G3 Winner Surprisingly Among Rivals in One-Mile Turf Stakes

BALTIMORE – William Pape’s homebred Deciding Vote, coming off a season where she won the first two stakes of her career and led all horses in the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship Series, will launch her 6-year-old campaign attempting a title defense in Saturday’s $100,000 Dahlia at Laurel Park.

The 20th running of the one-mile Dahlia for fillies and mares 3 and up is among five $100,000 stakes on the second of consecutive Spring Stakes Spectacular Saturdays at Laurel, and one of the first three scheduled for its world-class turf course along with the one-mile Henry S. Clark and 5 ½-furlong King T. Leatherbury.

Also on the 11-race program are the 1 1/8-mile Native Dancer for 3-year-olds and up and six-furlong Primonetta for fillies and mares 3 and older. First race post time is 12:25 p.m.

The Dahlia has had only repeat winner in its first 19 runnings, Embarr, in 2013-14 when the race was contested at historic Pimlico Race Course. Her come-from-behind half-length triumph over In a Hurry last spring was Deciding Vote’s second straight on the Laurel turf.

“It was the first time she’d won a stakes race. We always think this is a great spot for her first time back off the layoff,” trainer Edward Graham said. “She’s good. She gets every winter off and she’s come back good and we’re happy with her. We’re excited to see what she’ll do this year.”

Deciding Vote had one win from five subsequent starts following the Dahlia, that coming in the Salvatore DeBunda PTHA President’s Cup at Parx, rained off the grass to the main track. Her half-length victory clinched both her the filly and mare long turf division title and overall MATCH Series championship.

“I was kind of just going in there because it was the MATCH Series and we were just kind of taking a shot because she had an opportunity to win the filly division, so that was a surprising win,” Graham said. “She won the [whole] MATCH Series, so that was a good day. The older she gets I think the better she gets.”

Victor Carrasco is named to ride from Post 5 in a field of 10.

“I’ve had her since she was 2 years old so I know when she’s doing well. She just kind of lets me know,” Graham said. “I think she’s doing really well. I’m happy with her, just the way she’s training and the way she’s acting. They let you know what’s going on. It’s time to get her started.”

Deciding Vote’s victory last year came over In a Hurry, a Grade 3-placed mare that would go on to win the 2022 All Along at Laurel. In a Hurry was trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, whose Vigilantes Way ran third in the 2021 Dahlia two starts before capturing the Eatontown (G3).

McGaughey will be represented for a third straight year in the Dahlia, this time with Phipps Stable homebred Surprisingly. The Mastery filly rallied from next-to-last to win the 1 1/16-mile Endeavour (G3) by a neck Feb. 4 in her 4-year-old debut at Tampa Bay Downs where she was third, beaten 1 ½ lengths, in the 1 1/8-mile Hillsborough (G2) last time out March 11.

“She’s been very good,” McGaughey said. “I thought the race she ran at Tampa where she won was really good, and she showed us a little bit of what she wanted. When we ran her back she kind of got hung down on the inside a little bit. [Jockey] Paco [Lopez] said he tried to get her out, but he couldn’t. It was a pretty solid group. I’m looking forward to getting her down to Laurel, running her and then seeing what the summer brings.”

Surprisingly, out of the Arch mare Vagabond, has finished worse than third twice in eight career starts that include four wins and a second in the Tropical Park Oaks last December at Gulfstream Park. She won back-to-back starts at Horseshoe Indiana and Ellis Park last summer, her first two tries on turf, getting a 3 ½-month break after running seventh in the Virginia Oaks.

“The only disappointing race she ran was in the Virginia Oaks and I’m not really sure what happened there. But, I was disappointed because her race at Ellis the race before was really good,” McGaughey said. “I think separating [her races] a little bit and letting her get her feet back under her has helped her. She’s by Mastery, but her female family is really strong. I think she feeds off that a little bit. She’s got a heck of a female pedigree. We’ll just see where she takes us.”

Paco Lopez is named to ride back from Post 1.

Trainer Graham Motion is a four-time winner of the Dahlia with Sweet Talker (2006), Lady Digby (2008), Danilovna (2017) and Secret Message (2019). He’ll be represented this year by a pair of Irish-breds in Staghawk Stables’ Miss Carol Anne, a two-time turf sprint winner in England who ran sixth by less than three lengths in one-mile Pebbles (G3) last fall at Aqueduct in her lone North American start, and Madaket Stables and Bill Strauss’ Sopran Basilea, an Italian Group 3 winner yet to make her stateside debut.

Also in the Dahlia are Double Fireball, second by a head in the Maryland Million Ladies going 1 1/8 miles on the Laurel turf last October; Alan Bedard-trained stablemates In My Opinion, a four-length allowance winner last out on the main track at Parx March 27, and Tic Tic Tic Boom, second to Deciding Vote in the PTHA President’s Cup; Regal Realm, exiting a Feb. 25 optional claiming allowance sprinting 7 ½ furlongs over the Gulfstream turf; Takntothecleaners, a last out winner going a mile on the grass March 10 at Fair Grounds; and Misty Mauve.

Inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1981, Dahlia was retired following her 6-year-old season in 1976 as the world’s leading money-winning distaffer with more than $1.54 million in purse earnings. A two-time Horse of the Year in England, she won 15 of 48 starts around the world including the 1973 Washington D.C. International (G1) at Laurel. She produced several Grade 1 winners as a broodmare before her death in 2001.

Live action returns to Laurel Thursday with an eight-race program starting at 12:25 p.m. The feature comes in Race 7, a third-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles that drew six older horses including stakes winners Armando R and Galerio; multiple stakes-placed Excellorator, the 2-1 program favorite; and Shaft’s Bullet, a winner of three of five career starts including a 5 ¼-length second-level triumph March 17 at Laurel.