Stakes Winner John Jones Returns to Win Laurel Friday Feature; Rainbow 6, Late Pick 5, Super Hi-5 Carryovers for Saturday
Stakes Winner John Jones Returns to Win Laurel Friday Feature; Rainbow 6, Late Pick 5, Super Hi-5 Carryovers for Saturday
Rainbow 6, Late Pick 5, Super Hi-5 Carryovers for Saturday
LAUREL, MD – Racing for the first time since his 43-1 upset of Ben’s Cat in the six-furlong Mister Diz Stakes on turf Aug. 20, John Jones made a successful return to the dirt with a decisive victory in Friday’s featured seventh race at Laurel Park.
It was the second straight win for John Jones since being claimed by trainer Lacey Gaudet for owner Matthew Schera July 17 out of a fourth-place finish going a mile on the main track. He did not draw in as the first also-eligible in the Laurel Dash Sept. 10.
“I wasn’t afraid to stretch him back out on the dirt. He’s run big numbers there before and that’s where he’s won [most] of his races,” Gaudet said. “It was where the race came up. We were an AE in the stake the other day and this came back for today so it worked out perfectly. The timing was great.”
Sent off at 7-1 among a field of 10 in the $45,000 optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up, John Jones ($16) broke running from post 6 and battled for the early lead before settling in second outside favored 8-5 pacesetter Struth, who ran the opening quarter-mile in 24.02 seconds and a half in 47.39.
Jockey Luis Garcia gave John Jones his cue rounding the far turn and the 4-year-old gelding responded in kind, drawing even with Struth as they straightened for home and then accelerating past before pulling clear in the stretch to hit the wire in 1:37.20 over a fast main track.
Sea Raven rallied from last down the center of the track to get second, with multiple stakes-placed Flash McCaul checking in third. Struth, first or second in his previous six starts including three consecutive runner-up finishes in dirt sprints at Laurel, tired to finish fifth.
“I think he’s going to be better going a mile on the dirt, especially this one-turn mile. [It] seems to really fit him,” Gaudet said of John Jones. “He came off that [last] race like a champion. He knew he won and I do think that it gave him a lot of encouragement to run back to that race. When horses are good, they’re good; there’s not much credit that we can take for him except for keeping him happy, and that’s what he is right now.”
In Friday’s co-feature, J W Y Martin Jr.’s Maryland homebred Joseph caught front-running Bill’s Passion at the sixteenth pole and surged to a narrow victory in the $42,000 entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up.
Ridden by Trevor McCarthy for trainer Rodney Jenkins, Joseph ($9.60) ran 5 ½ furlongs in 1:02.77 over a firm Exceller Turf Course. Grey Fox, favored at 7-2, was third for the third straight race.
Rainbow 6, Late Pick 5, Super Hi-5 Carryovers for Saturday
Carryovers in the 20-cent Rainbow 6, 50-cent Late Pick 5 and $1 Super Hi-5 wagers will greet bettors for Saturday’s 11-race program that kicks off with a 1:10 p.m. first post.
Largely thanks to a 60-1 upset of Friday’s fifth race by Shirleys Curls ($129.80), no one had all six winners in the Rainbow 6, which will have a jackpot carryover of $2,765.03 for Saturday. Tickets with four of six winners returned $55.74.
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.
Saturday’s Rainbow 6 spans Races 6-11 and includes the day’s co-features, a $42,000 allowance at 5 ½ furlongs on the Exceller Turf Course in Race 8 that drew a field of 14 fillies and mares 3 and older, and a $45,000 optional claiming allowance for females 3 and up at 1 1/16 miles on the Bowl Game Turf Course in Race 10.
The Late Pick 5, which offers an industry-low 12 percent takeout, will span Races 7-11 and include a carryover of $9,738.50. Tickets with four of five winners Friday paid $303.10.
There will be a Super Hi-5 carryover of $1,171.25 for Saturday’s opener, an $18,000 claiming event for 3-year-olds and up at seven furlongs on the main track.
Notes: Jockey Feargal Lynch posted a riding double Friday with Thirteenth Avenue ($13) in the third race and Shirleys Curls ($129.80) in the fifth. Luis Garcia also had two wins, aboard John Jones ($16) in the seventh and Storm Candy ($33.20) in the ninth … Monavista Crossing’s $56.40 upset of Friday’s opener keyed a $1 superfecta payoff of $12,657.90 for the 10-1-5-3 combination.
