Royal Renege Returns a Winner in Laurel Feature Sunday; Four-Day Race Week Kicks Off Thursday with Rainbow 6 Carryover
Royal Renege Returns a Winner in Laurel Feature Sunday; Four-Day Race Week Kicks Off Thursday with Rainbow 6 Carryover
Connections to Consider $100,000 The Very One for 7-Year-Old Mare
Sheldon Russell Earns First Win of Comeback
Four-Day Race Week Kicks Off Thursday with Rainbow 6 Carryover
LAUREL, MD – Ninatt Gardner’s Royal Renege, unhurried near the back of the pack in the early going, came with a steady drive on the far outside to run down leaders Daylight Ahead and Giddy Up and win Sunday’s featured second race at Laurel Park.
A 7-year-old Pennsylvania-bred mare making her first start in nine months for trainer Liz Merryman, Royal Renege ($16.60) ran 5 ½ furlongs in 1:01.62 over a Fort Marcy Turf Course labeled firm to win the $47,000 third-level optional claiming allowance by a length.
It was the fifth career win for Royal Renege, now 13-for-22 lifetime in top three finishes, fourth at the distance and second at Laurel, where she has been off the board just once in six lifetime races.
“She’s a really game filly. She tries hard every time you lead her over there,” Merryman said. “If she throws in a bad race there’s a huge excuse like she gets shut off or she doesn’t like Tapeta. That’s about the only excuses she’s ever had. She’s just a dynamite filly that has had her issues so she doesn’t run many times a year, but when she does she shows up every time.”
Giddy Up broke running under meet-leading rider Trevor McCarthy and was quickly joined to her outside by Daylight Ahead, blazing the first quarter-mile in 22.18 seconds. They remained together after a half in 44.16 before Daylight Ahead gained a slight advantage in mid-stretch, while Alex Cintron swung wide to launch Royal Renege’s rally down the center of the lane.
“The year before she had an issue that I had to give her time for, and last summer she just looked like she was getting rocky again and I didn’t want to risk anything. So, we just pulled the plug for the year and turned her out,” Merryman said. “I thought they might stop and breed her but they decided they’d have fun with her and she was in great form, so we’d try again. And I’m glad we did.”
Merryman, based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., has run Royal Renege in the Lyphard Stakes for state-breds at Penn National the past two years, winning in 2015. The 1 1/16-mile turf race will be run June 3, but the $100,000 The Very One at five furlongs on grass May 20 on the undercard of the Preakness Stakes (G1) at historic Pimlico Race Course could also be a possibility.
“Knock on wood, she’s doing great,” she said. “I was using this as a prep for the Pennsylvania-bred stake at Penn, but maybe I’ll look at The Very One. We’ll see.”
Sheldon Russell Earns First Win of Comeback
Journeyman rider Sheldon Russell earned the first victory of his latest comeback when Franklin Smith Jr. homebred Pledge of Love emerged from a stretch duel with favored Jax to capture Saturday’s 11th race finale.
It was the 10th mount for the 29-year-old Russell since he ended a seven-month layoff April 21 at Laurel after recovering from a torn radial collateral ligament in his right thumb suffered in late September. The injury came just eight weeks after he returned from a torn labrum and fractured shoulder hurt in a November 2015 training accident.
“Usually I run back after I win races to the jock’s room but I actually walked. I wanted to take this all in,” Russell said. “It’s been a tough road to get back this time, but I still feel I can physically do it so I’m really happy.”
Russell was Maryland’s leading rider in 2011 and is a six-time meet champion at Laurel and Pimlico. Pledge of Love is trained by Hamilton Smith.
“It feels great. Honestly it’s been a long [seven] months. I just stayed patient. These trainers have been keeping me really busy in the mornings,” Russell said. “Hammy promised he’d put me on my first winner, so it was really nice to get my first win back for him. He really liked the filly in the post parade, which filled me up with loads of confidence. She broke nicely, great trip, just all the hard work these past six months finally paid off and I’m very, very happy.”
Four-Day Race Week Kicks Off Thursday with Rainbow 6 Carryover
The final week of Laurel Park’s winter-spring meet marks the return of the four-day race week in Maryland with a nine-race program beginning at 1:10 p.m. Thursday.
There will be a jackpot carryover of $7,485.34 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 after the multi-race wager went unsolved Sunday. Multiple tickets were sold with all six winners, each returning $378.66.
Thursday’s Rainbow 6 will span Races 4-9. The Rainbow 6 carryover jackpot is only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
Notes: Jockey Alex Cintron swept Sunday’s early daily double with Wonder How ($5.20) in the first race and Royal Renege ($16.60) in the second, and added a third win with Believe in Angels ($5.80) in the sixth. Apprentice Jomar Torres won with Saturday Sunshine ($7) in the fourth and Danny My Boy ($8.20) in the seventh.
Wonder How, favored at 8-5 in a field of seven, went gate-to-wire for trainer John Salzman Sr. to win Maryland’s first race of 2017 for 2-year-old males in 53.59 seconds for 4 ½ furlongs on the main track. The filly Contrarity covered the same distance in 53.36 to win the first juvenile race of the season Saturday.
Hunger, a 7-year-old ridgling owned and trained by Kieron Magee, returned from a 40-month break between races to run away with Sunday’s finale, a $15,000 beaten claiming event for 3-year-olds and up at 5 ½ furlongs on the main track. It was the first race for Hunger since Jan. 1, 2014 and the meet-leading 26th victory of the meet for Magee.
