Fillie d’Esprit Looks to Dethrone Kiss the Girl in $75,000 Conniver

LAUREL, MD – Defending champion Whereshetoldmetogo and fellow multiple stakes winner Jaxon Traveler, the latter recently voted his second straight Maryland-bred championship, are set to clash for the first time in Saturday’s $75,000 Not For Love at Laurel Park.

The six-furlong Not For Love for 4-year-olds and up is one of two stakes restricted to Maryland-bred/sired horses on an 11-race program, along with the $75,000 Conniver for fillies and mares 4 and older sprinting seven furlongs.

Headlining five stakes worth $450,000 in purses are the $100,000 Private Terms for 3-year-olds and $100,000 Beyond the Wire for 3-year-old fillies. First race post time is 12:40 p.m.

Madaket Stables, Ten Strike Racing, Michael Kisber and BTR Racing, Inc.’s Whereshetoldmetogo won last year’s Not For Love by 2 ½ lengths over 2020 Maryland Million Sprint winner Karan’s Notion, who also returns.

The victory was his third straight for the 7-year-old El Padrino gelding, who will be looking to start a new streak after finishing a troubled fifth, beaten two lengths, in the Dec. 26 Fire Plug at Laurel off successive neck triumphs in the New Castle at Delaware Park and Laurel’s Howard and Sondra Bender Memorial.

“He’s awesome,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “We tried to get everybody worked the other day even if it wasn’t like their ideal work day just because of the weather rolling in. He came by me and everybody was like, ‘Holy smokes, who’s that?’ He looks like a monster. He comes by and he just looks so powerful right now. He seems to be just doing so well and hopefully he runs well.”

By design, the connections took their time getting Whereshetoldmetogo’s season under way. He has won 13 of 32 career starts with $747,791 in purse earnings including 10 stakes wins, six of them coming over his home course of Laurel.

“We weren’t disappointed with the effort last time. He ran good that day,” Russell said. “At the end of the year, he’s always looking for a little freshening. I think he’s done well since we haven’t run him since December. He always kind of appreciates being backed off of a bit. But he always needs time between races, too, and it seems like he’s kind of shown us that. If you really want to see his best efforts you have to give that horse quite a bit of time between runs.”

West Point Thoroughbreds and Marvin Delfiner’s Jaxon Traveler was named the champion Maryland-bred 3-year-old male of 2021 as a follow-up to his 2-year-old state championship in 2020. The Munnings colt finished third or better in all nine of his starts last year, led by wins in the Star de Naskra at Pimlico and Bachelor at Oaklawn Park.

Second as the favorite to Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen-trained stablemate Mighty Mischief in the 2021 Chick Lang (G3) at Pimlico, Jaxon Traveler is two-for-three lifetime at Laurel, suffering his first loss when fifth to Grade 3 winner Wondrwherecraigis in the Fire Plug. Wondrwherecraigis is set to run next in the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) March 26.

Air Token, owned and trained by Jose Corrales, became a stakes winner in the 2021 Maryland Million Sprint. Third by a neck behind Whereshetoldmetogo and Youngest of Five in the Bender, he was most recently fifth to Cordmaker in the seven-furlong General George (G3) Feb. 19. Larry Rabold’s Youngest of Five, placed in three consecutive stakes, is also entered.

Completing the field are Joanne Shankle’s The Wolfman, racing second off the claim for trainer Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon, and McCourt Racing’s Big Engine, a last-out optional claiming allowance winner Feb. 19 at Aqueduct for trainer Rudy Rodriguez.

Fille d’Esprit Looks to Dethrone Kiss the Girl in $100,000 Conniver

Fille d’Esprit, beaten a length when third in the Barbara Fritchie (G3) last month, will look to snap a two-race losing streak while dethroning defending champion Kiss the Girl in Saturday’s $75,000 Conniver at Laurel Park.

C J I Phoenix Group and No Guts No Glory Farm’s Fille d’Esprit chased the pace in the seven-furlong Barbara Fritchie and was in striking position but had to check at the three-quarter pole and still got up for third, three-quarters of a length ahead of stakes winner Kaylasaurus.

“She just got beat a length in the Fritchie so I thought let’s take another shot in here,” trainer John ‘Jerry’ Robb said. “She ran a huge race. The time before she got tangled in the gate, and that race was impressive, too, because she came out like 15 lengths behind the field and turning for home she was in a stalking position to win it. She got back in it somehow.”

The race in question was the six-furlong What a Summer Jan. 29 at Laurel, where she hesitated and bobbled at the break and found herself way back early until launching a five-wide bid between horses to make up six lengths before tiring. The 6-year-old mare won four straight races to end 2020 and didn’t return until Maryland Million Distaff last October, where she ran six. She romped to a seventh-length optional claiming allowance win in her subsequent start.

“She’s a nice filly,” Robb said. “The day she got left and ran like she did, that’s what made me give her a shot in the Fritchie. And she had a little traffic trouble in the Fritchie and only got beat a length, so she could have won that if everything would have went perfect, I think. I’m looking forward to running her.”

Stable rider Xavier Perez gets the call from Post 3 in a field of six.

Three Diamonds Farm’s Kiss the Girl takes a two-race win streak into the Conniver, having captured the one-mile Geisha Jan. 29 and the 1 1/16-mile Nellie Morse Feb. 19 by 5 ¾ combined lengths. In the Nellie Morse, 5-year-old Kiss the Girl was coming back in three weeks and had to navigate a trip after being checked at the quarter pole, finding room to split horses late.

“I was very impressed with her last race. I was hoping that she’d run good,” trainer Michael Trombetta said. “It was back on short rest but she rose to the occasion and got it done.”

Runner up in the 2019 Schuylerville (G3) at Saratoga in her second career start, Kiss the Girl has a record of 8-4-3 with $456,686 in purse earnings from 23 starts. The bulk of her success has come at Laurel, where she owns five wins, two seconds and two thirds from 11 tries, including her first of now four stakes wins in last year’s Conniver.

“She just shows up every time. She shows up and she’s been able to get a lot of things accomplished in a shorter period of time,” Trombetta said. “She’s been fantastic. Those kind of horses are very rare.”

Kiss the Girl will be cutting back shorter than a mile for the first time since finishing fourth in the 7 ½-furlong Peach Blossom last July at Delaware Park. Victor Carrasco will be back aboard from Post 5.

“It’s just a matter of if it’s in the comfort zone of the individual [horse]. I don’t think most trainers train them a whole lot differently whether they’re going a mile or seven-eighths or what have you,” Trombetta said. “It’s just a matter of throwing it at them and seeing what they can do with it.”

Trombetta also entered Country Life Farm’s Combat Queen, a 5-year-old daughter of Congrats that has run second in four consecutive races, beaten a total of seven lengths. She has finished in the top three in 14 of 16 lifetime starts at Laurel and will be ridden by Jaime Rodriguez from the rail.

James C. Wolf’s Artful Splatter is another multiple stakes winner that has run second to Kiss the Girl in each of their last two starts, as well as Miss Leslie in the Dec. 26 Carousel. Her last time sprinting came in last year’s Conniver, where she set the pace before finishing fourth, beaten two necks for second under Carol Cedeno, who returns to ride from Post 2.

NRS Stable, James Chambers and Avalon Farm’s Coconut Cake, third in the Geisha; and Elements Racing’s Champagne Toast round out the field.