Putthepastbehind Graduates in Juvenile Debut After Eventful Start
Hall of Fame Jockey Chris McCarron Pays Visit to Laurel Sunday

BALTIMORE – J R Racing Stable’s Shake Em Loose, a multiple stakes winner on dirt, breezed Sunday morning over Laurel Park’s world-class turf course as owner-trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon continues to ponder his next move with the 3-year-old gelding.

Ex-claimer Shake Em Loose and 3-year-old filly stablemates Madame Claude and Red Wine Time each went five furlongs on a firm course in 1:06, ranking fifth of eight horses. It was the first work for Shake Em Loose since his third-place finish in the Federico Tesio April 16 at Laurel.

A late nominee to the Triple Crown, Shake Em Loose could have earned an automatic berth to the 147th Preakness Stakes (G1) May 21 at historic Pimlico Race Course with a Tesio victory. Sanchez-Salomon still hasn’t ruled out a Preakness run, but is also considering the $100,000 James W. Murphy for 3-year-olds going a mile on turf on the undercard.

“He went awesome today, but I don’t know what I’m going to do yet,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “He impressed me, but I don’t know. I’m going to work him one more time on the turf and see what he does. He breezed unbelievably good today.”

Sanchez-Salomon gave Shake Em Loose a week’s down time at the farm before bringing him back April 29. He has won three of five starts since being claimed for $16,000 last November, including the Heft in his juvenile finale and 1 1/16-mile Private Terms March 19.

Of his 11 lifetime starts, Shake Em Loose has raced once previously on the grass, a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight last October at Laurel for his previous connections. He was never a factor after getting pinched back leaving the gate and carried out into the first turn.

“I love the way he moves on the turf, how he just goes right over the top of it,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “I’m very happy with him.”

Sanchez-Salomon said he has not settled on who will ride Shake Em Loose in his next start. Maryland’s three-time overall champion Jevian Toledo was up for Sunday’s breeze, but has never ridden any of his races. Teenage sensation Charlie Marquez was aboard for each of the last three, including the Private Terms and a one-mile optional claiming allowance triumph Feb. 27.

“I haven’t decided that yet. I’m still with Charlie, but I haven’t made up my mind,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “I just have to wait and see who’s coming and what the races are going to look like.”

Sanchez-Salomon has been pleased with the way Shake Em Loose, by Grade 1 winner Shakin It Up, continues to thrive.

“He’s very happy; very, very happy,” he said. “He came out of the work today like it was nothing.”

Putthepastbehind Graduates in Juvenile Debut After Eventful Start

Carl Hess Jr.’s 2-year-old Putthepastbehind made an auspicious start to his racing career Sunday, getting loose in the post parade before settling down and edging clear to a three-quarter-length victory over Riccio at Laurel Park.

Putthepastbehind ($17.80) was one of nine first-time starters in the 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight, the second juvenile race of the season in Maryland following Alexis’s Storm’s triumph in Saturday’s race for fillies. The winning time was 52.90 seconds over a fast main track.

“He needed a warmup and he got it. He definitely got what he needed,” winning trainer Brian Brooks said. “We definitely had some belief in this horse and he definitely showed us he can do exactly what we want him to do without a problem.”

Shipping in from Hawthorne Race Course outside Chicago, Putthepastbehind ran off with seven-pound apprentice Jeiron Barbosa – the leading rider at Laurel’s spring meet – for about three furlongs prior to the race. Having expended some nervous energy, the gray or roan son of Gone Astray loaded in the gate without incident and raced professionally, sitting off pacesetting Pompous Prince through a quarter-mile in 23.15 seconds, launching his bid once straightened for home and taking over inside the sixteenth pole.

“I thought he was going to run right on by the pony again, but he just needed to warm up and he got exactly what he needed. He did everything we asked him to do,” Brooks said. “When we work, we always work in pairs. One day we make them fight for it and we give them the lead the next time, and they try to learn from that.

“That’s what we do. We change them up every time we train them. Every time we work them it’s a different routine in case something like that is to happen,” he added. “If you’ve got no lane, the horse has to make his own. The jockeys can’t always do it.”

Out of the Exchange Rate mare White Hands, Putthepastbehind is a half-brother to Puro Blanco, herself a 2-year-old winner debut in 2017. Putthepastbehind had his first timed works in March at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream Park’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, Florida, before leaving for Hawthorne last month.

Though based in the Midwest, Brooks is a native of Dundalk, Md., less than nine miles southeast of downtown Baltimore. Putthepastbehind was his first starter of the year and his second win in Maryland, the other coming with Justicehasbeendone last September during the Maryland State Fair meet in Timonium.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, 32 years. My uncle, Gerald Brooks, he trains horses and I go where he goes,” Brooks said. “I’d like to stay here. It’s my uncle’s business. I just go where he goes. I don’t make any calls, I just go and do it.”

Gone Astray, who stands stud in Florida, was a multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire owned and trained by the Phipps Stable and trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey. He had produced 21 2-year-old debut winners from 191 starters (10 percent).

It was the seventh career win from 27 starters for Brooks, who hadn’t run a horse since Hess’ Concrete Glory won an allowance Oct. 12, 2021 at Thistledown.

“I’m new to this horse. He’s just coming in, so I really don’t know too much about him. I know the pedigree a little bit. I listened to what the owner had to say and the trainer, and especially what the groom told me,” Brooks said. “I told the jockey exactly what I was told and the horse did it. We ask them to do it, and they do it. That’s all we can ask. It’s not us, it’s the horses.”

Hall of Fame Jockey Chris McCarron Pays Visit to Laurel Sunday

Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, retired and living in Lexington, Ky., was at Laurel Park Sunday to visit with old friends at a gathering organized by photographer Lauren Heathcote Amberman.

“They mentioned to me a few weeks ago they were trying to get a reunion of sorts here at Laurel, and so first thing I did was make a plane reservation to get here,” McCarron said. “It’s my second home. I enjoy coming back here. I got in a couple days ago. I went out to visit my brother Gregg’s farm out in Mount Airy. It all started right here.”

Chris McCarron, 67, was born in Dorchester, Mass. and introduced to racing by his older brother, Gregg, also a jockey. The younger McCarron launched his career in Maryland in 1974 and earned the Eclipse Award as champion apprentice by winning 547 races, a single-season record that stood until surpassed by fellow Hall of Famer Kent Desormeaux in 1989.

McCarron ultimately relocated to southern California and rode many of the best horses of his era including Hall of Famers Alysheba, John Henry, Lady’s Secret, Paseana, Precisionist, Sunday Silence and Tiznow. He retired with a then-record $263.98 million in purse earnings and 7,141 wins, both of which rank seventh all-time.

In 2006, McCarron also founded the North American Racing Academy in Kentucky for aspiring jockeys and horsemen. Among his graduates is current Maryland Jockey Club racing analyst Kali Francois.

McCarron made a point to visit with fellow Hall of Fame horseman King Leatherbury, a winner of 6,031 races as a trainer who, at 89, is still a regular presence at Laurel.

“He’s sharp as a tack,” McCarron said. “He’s still going strong, and he’s the greatest. He put me on a lot of winners back here.”

McCarron said he is keeping life simple these days.

“I pick up my 6-year-old grandson from the school bus every day, so I spend three hours with him every afternoon, and when I’m not with him I’m usually on the golf course,” he said. “I do play a lot of golf.”

Notes: Jockey Jean Alvelo notched back-to-back winners Sunday aboard Sweet Gracie ($26.40) in Race 6 and Excellorator ($4.20) in Race 7 … Laurel returns with a live nine-race program Thursday, May 5 to open the final weekend of the spring meet. Post time is 12:40 p.m.