Trainer Hoping to Make Ex-Claimer Stakes Winner in Not For Love
Among Five Stakes Worth $450,000 in Purses on Saturday Card
Openings Remain for Saturday’s Champions Handicapping Tournament

LAUREL, MD – Having turned Shake Em Loose into a stakes winner off the claim late last year, trainer Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon is hoping to have the same luck with Joanne Shankle’s The Wolfman in Saturday’s $75,000 Not For Love.

The six-furlong Not For Love for older Maryland-bred/sired horses is the second of five stakes worth $450,000 in purses on an 11-race program co-headlined by the $100,000 Private Terms for 3-year-olds and $100,000 Beyond the Wire for 3-year-old fillies.

Kicking off the stakes action in Race 4 is the $75,000 Conniver for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares sprinting seven furlongs. The Not For Love comes in Race 7, followed by the $100,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial for 4-year-olds and up going one mile in Race 8, one-mile Beyond the Wire in Race 9 and Private Terms at about 1 1/16 miles in Race 10.

First race post time is 12:40 p.m.

Sanchez-Salomon won a four-way shake to get The Wolfman for $5,000 out of his neck victory in a third-level claimer sprinting six furlongs Feb. 10 at Laurel. He brought the 4-year-old gelded son of 2014 General George (G3) winner Bandbox back 17 days later to win a restricted allowance by the same margin and distance.

“He’s doing awesome. Man, this horse really impresses me a lot. You have to treat your horses right, so they can treat you right back,” Sanchez-Salomon said. He had one winner on Friday’s card, Holy Synchronicity ($55.60) in the 11th-race finale.

“This is a nice horse. I was very lucky to get a chance to get him,” he added. “That was awesome. He impressed me the very next race.”

In his first race since being claimed for $16,000 last November, Shake Em Loose sprung a 59-1 upset in the Dec. 26 Heft to cap his 2-year-old season. Shake Em Loose found early trouble and was no factor in the Jan. 29 Spectacular Bid but rebounded with a 3 ¾-length optional claiming allowance triumph Feb. 27 and is entered in the Private Terms.

“[The Wolfman] has been working with Shake Em Loose and they’ve been going head to head together. This one is a 4-year-old and he’s more of a sprinter where Shake Em Loose is a distance horse,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “I got really lucky that I ended up getting him. I think I’m going to be very blessed with this one, too, because he’s good and he’s sound.”

Sanchez-Salomon also entered two horses in the Beyond the Wire – Mi Patria’s Click to Confirm, third in the 2021 Smart Halo, and J R Sanchez Racing Stable’s Red Wine Time, claimed out of a win in her career debut March 5 at Laurel.

Openings Remain for Saturday’s Champions Handicapping Tournament

There are spots available for the Maryland Jockey Club’s Champions Handicapping Tournament Saturday at Laurel Park.

Limited to 300 entries, the tournament is currently nearing the 200 mark. Registration will continue on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 10 a.m. in the Sports Bar on the second floor of the clubhouse.

Players must be 21 to participate. In addition to $60,000 in guaranteed prize money, the tournament is a qualifying event for the National Horseplayers Championship, Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and The Big One.

Entry fee is $300. Players will use a $200 bankroll to make a minimum of 10 win, place and/or show wagers on races from Laurel, Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita, Aqueduct and Tampa Bay Downs.

The player with the largest bankroll at the end of the tournament will earn a minimum of $12,000 and choice of NHC, BCBC or The Big One berth. Minimum payoffs for second through fourth place are $8,000, $4,000 and $2,400 with the choice of remaining berths. Places five through 10 will take home a minimum of $2,400.

For more information, click here.

Notes: Five-pound apprentice Jean Alvelo visited the winner’s circle twice Friday with Boondoggle ($7.80) in Race 5 and Escape Fund ($4) in Race 10. Angel Cruz also doubled aboard Queen Cadence ($5.20) in Race 9 and Holy Synchronicity ($55.60) in Race 11 … There will be carryovers of $6,200.60 in the $1 Super Hi-5 (Race 1) and $2,008.04 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 6-11) on Saturday’s stakes-filled card. Multiple tickets with all six winners Saturday each returned $274.04.