First of Three Stakes Worth $300,000 in Purses on Saturday Card
Jockey Marquez Pads Meet Lead with Riding Double Friday

BALTIMORE – Rather than wait for the state fair meet which opens in late August, trainer Charlie Frock decided to wheel his bargain basement stable star Paisley Singing back in just three weeks for Saturday’s $100,000 Alma North at historic Pimlico Race Course.

The Alma North for fillies and mares 3 and up is one of three $100,000 stakes on Saturday’s nine-race program along with the six-furlong Challedon and 1 1/8-mile Deputed Testamony, both for 3-year-olds and up. All three races are part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series.

Owned by the Frock family’s C & B Stables, Paisley Singing is rated at 12-1 on the morning line for the six-furlong Alma North, which drew six entries including 3-5 program favorite and five-time stakes winner Hello Beautiful; twice graded-stakes placed Club Car; and stakes winner Precious.

Frock said the potential for picking up black type in a smaller field in the Alma North was too much to resist. Trainer Ben Colebrook said he was also considering stakes at Saratoga and Mountaineer Park for Club Car.

“I like to run,” Frock said.

So does Paisley Singing. Like Hello Beautiful she is a 4-year-old daughter of Golden Lad, who stands at Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, Md. The Alma North will be her third straight stakes appearance following a third in the June 13 Shine Again at Pimlico – three lengths behind runner-up Hello Beautiful – and a fourth in the July 10 Dashing Beauty at Delaware Park. Both races were won by undefeated Chub Wagon.

Overall, Paisley Singing owns five wins, five seconds, four thirds and $202,984 in purse earnings from 22 lifetime starts, making her the most successful horse Frock has ever trained. The son of 78-year-old trainer Charles ‘Snake’ Frock bought her from Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium in October 2018.

“I paid $1,000 for her at the Timonium sale and she’s made over $200,000. It’s a pretty good story,” Frock said. “They couldn’t get a bid. They couldn’t get a bid and I said, ‘I’ll give you a thousand bucks,’ and the guy said, ‘Sold, $1,000, front row, Mr. Frock.’ It’s been a pretty good hit.”

Winless in five starts over 2020’s pandemic-shortened schedule, Paisley Singing is three-for-eight with two seconds and a third this year. The Aug. 27 opening-day program at Timonium includes a $60,000 straight allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/16 miles.

“That allowance race at Timonium really looks enticing to me,” Frock said. “I’ve got like 17 horses to run at Timonium. Paisley should win over there by six. I really think she’ll like the track.”

The Alma North is carded as Race 4 with a post time of 2:26 p.m., kicking off a 20-cent Rainbow 6 sequence (Races 4-9) that includes all three stakes.

Race 6 (3:31 p.m.) is the Deputed Testamony featuring Harpers First Ride, a four-time stakes winner last year in Maryland including the historic Pimlico Special (G3); fellow multiple stakes winners Cordmaker and Forewarned; improving stakes-placed Magic Michael; Mischief Afoot, a last-out winner May 15 at Pimlico; and Two Thirty Five, exiting the Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) and racing first time for trainer Robertino Diodoro.

Stakes action wraps up in Race 8 (4:38 p.m.) with the Challedon, led by multiple stakes winners Whereshetoldmetogo, the 8-5 program favorite; Laki, winner of the 2020 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3); and Lebda. Claimed for $80,000 last fall, Mucho has made four straight stakes starts for Midwest-trainer John Ortiz including the Maryland Sprint (G3), where he was fourth, and June 25 Kelly’s Landing, beaten a nose by three-time stakes winner Bango.

First race post time Saturday is 12:40 p.m.

Notes: Preakness Meet-leading rider Charlie Marquez had back-to-back winners Friday with second-time starter Petition Prayer ($12.20) in Race 3, 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight sprint for 2-year-old fillies, and Marsac ($10) in Race 4. Marquez’s 41 wins are seven more than runner-up J.D. Acosta … Forest Boyce swept the late double aboard My My Girl ($5.80) in Race 7 and B Determined ($5.40) in Race 8 … Mens Grille Racing’s Petition Prayer is a daughter of Grade 3 winner Divining Rod, who ran third behind Triple Crown champion American Pharoah in the 2015 Preakness (G1) … Palm Beach Racing’s Mamba On Three ($6.60) passed dueling pacesetters Gale Winds and Uncle Roamie in deep stretch and drew off to take Friday’s featured Race 6, an entry-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the grass. The winning time was 58.73 seconds over the firm course … Multiple tickets with all six winners were sold, each worth $2,444.62 in Friday’s 20-cent Rainbow 6, creating a carryover of $4,719.08 for Saturday.