Debut Winner Correto Makes Stakes Debut in $150,000 Selima
Among Three Stakes Worth $400,000 in Purses Saturday
BALTIMORE – Following three consecutive trips to Saratoga, where he became both a stakes winner and Grade 3-placed, Mens Grille Racing’s Studlydoright returns to his home course of Laurel Park looking to resume his winning ways in Saturday’s $150,000 Laurel Futurity.
The 98th running of the Futurity for 2-year-olds and 95th renewal of the $150,000 Selima for 2-year-old fillies, each scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the Dahlia turf course, co-headline a 10-race program with the $100,000 Japan Turf Cup for 3-year-olds and up at 1 ½ miles.
By Florida Derby (G1) and Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Nyquist, Studlydoright is out of Hall of Famer Curlin mare Peach of a Gal, who made 13 of her 16 career starts on turf where she won one stakes and was Grade 3-placed. The forecast is calling for rain in the days up to and including Saturday.
“I know a lot of his family handles the turf well, so I was looking forward to getting him on the turf. I breezed him on it and he seemed to love it,” trainer John ‘Jerry’ Robb said. “We might not find that out, but I don’t mind running in a short field in the mud, either.”
Studlydoright graduated at first asking sprinting 4 ½ furlongs May 5 over a sloppy and sealed Laurel main track, then sprung a 13-1 upset in the June 6 Tremont to kick off the first Belmont Stakes (G1) weekend at Saratoga. He returned to run second as the favorite in the July 13 Sanford (G3), beaten a length, then encountered trouble early and late when seventh in the Hopeful (G1) Sept. 2, at seven furlongs his longest trip to date.
“Every single race he’s hit the gate leaving there. He’s a big horse and I just wonder if he’s not standing square. All it takes is to be standing cockeyed a little bit and he’ll hit it, as big as he is,” Robb said. “Two starts back it was a very strong speed-biased racetrack. I think he was the only horse that closed all day on anybody. He closed so well he even thought he won the race. One jump past the wire he was in front. The last time, when he went to make his move, [sixth-place finisher Mentee] ducked over in front of him and stood him on his head and just took all his momentum away. He had no chance from there.”
Nine of the 14 horses in the Futurity, including main-track-only entrants Pascaline and Reggie Runs Rogue, are coming in off wins including Jacques Dupuis Jr., Luke Bourque and Bobby Sutton’s Soleil Volant, whose name means ‘flying sun’ in French. He was sixth on a muddy track in his July 24 unveiling at Delaware Park, where he graduated in a 7 ½-furlong turf sprint over good ground Aug. 17.
“A little bit of a surprise maybe that he won last time off of just one race but he was very brave in doing so. He had every chance to throw in the towel, but he really ran very gamely,” trainer Graham Motion said. “When they came to him the last part he really ran on and did it nicely, and he’s really done well since the race.”
Motion also entered Harrell Ventures and Starlight Racing’s Academy. The Oscar Performance colt has raced twice, both going 1 1/16 miles on the grass, crossing the wire first by a neck in a front-running effort Sept. 7 at Colonial Downs, only to be disqualified and placed second for bumping with runner-up Patrick’s Promise.
“I was shocked that they took him down, to be honest. I was gobsmacked,” Motion said. “He ran a very brave race that day. He led every step of the way, the horse came to him and it was a really good horse race. I thought he was really gutsy.
“One reservation I might have is coming back in three weeks off of such a big effort,” he added. “We’ve been a little unlucky with this horse. We entered him all summer in Saratoga and he kept not getting in. I think I entered him four times and he didn’t get in. Maybe we got a little behind, but I feel he deserved a shot in this race off of the race he ran last time. He ran a winning race.”
Other last-out winners entered in the Futurity are Stormy Flight, Surfside Moon, Jus Too Fly, Gotta Have a Guy, Just a Fair Shake and Lazlo. Notmyfirstrodeo, Kitty’s Son and Hard Circle complete the field, the latter third by a length sprinting seven furlongs on the turf Sept. 5 at Kentucky Downs in his lone start for trainer Mike Maker.
“He was unlucky to lose last time,” Maker said. “He had some trouble leaving the gate but it was a terrific performance. I think the added ground will be to his benefit.”
The Futurity has a rich history dating back to 1921 inaugural winner Morvich, who would go on to win the 1922 Kentucky Derby. The Futurity has also been won by Triple Crown champions Affirmed, Citation and Secretariat along with Barbaro, In Reality, Honest Pleasure, Quadrangle, Riva Ridge, Spectacular Bid and Tapit.
Debut Winner Correto Makes Stakes Debut in $150,000 Selima
Hoping to follow a similar blueprint he used five years ago with subsequent Breeders’ Cup heroine Sharing, trainer Graham Motion is bringing an impressive maiden winner to Laurel Park to make her stakes debut in Saturday’s $150,000 Selima.
Calumet Farm’s Correto, a homebred daughter of turf champion English Channel, is among 16 horses entered for the Selima including My Charm and Strong Like Sara, both for main track only.
Laurel first boosted the purse of the Selima in 2019 in an effort to attract horses with Breeders’ Cup aspirations. Motion won that year with Sharing, who would subsequently go on to take the Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1). Sharing raced five times in 2020, winning the Edgewood (G2) and placing in two stakes including a third in the American Oaks (G1).
“I’d like to think we could have the same kind of route with this filly,” Motion said. “It’s interesting to me that these races have drawn such big fields. Fair play to Laurel for putting on these races and raising the purses. It’s a great opportunity for us to run these 2-year-olds.”
Motion unveiled Correto Sept. 1 at Kentucky Downs, where she was never more than two lengths from the lead before coming with a three-wide bid in the stretch and going on to a 1 ¾-length victory sprinting seven furlongs over the unique, European-style course.
“I’d be lying if I said I expected her to win first time out, but I definitely thought she belonged. We didn’t ship her to Kentucky Downs thinking she didn’t belong,” Motion said. “You never know how they’re going to handle it, but I think she showed a lot that day and won pretty nicely. I think anytime a horse can go there and handle that track the way she did is very impressive.”
The runner-up, Three Diamonds Farm’s Bembridge Ledge, also made her debut that day and returns in the Selima for trainer Mike Maker. Like Correto, Bembridge Ledge is by English Channel.
“We’ve been high on this filly from Day one and she didn’t disappoint. I think she got beat by a pretty nice filly,” Maker said. “She’s shown a lot of speed right along and I would expect her to do the same thing again.”
No Guts No Glory Farm’s Pure Majestic, owned and trained by John ‘Jerry’ Robb, is the most experienced filly in the Selima with six starts, finishing second or third twice apiece before graduating by 1 ¾ lengths in a one-mile maiden event Sept. 5 at Colonial Downs, her second straight race on its grass course.
“She’s run on an off track and run on the turf and run well. I always knew she wanted farther. The races in Virginia, I don’t know whether the turf moved her up or the distance. I’m hoping it was the distance,” Robb said. “Either way she’s going to run. It’s always nice to have one that will go both ways.”
Three horses enter the Selima with stakes experience. Sail Theseven Seas ran second in the Keswick and Jamestown, both at 5 ½ furlongs with the latter by a neck on turf, 28 days apart in August at Colonial. Good Long Cry debuted running fifth in the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies May 11 at Gulfstream Park, and Bonne Fille was eighth in Kentucky Downs’ one-mile Juvenile Fillies Sept. 8.
Rounding out the field are Swan House, As Catch Can, Sweet Treasure, Social Love, Dear Louise, Winning Streep, Burner Account and Serene Spirit.
First run in 1926, the Selima is named for the great English race mare who was imported to the U.S. in the 1750s by Benjamin Tasker Jr., manager of the famed Belair Farm in Prince George’s County. The daughter of the Godolphin Arabian, considered ‘Queen of the Turf,’ also gained fame as a broodmare.