3YO Mo Money Mo Honey Rolls to Second Straight Win Sunday
Final Weekend of Summer Meet Kicks Off Friday, Aug. 19

LAUREL, MD – John Davison and Eunhee Kim’s promising 3-year-old colt Super Love breezed a sharp-half mile Sunday morning at Laurel Park in his first work since being knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten in the July 30 Star de Naskra.

Super Love went four furlongs in 47 seconds over a fast main track working in company with exercise rider and former jockey Walter Illagas aboard for trainer Damon Dilodovico, the second-fastest of 58 horses at the distance.

“Walter was in hand the whole way, just kind of tapped his shoulder a little bit and he opened up through the lane and finished strong. That’s how I like it,” Dilodovico said. “I know my horses have been working faster times lately, but we just like to do our thing. It doesn’t usually involve bullets.”

By 2010 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Super Saver out of the Not For Love mare Fancy Love, Super Love was bred in Maryland by Davison. He went unraced at 2 before launching his career with a 1 ½-length maiden special weight triumph April 16 at Laurel.

Facing winners for the first time, Super Love captured a May 5 optional claiming allowance by 1 ½ lengths before routing his elders by 8 ¾ lengths in a Maryland-bred/sired allowance June 19 to improve to 3-0.

The connections opted to skip races like the Chick Lang (G3) May 21 at historic Pimlico Race Course on the undercard of the 147th Preakness Stakes (G1) and the $100,000 Concern July 2 at Laurel to await the Star de Naskra, a stakes for straight 3-year-olds bred or sired in Maryland.

Super Love broke awkwardly from the rail and rushed up to join the leaders but was unable to get around a pacesetting Al Loves Josie and jockey Xavier Perez on the backstretch and raced in third, bumping with Al Loves Josie’s Jerry Robb-trained stablemate, Alottahope, near the five-eighths pole.

Alottahope pulled away under brisk urging from Jevian Toledo to win by 15 lengths, while Super Love dropped back on the turn and was eased to the wire. Karamanos lodged an objection against the winner for interference on the backstretch, but the claim was not allowed.

“If he’d have broken well last time I don’t think we’d have been in that situation. Unfortunately, he didn’t break well and Jerry had the two horses to work with,” Dilodovico said. “His horse, he was winning no matter who was in the race. He was a superstar that day. He just crushed them. I definitely think we’d have finished or at least placed better had we not had the trip we had.

“He came out of it well,” he added. “From what I thought, Xavier pushed him down inside the gap and Horacio had to get in his mouth right away and it just kind of frustrated [Super Love]. It was the first time he ever had any kind of real trouble in his races.”

Dilodovico credited Karamanos for not persisting on Super Love under the circumstances and said the colt will be back on a regular work pattern ahead of his next start.

“We’re not 100 percent sure where that’ll be yet,” Dilodovico said. “He breezed very well today and he cooled out before he got back to the barn, so we were just thrilled with the morning. He’s a beautiful horse; a big, powerful horse. It’s fun to be able saddle one of those and let him go.”

Also on Sunday’s work tab at Laurel was Super Love’s 4-year-old half-brother Patient Game, a Great Notion gelding that went four furlongs in 52.60 seconds for trainer Emanuel ‘Mike’ Geralis over a turf course rated soft.

Patient Game, also bred by Davison and owned by he and Kim, was third in his debut last November at Laurel. He has raced twice this year but not since a seven-furlong waiver maiden claiming triumph Feb. 25 at Laurel. Patient Game returned to the work tab July 24 and has breezed four times, three coming on the grass.

“Patient Game, I gave him that name because he kept making us wait on him. He didn’t break his maiden until earlier this year,” Davison said. “I think he’s a very nice horse. He got roughed up a little bit in February so we had to give him some time. He’s on his way back.”

3YO Mo Money Mo Honey Rolls to Second Straight Win Sunday

Robin Doser and Metropolitan Thoroughbreds’ Mo Money Mo Honey had no trouble facing winners and older horses for the first time in just his second start, rolling to a seven-length triumph in Sunday’s feature race at Laurel Park.

Ridden by Horacio Karamanos for trainer Ben Feliciano Jr., Mo Money Mo Honey ($6.60) ran seven furlongs over a fast main track in 1:09.54 in the entry-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up. His four rivals had combined for 64 starts.

“He just does it so easy. You don’t even have to ask him and he does it,” Feliciano said. “He just ran in 1:09 under a hold. I’ll probably look for a small stake or something with him next. We’ll see.”

Unlike his July 16 debut, where he broke a step slow from the inside and rushed up to the lead before drawing off to win by six lengths, also at Laurel, Mo Money Mo Honey drew the outermost post for Sunday’s return. Friar Tuck outran him for the lead on the rail and held it through a quarter-mile in 22.75 seconds.

Mo Money Mo Honey rated in the clear two wide pressing Friar Tuck before taking over the top spot midway around the far turn, straightening for home in command and sprinting clear under a hand ride. Friar Tuck held second, followed by Magic Mule, It’s Sizzling Time and the only other 3-year-old in the field, 6-5 favorite Rominski. Commissioner G was scratched.

“He had the outside today. If I had inside like last time I might have been a little worried, but when I saw the overnight and I saw [he got] the six-hole I thought it was great for him,” Feliciano said. “It teaches him a little bit. We kind of wanted him to maybe not burst to the lead. You see he can go to the lead pretty easy but there was speed on the inside so we said maybe we’ll just sit on the outside and just pass him by the three-eighths pole and then go.”

Sold for $14,000 at Keeneland’s September 2020 yearling sale, the connections later spent $15,000 to purchase the son of champion Uncle Mo privately from a farm in Kentucky. His grandsire is two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin and his dam, Stopshoppingdebbie, won nine of 10 career starts including eight stakes at Emerald Downs.

“I know he can run. He’s been breezing like a machine,” Feliciano said. “I’ve had a lot of good sprinters, but I don’t know if I’ve ever had one come into the barn like this from a baby standpoint. I’ve claimed a couple that were fast and won stakes sprinting, but I’ve never had a baby come in like this.”

Notes: Trainer Mike Trombetta sent out back-to-back winners Sunday, Divine Law ($21.60) in Race 5 and In Vain ($7.40) in Race 6 … Jockey Horacio Karamanos and trainer Ben Feliciano Jr. swept the late double with Mo Money Mo Honey ($6.60) in Race 7 and Zola B ($5.80) in Race 8 … Laurel kicks off the final weekend of its 37-day summer meet with a live 10-race program Friday, Aug. 19 that starts at 12:40 p.m. A total of 103 horses were entered including 58 in five races scheduled for the grass, an average of 11.6 per race … There will be a carryover of $1,082.79 in the $1 Super Hi-5 (Race 1).