Into Bluegrass Solid Winner of Turf Season Opener
Rainbow 6 Carryover Reaches $20,664.48 for Friday

LAUREL, MD – James Miller’s homebred Twirling Owen, displaying the same precocity as her Grade 1-winning sire, broke running and never looked back to capture the first 2-year-old race of the season in style, a 6 ¼-length romp in Thursday’s opener at Laurel Park.

Ridden by Jevian Toledo for trainer Anthony Farrior, Twirling Owen ($5.20) covered 4 ½ furlongs in 51.28 seconds over a fast main track in the $40,000 maiden special weight, .45 off the track record set by fellow 2-year-old Twelve Pack Shelly (50.83) April 8, 2010.

Twirling Owen was sent off the 8-5 favorite in a field of seven 2-year-old fillies, each making their career debut. She showed a pair of sharp three-furlong works at Laurel for her unveiling, where she set fractions of 22.49 and 45.21 seconds before putting the field away under a hand ride through the stretch.

“This horse, she can run a little bit,” Farrior said. “We were going to run her in New York but I had to wait a day to work her, so we decided to go here and see what we had. Sometimes they work good in the morning and they don’t show up in the afternoon. But, she ran good like we thought. Hopefully she keeps progressing and gets better.”

Twirling Owen is a West Virginia-bred daughter of Twirling Candy, who won his only start at 2 and his first three at 3 capped by the Del Mar Derby (G2). Twirling Candy won three more graded-stakes, including the 2010 Malibu (G1).

Punk Rock Princess finished second, with Farrior-trained Naughty Thoughts third. Farrior will send out a son of Bodemeister, Malibu Moonstruck, the 4-1 program favorite in Friday’s opener for 2-year-old colts.

“It’s great,” Farrior said. “I’ve got a lot of 2-year-olds, so hopefully they all progress. If she didn’t win, I’d have been in trouble. Everything should be good. I’ve got 12 here now. This one and the one I’ve got in tomorrow, they worked pretty close to each other. This one was a little better than him. These two are ahead of the stock right now.”

World-class turf racing returned to Laurel in Thursday’s fourth race, when favored Into Bluegrass ($5.40) took over the lead at the top of the stretch and steadily edged clear to a one-length victory under jockey Julian Pimentel.

Country Life Farm’s Into Bluegrass, trained by Mike Trombetta, ran 5 ½ furlongs in 1:02.43 over a firm Dahlia Turf Course. You Made It closed to be second at 13-1, with Weekend Flyer third.

Breaking from outside Post 12 in the claiming event for fillies and mares 3 and up, Into Bluegrass tracked long shot pacesetter Cat Lak through a quarter-mile in 21.83 and had closed the gap approaching the three-eighths pole before forging a half-length advantage straightening for home. It was just her second start since December 2017, winning her first career grass start in only her second try.

“I had a great trip,” Pimentel said. “I had an outside post so I came running a little bit to get some position, which I got. I was laying third in a good spot right off the speed, and when it was time to go she moved up and drew off.”

“The turf course is very good. It’s in very good condition, I thought,” Pimentel said. “Personally, I love having turf racing back. I’ve been very successful on the turf, very lucky on it, and I get to ride some good horses on it, so I like it.”

Notes: Meet-leading rider Trevor McCarthy had back-to-back winners Thursday aboard Makewayforjerry ($5.80) in Race 5 and Nightlife ($12.60) in Race 6 … The 20-cent Rainbow 6 went unsolved Thursday, growing the jackpot carryover to $20,664.48 for Friday. Multiple tickets with all six winners were each worth $516.76.