Saturday’s Turf Sprint Among Five $100,000 Stakes, First Three on Grass

BALTIMORE – When it comes to her stable star, trainer Madison Meyers has plenty to be Grateful about.

Gordon Keys’ Maryland homebred Grateful Bred provided Meyers with her first victory at a recognized flat track July 11, 2020 at Laurel Park, after she recorded previous wins in a 2016 amateur event at Great Meadow in Virginia and a hurdle race in the fall of 2019 in Aiken, S.C.

Grateful Bred’s first stakes victory in the Meadow Stable last July at Colonial Downs was also the first for his trainer, whose small string at the Middleburgh (Va.) Training Center mixes Thoroughbred and steeplechase horses.

A victory in the Maryland Million Turf Sprint last fall was another career highlight, followed up by a trip to New York where Grateful Bred was injured in a starting gate incident and wound up staying overnight at an equine clinic.

“He’s really awesome to be around, and we’re just lucky to have him,” Meyers said.

Grateful Bred is set to make his season debut Saturday in the $100,000 King T. Leatherbury, a 5 ½-furlong sprint that is one of the year’s first three stakes scheduled for Laurel’s world-class turf course, along with the $100,000 Henry S. Clark and $100,000 Dahlia, both going one mile.

Completing the second of consecutive Spring Stakes Spectacular Saturdays are the $100,000 Native Dancer at 1 1/8 miles and $100,000 Primonetta sprinting six furlongs on Laurel’s main track. The Clark, Dahlia and Primonetta are all part Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series that launched its 2022 schedule April 16 at Laurel.

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

Grateful Bred has not raced since his front-running 1 ½-length triumph in the 5 ½-furlong Maryland Million Turf Sprint Oct. 23, a space of 183 days between starts. He was entered in the Aqueduct Turf Sprint last November but had to be scratched after breaking through the gate and getting loose.

“He ended up in the clinic there and got a bunch of stitches,” Meyers said. “He had a pretty large laceration to his hind leg, but we got him all healed up. Since he started back, he has not missed a beat.”

Named by Keys’ son, David, as a tribute to the Grateful Dead, his parents’ favorite band, Grateful Bred’s injury coincided with his annual winter vacation, one spent with Meyers rather than taking up his typical residency at the Keys’ Virginia farm.

“We would have stopped anyway because of the turf [season ending]. That would have been his last start of the year and normally he just goes home for about 60 days and then comes back to me,” Meyers said. “Instead, we just kept him with us to take care of the cut and everything and then started back and gone from there.”

A silver lining in a touch of grey.

Grateful Bred resumed training in February and has had five timed works at Middleburg since mid-March for his comeback. He made his 2021 debut in mid-June off an eight-month break between starts to capture a restricted five-furlong allowance on the turf at historic Pimlico Race Course.

“The only difference would be that he didn’t go back to the farm and get turned out. He stayed with us. It will be interesting to see if there’s any difference in him coming back, but so far in the mornings he seems happy and the same ol’ horse,” Meyers said. “I hope he runs a big race.”

Jevian Toledo is named to ride Grateful Bred from Post 2 in a field of 10. The Great Notion gelding has five wins and two seconds in 11 career races with purse earnings of $224,015.

“He just lays it all on the line every time, and he really tells you when he’s ready to run. He’s very easy to read that way. He just tries hard. He’ll gut it out no matter what it takes, and that’s pretty much all you can ask for in a racehorse,” Meyers said. “He’s showing all the signs he’s ready to run. Hopefully he does what he’s good at.”

Among Grateful Bred’s rivals is R. Larry Johnson’s True Valour, a Group 3 winner in his native Ireland that is coming off a more extended layoff. Winner of the City of Hope Mile (G2) and Thunder Road (G3) eight months apart in 2019 at Santa Anita, the 8-year-old horse trained by Graham Motion has not raced in more than a year since finishing sixth in the March 2021 Al Quoz Sprint (G1) in Dubai.

Ima Pharoah, co-owned by trainer Cal Lynch and Nick Sanna Stables, has been first or second in six of nine starts. He has raced once previously on the grass, running second in a July 2020 maiden special weight at Belmont Park. He returned from a five-month break between starts to win an open entry-level allowance by 1 ¼ lengths March 27 over Laurel’s main track.

“Going 5 ½, we thought that was a little short for him and he was able to win anyway,” Lynch said. “He’s doing well.”

Sterling Road Stables and LBR Racing Stable’s American d’Oro has two seconds and a third in three tries over the Laurel turf, and the 4-year-old son of 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah will be making his season debut. A waiver maiden claiming winner going five furlongs on the grass at Pimlico last August, he won a one-mile allowance Dec. 23 at Tampa Bay Downs in his most recent start.

Robert D. Bone and Edward Rusty J. Brown Jr.’s Battle Station has raced once this year, promoted to second after running third in the seven-furlong Say Florida Sandy sprinting seven furlongs on Aqueduct’s main track Jan. 8. Five of his eight career wins have come on the grass, where he has made 24 of 43 starts, including seconds by a neck in the 5 ½-furlong Laurel Dash and a nose in the five-furlong Parx Dash (G3) last year.

Trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon entered the pair of Can the Queen and Rad Paisley. Joanne Shankle’s Can the Queen won the five-furlong Sensible Lady Turf Dash last summer at Pimlico and will be making her first start since an optional claiming allowance triumph going 5 ½ furlongs in October at Laurel. Racing second time off the claim, Abuelitas Racing Stables’ Rad Paisley wheels back seven days after finishing sixth in a 5 ½-furlong starter-optional claimer on the Laurel turf.

Proud Stables, Inc.’s Fair Catch, a winner of three straight last summer and fall in Maryland before getting a winter break; Cynthia McGuinnes and Francis J. Clemens’ Dendrobia, runner-up in the five-furlong Jameela last summer at Pimlico making her first start since September; and Hillwood Stable’s Valued Notion, winless in two tries on the grass, are also entered.