Fraudulent Charge Back Friday; Impressive Juvenile H.P. Moon Sidelined
Trainer Gonzalez Approaching 1,000th Career Win Milestone
Juvenile Turf Fillies, G3-Placed Edie Meeny Miny Mo Top Thursday Card

BALTIMORE – Five Hellions Farm’s multiple stakes-winning 4-year-old filly Dontletsweetfoolya, unraced since mid-June, has been working steadily toward a scheduled return later this month.

The 4-year-old daughter of Grade 1 winner Stay Thirsty shows four works over Laurel Park’s newly renovated main track since mid-September for trainer Lacey Gaudet, the most recent a half-mile breeze in 48 seconds Oct. 2, fourth-fastest of 57 horses.

Dontletsweetfoolya, who returned to Gaudet’s barn in late August following some time off, also worked five furlongs in a sharp 59.80 seconds Sept. 26 under her regular rider, Jevian Toledo, ranking second of 27 horses.

Gaudet scratched Dontletsweetfoolya from an optional claiming allowance Sept. 30 at Laurel sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the grass, a surface the filly has never tried, to make sure she is fully prepared for her comeback.

“She’s worked great since she’s been back. She’s absolutely on the right track,” Gaudet said. “She worked huge the other day with Toledo and that was going to be our tell-tale. I asked him, ‘Do you think she’s ready,’ and he said, ‘I think she could be, but I’m not sure if she’s 100 percent fit.’ I said, ‘You know her as good as anybody else and if you don’t think she’s 100 percent fit when we’re not going to do it.

“We didn’t want to rush her. We just brought her in a month ago and when we brought her in, she looked great,” she added. “We’re trying to give her every opportunity to return to the form she had last year.”

After going winless in two starts at 2 and her 3-year-old debut, Dontletsweetfoolya reeled off five consecutive wins in 2020 from July 24 to Dec. 26, the last two of them in six-furlong dirt stakes – the Primonetta and Willa On the Move.

Dontletsweetfoolya opened this year running seventh in the Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3) Feb. 20, then was sidelined amid a minor equine herpesvirus outbreak at Laurel where she tested positive but did not get sick. She returned to be fourth in the May 15 Skipat at historic Pimlico Race Course before finishing 13 lengths behind then-undefeated Chub Wagon in a June 13 Shine Again field that also included fellow multiple stakes winners Hello Beautiful, Never Enough Time and since-retired Anna’s Bandit.

“She went through a lot last year. She had a really tough campaign,” Gaudet said. “She was on the farm for 21 days and then we had to rush her back into that spring season and she was always kind of behind the 8-ball. We think that she’s a little bit of a better filly. Obviously she’s shown that from five wins in a row.

“We just wanted to give her the best opportunity to finish up [this] year, so we turned her out and gave her 60 days on the farm. Literally she was out 24-7. She looked fantastic when she came in,” she added. “She’s pretty darn fit. We do like the seven-eighths race at the end of [the] month. She’s eligible for the allowance race here and we’ll see how she comes back.”

Another Gaudet charge making a comeback is multiple stakes-placed 3-year-old filly Fraudulent Charge, owned by the trainer and Five Hellions Farm, who is entered in a starter allowance Friday at Belmont Park. She drew Post 11 of 15 in the seven-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 3 and up.

Fraudulent Charge has raced four times, running second in the Gin Talking to end 2020 and the Feb. 20 Wide Country and March 13 Beyond the Wire, her most recent start. She returned to the work tab in late August for the first time in four months.

“She’s good,” Gaudet said. “We’re aiming for a starter race to try and get her a win before we go back into stakes company. We’ll see what happens. It’s kind of tough for those kinds of horses, but she’s doing fantastic. She’s had a couple of powerful works. We’ve got lots to look forward to.”

Gaudet said KEM Stables and Five Hellions Farm’s 2-year-old Malibu Moon ridgling H.P. Moon, an impressive debut winner Aug. 21 at Pimlico, will be out 60 to 90 days after having minor surgery to remove an ankle chip.

“He’ll be back at the beginning of the year. It was small. Thank goodness it was earely and we caught it,” she said. “I think that he’ll have a great 3-year-old year. I think he’s going to be a really, really nice horse. He’s special.”

Trainer Gonzalez Approaching 1,000th Career Win Milestone

Claudio Gonzalez, heading toward his fifth consecutive year as Maryland’s leading trainer, is closing in a career milestone.

The 44-year-old Gonzalez earned his 998th win Wednesday night with Joseph Besecker’s 2-year-old colt Peace Attardi in the opener at Penn National. Gonzalez had one horse entered Thursday night at Charles Town, Momza, in a Race 3 maiden special weight.

Gonzalez has three entries Thursday at Laurel – Bakeneko in Race 6, Lady Fox in Race 7 and Mischief’s Model in Race 8. He has one horse in Friday at Laurel, main-track-only entrant Bust’em Kurt in the Race 9 maiden special weight on the grass, as well as Postino’s Champion Friday night at The Meadowlands.

A native of Chile, Gonzalez has led all Maryland trainers in annual wins since 2017 and is tops again thus far in 2021 with 81 wins and $2,569,664 in purses earned. Dale Capuano is second with 42 wins.

Gonzalez first came to the U.S. as a teenager in 1995 and later worked for trainers Juan Serey, Gary Contessa and Ben Perkins Jr. before going out on his own. According to Equibase, he registered his first win Nov. 14, 2012 at Laurel with Quiet Tiara and earned his first stakes victory the following September at Monmouth Park with Princess Perfect in the Jersey Girl Handicap.

Since relocating from New Jersey to Maryland full-time in 2017, Gonzalez owns or shares 17 meet titles at Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course, including both full meets in 2021 – Laurel’s winter stand and an extended Preakness Meet at Pimlico.

Gonzalez has three graded-stakes wins to his credit – the 2020 Pimlico Special (G3) with Harpers First Ride, 2020 Charles Town Oaks (G3) with Fly On Angel, and 2017 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) with Chublicious.

Juvenile Turf Fillies, G3-Placed Edie Meeny Miny Mo Top Thursday Card

An overflow field of 16 2-year-old fillies are entered in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight scheduled for the Exceller turf course as live racing returns to Laurel Park Thursday.

Post time for the first of nine races is 12:40 p.m.

The narrow 4-1 program favorite in a wide-open field is Hidden Creek Farm’s Golden Belief, a daughter of Goldencents purchased for $150,000 as a 2-year-old in training in May. Based with Michael Matz at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., Golden Belief was second by a neck in her unveiling going a mile and 70 yards Aug. 9 on the grass at Delaware Park.

Matz also entered Runnymoore Racing’s Amunet, a homebred daughter of 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah that was fourth in a 7 ½-furlong turf sprint Sept. 11 at Delaware in debut. Listed at 20-1 on the morning line she will break from the rail, while Golden Belief drew Post 6.

D Hatman Thoroughbreds’ Ten Twenty One is a daughter of Tapit that fetched $300,000 as a yearling last fall and is winless in two starts including one-mile maiden special weight Sept. 16 at Laurel for trainer Phil Schoenthal. The connections are also represented by Determined Star, by Honor Code, who also brought six figures at auction last fall and has been fourth in her two tries thus far, most recently a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint Sept. 9 at Laurel.

Among the first-time starters are BTR Racing Inc. and Robert C. Pruet Jr.’s Sofia’s Secret from the barn of fall meet-leading trainer Brittany Russell, and Lael Stables’ homebred Keep It Classic, by Kitten’s Joy and trained by Michael Stidham. Both are listed at 6-1.

Thursday’s feature comes in Race 8, a second-level optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up going six furlongs on the main track. The 1-2 program favorite is Edie Meeny Miny Mo, second as the favorite in the 1 1/16-mile Monmouth Oaks (G3) July 31 and most recently fifth in the six-furlong Prioress (G2) Sept. 4 at Saratoga.

Entries will be taken and post positions drawn Thursday for Sunday’s Claiming Crown Preview Day, where winners will earn an automatic berth to the 23rd Claiming Crown in December at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. Winners will also receive $2,500 toward shipping costs and have their nomination fees paid.

Nine races are also on tap Friday led by a second-level optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the Bowl Game turf course in Race 8 that drew 11 entries including stakes winners Roselba and Ellanation and Gifted Heart for main track only.

Friday’s Race 9 finale is a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on the Exceller turf course where an overflow field of 15 was entered including The Clam King and Bust’em Kurt for main track only. West Point Thoroughbreds’ Candy Cool, a $575,000 son of Candy Ride trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, will make his third start and first over grass after finishing sixth in his first two races at 5 ½ furlongs and one mile on dirt, the most recent Sept. 19 at Laurel.