10th career win and third in a stakes for 7-year-old gelding Sonny Inspired ($19.80), who completed the distance in 1:08.95. His last stakes victory was March 19, 2016 in the Ben’s Cat, when it was contested at six furlongs on the main track.
“He’s a wonderful, wonderful old warrior that just comes back every year and shows up and gives you what he has. He’s just a pleasure to be around,” winning trainer Phil Schoenthal said. “He’s just that one small notch below the real open stake horses. It’s really just so much fun to have a horse that you bought as a yearling, he’s now 7 and he’s still doing it. It’s just very gratifying.”
Spartianos, the 2017 Maryland Million Turf winner, and Smile for Eternity engaged in a duel up front and quickly separated from the rest of the field, going a quarter-mile in 21.86 seconds and a half in 44.54. Daniel Centeno had Sonny Inspired settled in third ahead of the second flight of horses, and began to gain on the leaders around the far turn.
“I knew those two horses were the speed in the race, but we didn’t know they were going to go that fast,” Centeno said. “My horse comes from off the pace and he broke really sharp today. For him, he was really close. He made his run at the end and he never gave up.”
The two leaders were still in front entering the stretch when Centeno set Sonny Inspired down for a drive, closing the gap with every stride. Centeno steered Sonny Inspired further out when Smile for Enternity appeared to drift to his right and was able to hold off late challenges from Grandiflora and 7-5 favorite English Minister, winning by three-quarters of a length.
Grandiflora edged English Minister by a nose for second. Spartianos, Smile for Eternity, John Jones, Godlovesasinner and Any Court Inastorm completed the field.
“Our plan was to stalk and hopefully get first run. We were just hoping there would be enough pace,” Schoenthal said. “When those two went out and put up the opening quarter in 21 and change and we were sitting right in the catbird seat, it’s just one of those feelings where you have no excuse from there. He’s either good enough or he’s not. Sometimes you feel like you were good enough but the pace didn’t work out or the trip didn’t work out, but today going into the turn he was in the exact perfect spot, Daniel rode a great race and we are pleased for it.”
The Ben’s Cat honors Maryland’s four-time Horse of the Year that won 32 races, 26 stakes and more than $2.6 million in purse earnings from 63 starts in an eight-year career (2010-17). Bred, owned and trained by Hall of Famer King Leatherbury, Ben’s Cat died at the age of 11 in July 2017, less than a month following his retirement.
