Distinct Maryland Flavor at Thursday’s 51st Annual Eclipse Awards

LAUREL, MD – A possible berth in the $250,000 Barbara Fritchie (G3) is on the line for Team Gaudet and Five Hellions Farm’s multiple stakes-placed Fraudulent Charge as live racing returns to Laurel Park Thursday.

By Will Take Charge, a multiple Grade 1 winner of nearly $4 million in purses that was named 3-year-old male champion of 2013, Fraudulent Charge is the even-money program favorite over five rivals in Race 8, a second-level optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 4 and up sprinting six furlongs.

Fraudulent Charge beat older horses going the same distance in an open allowance Dec. 18 at Laurel to snap a six-race losing streak that included five runner-up finishes, four of them in Laurel stakes – the 2020 Gin Talking and 2021 Wide Country, Beyond the Wire and Safely Kept by two lengths and a nose combined.

Trained by Lacey Gaudet, Fraudulent Charge has never been worse than third in eight lifetime starts, with $142,010 in purse earnings. Regular rider Johan Rosado, aboard for each of her races, gets the return call from Post 2.

“If she can win that, then we’ll point to the Fritchie,” Gaudet said. “It would be asking a lot, but she’s a nice filly. Seven-eighths is her distance, and I think we’d rather give her a shot at some graded company just for future reasons. That’ll be exciting.”

Also in the field of six are Chanceland Farm and Wayne Harrison’s Hope Has a Name, a winner of three of her last four starts, the only loss coming to Fraudulent Charge last month; and Jagger Inc.’s Proper Attire, who earned her fifth career win Feb. 4 in her first start off the claim for trainer Jamie Ness.

The 70th running of the seven-furlong Fritchie for fillies and mares 4 and up co-headlines a Feb. 19 program of six stakes worth $900,000 in purses including the 46th edition of the $250,000 General George (G3) for 4-year-olds and up.

Thursday’s Race 7 is an entry-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds going around two turns at about 1 1/16 miles that attracted eight sophomores led by Stone Farm homebred Script. Trained by Graham Motion, the son of Algorithms ran second in debut last November at Laurel, then broke his maiden by two lengths in a front-running effort Dec. 4 at Aqueduct going seven furlongs.

Favored at 3-1 on the morning line, Script capped his 2-year-old season running third in the Parx Juvenile Dec. 29, also at seven-eighths. Victor Carrasco, a winner with 13 of his last 32 mounts including three stakes Jan. 29 and promising 3-year-old Joe Jan. 23, has the call from Post 2.

Also entered are Majestic Frontier, a 9 ½-length maiden claiming winner Jan. 22 at Laurel; Souper Royal Moon, a 3 ¼-length maiden special weight winner Jan. 19 at Parx; Maximum Impact, who graduated by 6 ¼ lengths in a one-mile maiden special weight Jan. 21 at Mahoning Valley; and The Addison Pour, exiting a come-from-behind half-length maiden claiming triumph going six furlongs Jan. 23 at Laurel.

“He broke his maiden short, but he’s probably a better horse long than short,” owner-breeder The Elkstone Group’s Stuart Grant said about The Addison Pour. “We’ll see how good he is.”

Post time for the first of nine races Thursday is 12:25 p.m.

Distinct Maryland Flavor at Thursday’s 51st Annual Eclipse Awards

Knicks Go, bred in Maryland by Angie and Sabrina Moore, is expected to be crowned 2021 Horse of the Year during the 51st Eclipse Awards ceremony Thursday at Santa Anita.

Also in line to be named champion older dirt male, Knicks Go would become the first Maryland-bred to be named Horse of the Year since Hall of Famer Cigar in 1996.

Knicks Go opened his 2021 season by winning the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) at Gulfstream Park, and closed the year with four straight victories anchored by the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1). The 6-year-old wrapped up his career running second to Life Is Good in defense of his Pegasus World Cup title Jan. 29.

Overall, Knicks Go won 10 races and $9,258,135 in purse earnings from 25 career starts.

Two of the three Eclipse Award finalists for champion apprentice jockey, Charlie Marquez and John Hiraldo, have ties to Maryland. Marquez, a Columbia, Md. native who turned 19 Jan. 25, was fourth with 50 wins and $1.45 million in purse earnings in just five months as an apprentice in 2021.

The teenage sensation captured the Preakness Meet at historic Pimlico Race Course and ranked second overall to three-time champion Jevian Toledo with 102 wins in Maryland in 2021. The previous year, he was the state’s leading apprentice rider with 58 victories.

Hiraldo, currently riding at Oaklawn Park, spent more than half his apprenticeship in Maryland. He led all bug riders with 81 wins and ranked second to California-based finalist Jessica Pyfer with $2.17 million in purses earned.