Caprice, Great Andrei Meet Again in $100,000 Stormy Blues
Special 11:50 A.M. Post Time for Saturday’s 10-Race Program
BALTIMORE – No Guts No Glory Farm homebred Do It for Michael, an emotional winner of the Maryland Million Nursery last month, chases a third straight victory and fourth overall in Saturday’s $100,000 James F. Lewis III at Laurel Park.
The 13th running of the Lewis for 2-year-olds and 28th edition of the $100,000 Smart Halo for 2-year-old fillies, both sprinting six furlongs, join the $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go for fillies and mares 3 and up on the 10-race program.
First race post time is 11:50 a.m.
Out of the Great Notion mare Gracie’s Hero, Do It for Michael is trained by John ‘Jerry’ Robb and owned by him and his wife, Gina. The Uncle Lino gelding is named for Gina Robb’s first son, who passed away at birth.
“Anytime it’s a homebred it’s emotional for her, but being named the way he’s named made it more special,” Jerry Robb said. “She waited for some reason [to name one for him] because we’ve been doing this for quite a few years now. The mare’s been a super nice mare for us. Everything she throws can run.”
By Uncle Lino, Do It for Michael showed that first time out with a 2 ½-length waiver maiden claiming score sprinting five furlongs June 30 at Laurel. He rallied from a troubled start to be second in the 5 ½-furlong Hickory Tree at Colonial Downs, returning to his home track for back-to-back front-running scores going six furlongs.
In the Nursery Do It for Michael battled on the front end with 19-1 long shot Kerness K through sizzling fractions of 22.20 and 45.76 seconds, took a 2 ½-length lead into the stretch and held off late-running Re Markably to win by a neck and improve to 3-0 lifetime at Laurel. Both Re Markably and third-place finisher Sacred Thunder return in the Lewis.
“He only lost once and he walked out of the gate and gave everybody a six, seven-length head start that day and still finished second. He actually made the lead and looked like a winner and they ran him down from behind,” Robb said. “That’s the only race he’s lost. He’s done everything else perfect. Last time he was in a huge speed duel early and he still held on to win. I’m looking forward to running him. He’s running up against the same horses that he’s beaten a couple times, so hopefully he can do it again.”
John Hazard’s Sacred Thunder is one of two horses entered by trainer Gary Capuano. The Holy Boss colt made his stakes debut in the Nursery, where he was beaten a total of one length. He has never been worse than third in six starts, two of them wins – maiden special weight and optional claiming allowance scores 21 days apart in September at Delaware Park.
“He’s had a great start. He’s right there every time and he gives it a really good race. He’s a big horse and he’s going to get better as he gets a little older and we stretch him out. I’m trying to get a two-turn race for him but haven’t yet. He’s just been really good. He keeps improving and it seems like each race he gets a little better,” Capuano said. “He’s a fighter. He doesn’t necessarily have to have everything perfect his way. He runs good between horses and he doesn’t mind the dirt in his face. He does really well.”
Sacred Thunder’s stablemate, Eagle Up Stables, London Reid Thoroughbreds and Non Stop Stable’s It’s Hammertime, is entered to run back just a week after the two-time stakes winner lost for the first time in four starts when fourth as the favorite under jockey Jorge Ruiz in the one-mile Nashua Nov. 2 at Aqueduct.
“I’m on the fence whether I’m going to run him or not. It’s a little quick,” Capuano said. “The race in New York the other day didn’t really take a whole lot out of him. The instructions might have been a little off. [It] might have been my fault a little bit. There was some speed in the race and I was hoping maybe to rate him a little bit and try to let the speed go and let him come a little from off the pace.
“[Ruiz] ended up having to fight him pretty good down the backstretch trying to get him to relax, and he didn’t really relax a whole lot. He made a nice little run around the turn and got into contention turning for home and then just kind of flattened out,” he added. “It looked like he had half a chance turning for home, got back on track and was running and then just kind of ran even the last eighth of a mile. He came out of the race real good.”
Lynn Ashby and William Gotwals’ Re Markably ran third, less than a length behind Do It for Michael, in the Hickory Tree before scoring a 5 ½-length victory in the Aug. 14 Dover at Delaware. From there he was second to It’s Hammertime in Delaware’s Sept. 11 First State Dash prior to the Nursery.
Nick Sanna Stables and Lynch Racing’s Saxton is unbeaten in two starts, graduating at first asking by 4 ½ lengths against fellow Virginia-breds Sept. 4 at Colonial Downs and following up with a front-running 1 ½-length off-the-turf optional claiming allowance triumph Oct. 4 at Laurel, both going 5 ½ furlongs.
Mens Grille Racing’s Stormy Flight, also bred in Virginia, broke his maiden second time out Sept. 15 on the Laurel turf, and exits a rallying nose victory in an Oct. 20 optional claiming allowance that was originally carded for the grass. Like Saxton, each of his wins have come at 5 ½ furlongs.
The James F. Lewis III honors the late longtime Maryland horseman and first president of Maryland Million Ltd. He bred and/or campaigned a number of prominent runners in the region, led by 1974 Test (G2) winner Maybelline, Flirtation (G3) winner Heartful and multiple stakes winner Swift Attraction. His daughter, Lisa, is a multiple graded-stakes winning trainer based in New York and Florida.
Caprice, Great Andrei Meet Again in $100,000 Smart Halo
Runnymoore Racing’s multiple stakes-winning homebred Caprice, who last month lost for the first time in four starts, faces a familiar foe in Great Andrei as she goes after starting a new streak in Saturday’s $100,000 Smart Halo.
Bred in Pennsylvania by Greg and Caroline Bentley, best known for their success with Grade 3 winner Postulation and seven-time stakes winner Alwaysmining, Caprice has raced exclusively at Delaware Park where she romped by 13 ¾ lengths in debut July 20. She rattled off wins in the Blue Hen and Small Wonder and went off favored for the fourth straight time in the Oct. 9 White Clay Creek, a race where she hopped at the start and ran in mid-pack before finishing second.
Twin-Brook Stables Inc.’s Not Too Late was third in the White Clay Creek, snapping a modest two-race win streak for owner-trainer Uriah St. Lewis. The second of those victories came at odds of 11-1 in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance Sept. 15 at Laurel over Shkhara Fire, who would go on to post her own upset of the Maryland Million Lassie Oct. 12.
Gene Gould Jr.’s Great Andrei has raced four times, once each at Laurel and Timonium and twice at Delaware, registering each of her victories in Maryland. She was a 12 ½-length debut winner June 8 sprinting 4 ½ furlongs, and took an open four-furlong optional claiming allowance Aug. 31 during the state fair meet. Each of Great Andrei’s losses have come to Caprice, when third in the Blue Hen and second in the Small Wonder.
“I don’t think she cared much for the Delaware racetrack when I ran her there,” trainer John ‘Jerry’ Robb said. “[Caprice] beat her both times she ran, but I look forward to trying her again on this track.
“Delaware’s a funny track; you either like it or you don’t, and I don’t think she much cared for it. We’re looking forward to running her,” he added. “I’m still not sure if she can get the three-quarters with all the speed she has, but over this track I’ll get my answer.”
Dark Hollow Farm, Dorsey Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Davidov and Mr. and Mrs. David Schwaber’s Daze takes a perfect 2-0 record into the Smart Halo for trainer Brittany Russell, runaway leader in the fall meet standings with 32 wins from 86 starters who saddled Post Time to a runner-up finish in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) Nov. 2 at Del Mar. Daze, by Sky Mesa, has led at every call in her two races, winning first time out by 7 ½ lengths Sept. 13 and cruising by eight lengths while in hand Oct. 5.
Stonehedge homebred Power Driver and All East Stables’ Beyond Belief, each winners of their lone start; and Matt Groff’s Oliviera, an 11-length debut winner at Colonial Downs that was second to subsequent stakes winner Echo Sound last out, are also entered.
Smart Halo, by top Maryland sire Smarten, won the first race on the inaugural Maryland Million Day program in 1986, beating In the Curl by a neck in the Lassie to cap a perfect 3-0 campaign. Bred in Canada by E.P. Taylor and owned by Sam-Son Farm, Smart Halo was trained by Canadian Hall of Famer Jim Day.