De Francis Dash Program Features Five Stakes Worth $500,000

BALTIMORE – Thomas Coulter’s multiple stakes winner Nimitz Class, who lost for the first time in six races in his graded debut last month, embarks on starting a new streak when he returns to Maryland for Saturday’s $100,000 Deputed Testamony at Laurel Park.

The 27th running of the 1 1/8-mile Deputed Testamony for 3-year-olds and up and the seventh renewal of the $100,000 Alma North for fillies and mares 3 and older sprinting 6 ½ furlongs are among five stakes worth $500,000 in purses on a 10-race program headlined by the $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash featuring seven older sprinters including Grade 3 winners Wondrwherecraigis and Lightening Larry.

Rounding out Saturday’s stakes action is a pair of $75,000 events restricted to Maryland-bred/sired horses – the Star de Naskra for 3-year-olds and Miss Disco for 3-year-old fillies, both contested at seven furlongs. Post time is 12:25 p.m.

Based at Penn National with trainer Bruce Kravets, Nimitz Class has made a home for himself at Laurel where he has won each of his last four races, all in stakes – the 2022 Robert T. Manfuso in December and John B. Campbell, Harrison E. Johnson Memorial and Native Dancer to open his 4-year-old campaign, the latter April 29.

In his two other local starts, Nimitz Class ran second by a length to Old Homestead in the seven-furlong Concern and fourth, three lengths behind Tom Fool (G3) winner Little Vic, in the City of Laurel last summer and fall.

“I know he loves it at Laurel,” Coulter said. “It looks to me like this race is a little bit tougher than the races we [won] earlier this year, so I think he’s going to have to be at his best.”

The connections were hoping to give Nimitz Class his first graded test in the historic Pimlico Special (G3) on the eve of the 148th Preakness Stakes (G1) at historic Pimlico Race Course, but the race came up too quickly. Rather, they stayed closer to home where the Munnings colt romped by 5 ¼ lengths in an open Parx allowance going a mile and 70 yards to extend his win streak to five.

“He’s doing fine,” Coulter said. “The way the schedule worked out, after the [Native Dancer] we had planned to go in the Pimlico Special which has a lot of meaning to me because it’s such a well-known race, but the timing didn’t work out. So, we tried to just figure out a new schedule for the horse.”

Nimitz Class wound up getting his first taste of graded competition in the June 17 Salvator Mile (G3) at Monmouth Park, where he dueled up front and took a one-length lead into the stretch before settling for second, a half-length behind Petulante’s third consecutive victory.

“I thought he had a tough trip last time,” Coulter said. “It wasn’t a really big field, but the race didn’t really go the way we intended. I thought he should have won that race. Since then we’ve changed his blinkers a little bit and I think that’ll help him coming down the stretch.”

Drawing Post 3 in a field of seven, Nimitz Class will carry topweight of 126 pounds including regular rider Jevian Toledo, yielding from four to six pounds to their rivals.

“The fact that Bruce has kept him going so long and doing so good, he shows up in every stakes race and always runs a good race,” Coulter said. “I think he’s super and I think it shows how much ability he really has. I still think he has a top end that we haven’t seen yet. I’m hoping sometime this summer we get to see that.”

Cash is King and LC Racing’s Ridin With Biden returns to make a title defense for trainer Robert E. ‘Butch’ Reid Jr. The 5-year-old gelding had his own way in a front-running 6 ¼-length score in last year’s race, and will attempt to become the second straight horse with a repeat victory following Harpers First Ride in 2020 and 2021.

“It looks like a little stiffer group this time so he’s going to have to run well and then some,” Reid said. “He’s doing very well. We were going to wait past this race, but he got so good here in the last couple of weeks we decided to go ahead and take a shot.”

Last year’s Deputed Testamony was the first time Ridin With Biden had gone nine furlongs; he got in trouble early and was overmatched in his only other attempt at the distance in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park. He got time off before returning with a an allowance victory June 18 over his home track at Parx, and most recently settled for third behind Grade 1 winner Doppelganger after setting the pace in the 1 1/16-mile Battery Park July 8 at Delaware Park.

“He didn’t have the best of trips last time,” Reid said. “We were a little disappointed with that start, but he came out of it super well and we’re really looking forward to this race on Saturday.”

Andrew Wolfsont, up for the Parx win, returns to ride from outermost Post 7 at 122 pounds.

“Andrew is going to have catbird seat, I believe, to look at and he’s going to be able to sit and have control,” Reid said. “He’ll rest comfortably for you on the outside, so I really am happy with the draw. That’s another one of the reasons we’re coming down.”

Red-hot trainer Jamie Ness, who had his win streak snapped at 20 consecutive calendar days July 20 but has won 40 races in 24 days to open the month including his 4,000th July 16 at Laurel, entered the pair of Ournationonparade and Yodel E.A. Who. Troy Johnson, Charles Lo and Jagger Inc.’s Yodel E.A. Who is a 14-time career winner that ran second in the Feb. 18 General George (G3) and exits a last-to-first half-length optional claiming allowance victory going 1 1/16 miles July 8, both at Laurel.

Morris Kernan Jr., Yo Berbs and Jagger Inc.’s Ournationonparade has never been worse than third in 10 lifetime tries at Laurel including three wins and four seconds. Winner of the 2019 Maryland Million Nursery and 2022 Maryland Million Classic, the latter coming first off a $50,000 claim, the 6-year-old gelding ran behind Nimitz Class in the Manfuso, Campbell and Johnson. He returns to stakes company after back-to-back open allowances going 1 1/16 miles at Laurel, beating Zabracadbra by less than a length for first April 14 and running second to that rival July 7.

Repole Stable homebred Be Better takes a two-race win streak into the Deputed Testamony, his fourth stakes attempt and first since the November 2022 Discovery at Aqueduct for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. The 4-year-old son of champion Uncle Mo joined Maryland’s leading trainer, Brittany Russell, over the winter and has a third and a second to go along with the two wins, both at 1 1/16 miles by nine combined lengths, the latest June 17 at Laurel.

Rounding out the field are Burning Daylight Farms, Inc. and Rebecca Galbraith’s Mischief Afoot, fourth in last year’s Deputed Testamony and entered to make his first start since last August at Colonial Downs; and Steve and Debbie Jackson’s Wish for Peace, first or second in 10 of 22 lifetime starts.

The Deputed Testamony returned to the Maryland stakes calendar in 2020 after not having been run since 2008. It pays homage to the last Maryland-bred winner of the Preakness Stakes (G1), who upset Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Sunny’s Halo in 1983. Bred and raced by Bonita Farm and Francis P. Sears and trained by Bill Boniface, Deputed Testamony also won the 1983 Haskell (G1) and Federico Tesio.