$100,000 Turf Sprint Among Three Stakes Worth $275,000 July 1

BALTIMORE – Whether it’s claiming on race day or buying at auction, owner-trainer David Jacobson has always sought horses that are either fast or have a history of success. In Mid Day Image, he found both.

Purchased for $40,000 at Keeneland’s horses of all ages sale in January, Winning Move Stable, Sanford Robbins and Jacobson’s Mid Day Image has won both his starts this year and looks to extend his overall win streak to four races in Saturday’s $100,000 Laurel Dash at Laurel Park.

The 25th running of the Laurel Dash for 3-year-olds and up, scheduled for six furlongs on the Fort Marcy turf course, is one of three stakes on a 10-race Independence Day weekend program along with the $100,000 Concern for 3-year-old sprinters on the main track and $75,000 Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares 3 and older, also three-quarters on the Fort Marcy.

First race post time is 12:25 p.m.

The Laurel Dash, Concern and Jameela are the first of 11 stakes worth $1.075 million in purses during the month of July at Laurel, where the 33-day summer meet began June 9 and runs through August 20.

Mid Day Image had already won 11 times from 29 starts when he went up for sale, including a victory in the 2021 Claiming Crown Emerald at Gulfstream Park, and earned over $300,000 in purses. The 7-year-old son of Midshipman has more than doubled his purchase price in two races for Jacobson.

In his 2023 debut, Mid Day Image came from off the pace to register a 1 ¾-length triumph sprinting 5 ½ furlongs April 13 at Laurel in the first turf race of the season in Maryland. He followed up with a 2 ¼-length score going six furlongs June 1 on the grass at Belmont Park, where Jacobson is based.

“I like horses with speed and I like horses that like to win, and he likes to win. He’s two-for-two with us and, hopefully after this weekend, it’ll be three-for-three,” Jacobson said. “He’s not slowing down, that’s for sure.”

Mid Day Image’s Laurel victory came over the Dahlia turf course layout, where the rail is set at 52 feet. The Fort Marcy rail, at 87 feet, is the furthest out of six configurations on the world-class, 142-foot wide course.

“He’s a real nice horse. We got him from the sale and we had the last half of the winter to work on him and really get him into our training system, and he responded as good as any horse could,” Jacobson said. “He’s done everything we’ve asked of him.”

Mid Day Image’s Laurel win marked his first-time sprinting since April 13, 2021, a stretch of 14 straight starts and 18 of 19 going a mile or longer including the 1 ½-mile Pan American (G2) last April at Gulfstream. Jacobson hopes to use the Laurel Dash as a steppingstone to the one-mile Kelso (G3) July 15 on the Saratoga turf.

Mid Day Image will have Angel Cruz aboard from Post 2 in a field of nine that includes Alwaysinahurry and Wondrwherecraigis, multiple stakes winners on dirt entered for main track only. Alwaysinahurry drew the rail, meaning Mid Day Image will inherit that spot if the race remains on the grass.

“He’s versatile. I think he’ll be very much on the pace when we decide to stretch him out, which will probably be his race after this one,” Jacobson said. “We’re going to use this as a prep for [the Kelso]. This will be a good tightener to get him stretched out.”

Scratched from the 5 ½-furlong Mighty Beau June 18 at Ellis Park when the race was taken off the grass, Crown’s Way Racing and NBS Racing Stable’s stakes winner Smokin’ Jay was supplemented into the Laurel Dash by trainer Kelsey Danner.

“He’s doing well. I thought he would run last weekend at Ellis and then it came off the grass. I kind of expected him to run well there,” Danner said. “There were basically two spots for him, one at Indiana and one at Laurel. Indiana is five-eighths and Laurel is three-quarters. He’d probably prefer 5 ½, but I thought the race at Laurel fit him better.”

A 5-year-old son of Cairo Prince, Smokin’ Jay has run third or better in 10 of 20 career starts with five wins, including the six-furlong Allied Forces in 2021 over the Belmont turf beating, among others, Grade 3 winner Jaxon Traveler. He has placed in four other stakes and run up against the likes of multiple stakes winners Mandaloun, Chasing Artie, Casa Creed, Arzak and Pink Lloyd.

Most recently Smokin’ Jay ran second by 1 ¼ lengths to Bad Beat Brian in a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance sprint on the turf at Churchill Downs. He began the year with a come-from-behind one-length triumph going five furlongs on the Gulfstream grass March 4, his first start in seven months.

“He’s run in some good races and been up against some nice company. The allowance race at Churchill was basically like a stakes race. He’s just a solid horse,” Danner said. “He runs his race every time. He’s a super nice horse to be around, easy and laid back. Crown’s Way bought him as a 2-year-old. They knew him since he was a baby because my other client [Dr. Dede McGehee] bred him. Then my other ownership group bought into him last year, NBS. He’s been part of the family for a while.”

Jevian Toledo has the call from Post 5 on Smokin’ Jay, who has raced on dirt, turf and synthetic at 11 different racetracks including historic Pimlico Race Course where he ran second, beaten 1 ½ lengths by Carotari, in the 2022 Jim McKay Turf Sprint.

“He ran at Pimlico, so he’s been to Maryland, anyway,” Danner said. “If he had a passport, it would have a lot of stamps on it. It doesn’t matter to him. He’s real level-headed.”

LC Racing, James Bonner and Wellesley Stable’s 5-year-old gelding Fore Harp will be stepping up to stakes company for the first time in 18 starts in the Laurel Dash. He began his career on the dirt but owns three wins, one second and two thirds in six tries since making the transition to turf last summer at Saratoga.

“I’ve had a ton in that family. I think I’ve had eight of his full brothers and sisters and they all ran on the grass at least decently,” trainer Robert E. ‘Butch’ Reid Jr. said. “He was only going so far on the dirt and we made the decision to switch him over to the grass and he really jumped up a few spots. We think he’s found a home on the grass.”

Fore Harp has won two straight and three of the last five on the turf, including a one-mile and 70-yard allowance against fellow Pennsylvania-breds May 29 at Parx last time out. It marked the first time the son of Weigelia raced beyond seven furlongs.

“We couldn’t really get the right race we wanted for him so we decided to go ahead and try him long just to get him stretched out and he jumped up and won the race, so it was a nice bonus,” Reid said. “It kind of opens the doors for him and makes him a middle-distance sprinter where previously we had thought he was five-eighths or 5 ½ [furlongs]. That’s why the six furlongs of the Laurel Dash was intriguing to me.”

Frankie Pennington comes in from Parx to ride from outermost Post 9.

“He kind of likes things his own way. That’s another reason I thought he’ll like the middle distances, because it’s hard to make the lead in those five-eighths races,” Reid said. “Going three-quarters the pace is usually a little bit more moderate, so he definitely should be forwardly placed in there. He’s got a nice post position. I like his being outside.”

Completing the field are Witty, a three-time dirt stakes winner that has raced once on turf in 13 starts; Grateful Bred, winless in eight starts with four seconds, all in stakes, since his victory in the 2021 Maryland Million Turf Sprint; Noble Emotion, fifth at 23-1 in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint May 20; and Steal the Cash.

Steinlen, winner of the inaugural 1988 Laurel Dash, won 11 graded-stakes and more than $3 million in purses over 45 starts for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. The Laurel Dash was contested as a Grade 3 from 1990 to 2000 and has been won by horsemen such as Hall of Fame jockeys Laffit Pincay Jr., Angel Cordero Jr., Chris McCarron and Edgar Prado and international champion Frankie Dettori; Hall of Fame trainers MacK Miller, Jack Fisher, Todd Pletcher, King Leatherbury and Bill Mott; and Hall of Fame rider Bill Shoemaker, the trainer of 1992 winner Glen Kate.