Sweetontheladies Looks to Make the Grade in De Francis Dash
Sweetontheladies Looks to Make the Grade in De Francis Dash
Multiple Graded Winner Something Awesome Working Toward Comeback
Live Racing Returns to Laurel with 10-Race Program Friday, Sept. 14
LAUREL, MD – Multiple graded-stakes placed Sweetontheladies was already more than an hour into the approximately 1,100-mile van ride from South Florida to Laurel Park earlier this week when trainer Henry Collazo’s phone rang.
The Fall Festival of Racing program featuring seven stakes worth $900,000 in purses scheduled for Saturday was being pushed back a week to Sept. 22, due to the poor weather forecast as a result of Hurricane Florence.
“I was on the road when I got the call saying they were postponing. I got as far as Jupiter [Fla.] and came back home,” Gulfstream Park-based Collazo said. “We’re planning on going back up there on Monday and hopefully everything is good by then.”
Collazo is sticking with his plan to bring Sweetontheladies back in the 27th running of the $250,000 XpressBet Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3), which highlights an action-packed day of racing set to begin with a first post of 12:30 p.m.
A stakes winner at 2 and 3 in his native Florida, the 4-year-old Twirling Candy colt owned by The Four Horsemen Racing Stable and Lady Lindsay Racing Stables has gone winless in eight starts this year but has finished in the money in five of those races, three of them graded-stakes.
Third in the Sunshine Millions Sprint to open 2018, Sweetontheladies ran second in the Gulfstream Park Sprint (G3) March 3 and was promoted to second in the Smile Sprint (G3) June 30, both over his home track, the latter at odds of 91-1. He has ventured north only once previously, finishing third at 35-1 behind Imperial Hint in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G1) July 28 at Saratoga.
“I like Maryland. We went up there with Mucho Mas Macho a couple of years back and I used to be stabled in Maryland. I like the area. It’s one of [The Stronach Group] tracks and I like to support them as much as I can,” Collazo said. “It just looks like a good spot. My owner likes to take a chance. That’s why we went to Saratoga and it worked out, so we’re taking another chance up there and hopefully we get some pace to run at. It could be really interesting.”
Mucho Mas Macho, 41-1 winner of the 2013 Fort. Lauderdale (G2) at Gulfstream, is Collazo’s only previous graded-stakes victory. In four races in Maryland, Mucho Mas Macho ran third in the 2013 Laurel Turf Cup and won a May 2016 claiming race at Laurel.
Fourth last out in the Benny The Bull Stakes Aug. 25 at Gulfstream, Sweetontheladies will face a familiar foe in likely De Francis favorite X Y Jet, a multiple graded-stakes winner unraced since his victory in the Smile Sprint. He also beat Sweetontheladies in the Sunshine Millions Sprint and 2017 Mr. Prospector (G3), a race where Sweetontheladies lost all chance after stumbling at the start.
“We’ve run against him three times now and the last two times we finished third,” Collazo said. “I wouldn’t mind finishing ahead of him once.”
Collazo said Sweetontheladies will have a final breeze for the De Francis Saturday at Gulfstream. In his most recent work he went four furlongs in 47.03 seconds Sept. 8, fastest of 53 horses.
“He really doesn’t need much. He’s pretty simple and straight-forward horse. Just keeping him happy is my main concern,” he said. “We’ll give him a day to settle in, jog him a couple of days and then run him.”
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens is tentatively scheduled to ride Sweetontheladies in the De Francis, Collazo said.
“You can’t ask for much more than a Hall of Famer,” he said. “You can never go wrong with them.”
Multiple Graded Winner Something Awesome Working Toward Comeback
Stronach Stables’ two-time graded-stakes winning homebred Something Awesome is back on a regular work schedule as he prepares to launch his comeback for Laurel-based trainer Jose Corrales.
Unraced since finishing eighth in the Pimlico Special (G3) May 18, Something Awesome spent two months recuperating at Adena Springs North in Aurora, Ontario before returning to Corrales six weeks ago. He went three furlongs in 38 seconds Sept. 8 over Laurel’s main track.
“He’s coming back. I’m taking a little time with him. I just started slow with him to see where we can get. He’s coming into himself already,” Corrales said. “He looks pretty good. When they come back you have to restart them, tack walk them, jog them, gallop them and build up the muscles again. He’s taking it pretty good.”
The Pimlico Special was just the second loss in seven starts for Something Awesome since being transferred to Corrales last fall. He had won three straight, all in stakes – the General George (G3), Harrison E. Johnson Memorial and Charles Town Classic (G2) – to put him over $1 million in career purses.
Following his victory at Charles Town, where subsequent Commentator, Suburban (G2) and Whitney (G1) winner Diversify ran last as the favorite, Something Awesome was considered a Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) candidate by his connections. They have not given up on making the event, scheduled for Nov. 2 and 3 at Churchill Downs.
“Before when he was going good, we were thinking about the Classic. You can always dream,” Corrales said. “This is my first horse to get into the rodeo, you know. I don’t like to try to brag about he can do this or he can do that; I let the horse do it. As long as he can be able to run good back again, we’ll try.
“He showed me so much that he can do anything. The horse we beat at Charles Town, he come back and win three stakes, two big races in New York,” he added. “He’s very comparable. I think everybody probably underestimates him because he only did it now when he’s 7 years old. I think he had it in him but he never really went the long distances; I think even longer he can do better.”
Something Awesome gave Corrales, a former jockey that won 1,031 races between 1981 and 1993, the first graded wins of his career. He plans to work his stable star again this weekend and is hoping to find a spot locally to bring him back and set him up for a possible trip to Kentucky.
“Depending on how the weather is, if the track is good he will breeze again Saturday and we’ll see where we are,” Corrales said. “I would probably get one race before then. I can’t just run from the farm to the Breeders’ Cup. I’m not Bobby Frankel.
“I’ve been talking to [Adena Springs racing manager] Mike Doyle and he always gives me good advice on what to do,” he added. “I’d like to run him here at Laurel and go from there.”
Live Racing Returns to Laurel with 10-Race Program Friday, Sept. 14
Three $42,000 allowance races and a pair of $40,000 maiden special weight events highlight a 10-race program that marks the return of live racing to Laurel Park Friday, Sept. 14.
First race post time is 1:10 p.m.
Seven juvenile maidens will go 5 ½ furlongs in Race 2, led by first-time starter Danz a Rebel, the slight 5-2 program favorite for trainer Cal Lynch. Simpson, narrowly beaten in his last two tries, tops a field of six maidens 3 and up set to travel six furlongs in Race 4.
An entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs was split into two divisions, in Races 7 and 9, both of which attracted a field of seven. Nico Bree N Teej, third in the Star de Naskra Stakes Aug. 18 at Laurel, tops the first division while Star de Naskra runner-up Onemoregreattime looms large in the second division.
Race 8 is an optional claiming allowance for 2-year-old fillies, also at six furlongs, featuring the Lynch-trained Congrats Gal. The 2-5 morning-line favorite was a runaway 6 ¼-length winner of her debut June 10 at Laurel and since has run third in the Schuylerville (G3) at Saratoga and second as the favorite in the White Clay Creek Stakes at Delaware Park.
