Laurel Opens Four-Day Weekend with 10 Races Thursday
Laurel Opens Four-Day Weekend with 10 Races Thursday
Five-Figure Carryovers in Rainbow 6, Jackpot Super High Five
BALTIMORE – Laurel Park will kick off a four-day weekend of live racing Thursday with a 10-race program postponed from last Friday due to air quality issues stemming from the eastern Canadian wildfires.
Post time is 12:25 p.m.
The entire June 30 card, as drawn, was moved to Thursday and will include carryovers of $16,427.18 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 5-10) and $11,237.43 in the $1 Jackpot Super High Five (Race 6) wagers from Sunday’s last live program.
Race 3 is a maiden special weight for fillies and mares ages 3, 4 and 5 scheduled for 5 ½ furlongs on the Dahlia turf course. Nineteenamendment, beaten a length when second in a five-furlong maiden claimer May 25 on the turf at historic Pimlico Race Course; Bee Mountain, runner-up in the 5 ½-furlong Jamestown at Colonial Downs last fall in her grass debut; In Her Cups, adding blinkers after running third three times in five prior starts; and Up for It, with two seconds and a third in in three tries for trainer Michael Matz, are among the contenders.
Thursday’s Rainbow 6 sequence includes the Race 9 feature, an entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up scheduled for 5 ½ furlongs on the All Along turf course that attracted a field of 12 including Cryo and Manolito, both entered for main track only.
Chiringo is the 3-1 program favorite in a wide-open event for New York-based trainer George Weaver, who captured the Queen Mary (G2) June 21 at Royal Ascot with 2-year-old filly Crimson Advocate. Facing older horses for the first time, the sophomore Chiringo exits back-to-back 5 ½-furlong turf stakes having run third after being bumped early in the April 16 Palisades at Keeneland and eighth following a slow start in the May 13 William Walker at Churchill Downs.
Prince Pere was a restricted allowance winner sprinting five furlongs May 11 at Pimlico for trainer Suzanne Stettinius, who has two wins, one second and one third from just five starters at the summer meet. Tauber, a 7-year-old that fetched $280,000 as a yearling in 2017, has been third or better in 21 of 32 career starts and is reunited with jockey Horacio Karamanos, who rode the gelding to two wins, one second and two thirds last summer, never beaten by more than 1 ¾ lengths.
Should the race move to the main track, The Elkstone Group’s Cryo is favored at 8-5 in his 19th start. The 5-year-old Frosted gelding ran third in a six-furlong allowance June 11 at Laurel, his first race off a $40,000 claim for Maryland’s leading trainer, Brittany Russell.
Race 6 is a seven-furlong claiming event for maidens ages 3, 4 and 5. Mudville Nine cuts back to sprinting on the dirt after a pair of failed attempts going long on the grass against elders for trainer Mike Trombetta. Delegated, by champion Uncle Mo, figures to be competitive on the class drop, while Sweet Syntax and Wingin and Singin are entered to make their career debut.
Jockey Jaime Rodriguez, who notched a four-win day June 25, had another big day Sunday with three wins to maintain his lead in the rider standings, 16-13, over Sheldon Russell, who swept all three stakes July 1 – the $100,000 Concern aboard Prince of Jericho, $100,000 Laurel Dash with Fore Harp and $75,000 Jameela on Coconut Cake.
Rodriguez was also the leading rider at Delaware Park. Russell has won every stake thus far during Laurel’s summer meet that began June 9. The father of two also captured the $100,000 Stormy Blues with Bosserati on Father’s Day, June 18.
Russell’s wife, Brittany Russell, leads all Laurel trainers with 11 wins this summer, one more than Jamie Ness. She also held a one-win edge over Ness atop the Delaware standings.