Smiling Causeway Back with Fillies in Sensible Lady Turf Dash
Smiling Causeway Back with Fillies in Sensible Lady Turf Dash
Top Two Finishers Renew Rivalry in $100,000 Laurel Dash
Turf Sprints Mark Divisional Finals in Revived MATCH Series
LAUREL, MD – Audley Farm Stable’s multiple stakes winner Smiling Causeway, exiting a rare off-the-board finish in her first try against males, returns to face her own kind where she won for the very first time in Saturday’s $100,000 Sensible Lady Turf Dash Saturday at Laurel Park.
The second running of the Sensible Lady for fillies and mares 3 and older and the 20th running of the Laurel Dash, presented by Fidelity First, for 3-year-olds and up, both at six furlongs, are among six stakes over Laurel’s world-class turf course that complement the 27th renewal of the $250,000 Xpressbet Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) on a 13-race Fall Festival of Racing program.
All seven stakes, worth $900,000 in purses, were rescheduled from Sept. 15 due to the threat of severe weather from Hurricane Florence. First race post time Saturday is 12:30 p.m.
Both the Sensible Lady and Laurel Dash mark the fifth and final race in their respective turf sprint divisions of the revived Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series, an assortment of 25 races at tracks in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania which kicked off May 18 and 19 at legendary Pimlico Race Course. The original MATCH Series debuted in 1997 and ran for five years.
Smiling Causeway will be racing at Laurel for the first time since breaking her maiden second time out over older horses and running second to subsequent Grade 3 winner Morticia in the Stormy Blues Stakes last summer. She has won four of eight starts since, including the Lightning City Stakes to end 2017 and the Turf Amazon July 7, also finishing second by a nose in the Royal North (G2) July 29 at Woodbine.
“She likes Laurel. She got beat last year by Morticia, who is a good filly,” trainer Arnaud Delacour said. “Smiling Causeway has learned to rate a little bit. The last time at Parx she went a little too quick. I would rather ride her like we rode her at Woodbine where she sat behind a horse and relaxed well and came with a good finish. That’s going to be the idea this time.”
Smiling Causeway raced near the pace and took a short lead after a half-mile in the five-furlong Turf Monster (G3) Sept. 3 at Parx before tiring to be sixth, beaten 3 ¼ lengths by Pure Sensation, just the second time in 11 starts she was worse than third. She worked a bullet half-mile in 48 seconds Sunday over the all-weather surface at the Fair Hill Training Center.
“I just wanted to see if she could take on the boys because it’s a good indicator of whether she would fit in the Breeders’ Cup or no … and it looks like it was a little too tough for her,” Delacour said. “It wasn’t a bad race, she was with them to the eighth pole and got a little bit tired. She came back well and I’m happy with the fact that we still have two or three races left this year for her so I want to take advantage of the fact that there’s a good program.”
Favored at 5-2 on the morning line, Smiling Causeway and jockey Feargal Lynch drew Post 10 in a full field of 16 that includes four also-eligibles. She leads her MATCH Series division with 12 points, two more than idle Pretty Perfection and 10 ahead of 2017 Jameela Stakes winner Daylight Ahead, listed at 30-1 in the Sensible Lady.
Defending champion Always Thinking and stablemate Fear No Evil look to continue their local success for New York-based trainer Tom Albertrani in the Sensible Lady. Godolphin homebred Always Thinking surprised last year at odds of 25-1 and has gone winless in seven tries since, all in stakes, finishing fifth in a pair of Grade 3 events, beaten four total lengths.
“She’s been kind of close in her last two starts but we just haven’t quite gotten to win a stake this year with her. This is where she won her first stake last year, so hopefully she can come back and be a repeat winner in there,” Albertrani said. “It’s got a long stretch and she ran well in it last year. There’s not a whole lot of options for some of these fillies. She’s always been kind of close in a couple of other spots, but she’s only won the one stake.”
Hickory Plains’ Fear No Evil is two-for-two at Laurel, breaking her maiden last summer at 5 ½ furlongs and winning a second-level optional claimer going six furlongs June 29. She was second by four lengths in an off-the-turf sprint Aug. 12 at Saratoga, and is 2-2-1 in six starts this year.
“She’s run well at Laurel before and she’s done well all year. She ran a good race at Saratoga when it came off the grass, but she’d really rather be on turf,” Albertrani said. “She’s coming into the race with some good form. She’s a very capable filly, hopefully we get a good trip and get a good race out of her.”
Richard Vermillion’s Rocky Policy became a stakes winner with her front-running one-length triumph in the six-furlong Jameela Aug. 18 at Laurel, snapping a 10-race losing streak where she ran second or third five times including a runner-up finish to Morticia in the Pennsylvania Ladies Dash June 2.
“She’s a pretty versatile filly. She’s run some really good races and didn’t win a lot of times which was kind of disappointing because I always thought that she had the ability to win a stake at some point but never seemed to get really lucky,” trainer Dale Capuano said. “She came out of the race great. She worked phenomenal the other day and she’s doing really well.”
Goldwood, Misericordia, Unaquoi, Fire Key, Eye On Berlin, Compelled and also-eligibles Contributing, Touch of Bling, Not in Jeopardy, Jumby Bay and Dare to Be complete the field.
Top Two Finishers Renew Rivalry in $100,000 Laurel Dash
Snowday and Class and Cash, separated by a nose when first and second, respectively, a year ago, will break side-by-side as they hook up again for the first time since in the $100,000 Laurel Dash.
Quiet Winter Farm’s Snowday, trained by J. Willard Thompson, was a determined winner over favored Class and Cash last year, the victory coming just 12 days after the now 8-year-old gelding was third by a half-length in the Turf Monster (G3), his lone graded-stakes try. He enters the Laurel Dash off an easy optional claiming win Aug. 29 at Delaware Park.
Edward Short’s Class and Cash is a 12-time winner who has finished second in his only two previous tries at Laurel. The Jane Cibelli trainee is still seeking his first stakes win, finishing third in the Soldier’s Dancer June 9 at Gulfstream Park and coming off a nose loss as the favorite in a one-mile optional claimer Aug. 29 at Delaware.
Owned and trained by Mary Eppler, Oak Bluffs enters the Laurel Dash leading his respective MATCH Series division with 22 points, two more than Imprimis and three more than Pool Winner, neither of which are in action this weekend. Dubini, fourth with 12 points, is also entered in the Laurel Dash.
Oaks Bluffs has not raced since finishing ninth in the Wolf Hill Stakes July 29 at Monmouth, which followed a sixth-place effort in the Parx Dash (G3), both contested over giving turf courses. His win in the Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup June 2 at Penn National was the 16th of his career and first in a stakes.
“He’s coming into the race Great. Unfortunately we’ve had a lot of rain but hopefully the turf course will be fast or firm. He doesn’t like a real soft turf course,” Eppler said. “He does like Laurel and he has run well on the soft at Laurel … so we’ll see.”
Dr. Michael J. Harrison’s homebred Talk Show Man is entered to make his season debut in the Laurel Dash. The 8-year-old Great Notion gelding, third by a head in the Maryland Million Turf last fall and by a neck in the six-furlong Mister Diz on turf last summer, has not raced since he was eighth in the Jennings Stakes Dec. 30.
“There’s nowhere to run him. He’s out of conditions and that makes it difficult. You either run him in a stakes or keep him in the barn,” trainer Hamilton Smith said. “He looks great and he’s doing well. He’s training great. He worked a mile the other day and did well and he’s training real good leading up to the race.”
Also entered are 2015 Laurel Dash winner Spring to the Sky, Fielder, Axtell, Tombelaine, Celebration, Clever Triad and Sheikh of Sheikhs for main track only, with Maniacal, Triple Burner and Colonel Sharp listed as also-eligibles.
