Godolphin Homebred Making U.S. Debut in One-Mile Stakes

BALTIMORE – Godolphin homebred filly Pennybaker will put a four-race win streak on the line when she tries dirt and stakes company for the first time while making her stateside debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Heavenly Cause at Laurel Park.

The one-mile Heavenly Cause for fillies and mares 3 and up is among four stakes worth $450,000 in purses on a 10-race program co-headlined by the $125,000 Federico Tesio and $125,000 Weber City Miss. The Tesio for 3-year-olds is a ‘Win and In’ qualifier for Triple Crown-nominated horses to the 147th Preakness Stakes (G1) May 21, while the Weber City affords the winner an automatic berth to the 98th Black-Eyed Susan (G2) May 20.

Completed by the $100,000 Frank Whiteley for sprinters 3 and up, it is the first of back-to-back Spring Stakes Spectacular Saturdays at Laurel which continues April 23 with five $100,000 stakes including the first three of the season scheduled for Laurel’s world-class turf course.

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

Named for the Maryland-bred mare trained by Hall of Famer Woody Stephens whose eight career stakes wins included the 1981 Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Acorn (G1) and 1980 Frizette (G1) and Selima (G1), the latter at Laurel, the Heavenly Cause returns to the Maryland stakes schedule for the first time since 2004 when it was run at historic Pimlico Race Course.

By Medaglia d’Oro out of the Tapit mare Macaroon, Pennybaker has raced exclusively in France, going winless in six turf starts before being moved to the all-weather surface, where she reeled off four straight wins by 15 combined lengths at distances from 6 ½ to 7 ½ furlongs.

She joined trainer Mike Stidham’s winter string at Fair Grounds in January and had five timed works over its main track before relocating to his main base at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., where she breezed a half-mile in 48.80 seconds over its all-weather surface April 9, fifth-fastest of 38 horses.

“We’ve liked her since we’ve received her. She’s done everything right. She hasn’t taken any backward steps since arriving in America,” Stidham said. “Her works have been good. We’ve worked her on the dirt and kind of tested her in company, let her take some dirt, and she’s handled it well. The wins have been on synthetic, so we really won’t know until we run her on the dirt, but we sure like what we see in the morning.

“She’s been working right along and her works at the Fair Grounds have all been pretty good,” he added. “We’ve worked her out of the gate. We’ve put a lot into her and everything we’ve asked her to do, she’s done very willingly.”

Pennybaker will face 11 rivals in the Heavenly Cause including Grade 3 winner Sharp Starr, fellow multiple stakes winners Miss Leslie and Artful Splatter, local stakes winner Fille d’Esprit as well as Primacy, a New York shipper trained by Chad Brown that has won back-to-back starts.

Jevian Toledo is named to ride from Post 11 at 120 pounds, six less than topweight Miss Leslie.

“The pace from over there and the pace over here is definitely different. Over there, she was kind of a stalker that would take the lead with about a quarter of a mile out in some of her races and done well doing it that way,” Stidham said. “It’ll just depend on how quick they’re going. But, she’s very manageable. We’ve been able to let her sit right off of horses and finish, and she’s done that well. I’m confident as long as she gets a good break and puts herself in a decent position, I think she’ll run well.”

BB Horses’ Miss Leslie, from the barn of Maryland’s five-time leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez, most recently ran third behind Kiss the Girl and Artful Splatter in the 1 1/16-mile Nellie Morse Feb. 19 at Laurel. She beat Artful Splatter winning the Thirty Eight Go Go and Carousel to end 2021, and was beaten a neck in the Jan. 6 Ladies at Aqueduct.

The Nellie Morse was the third straight runner-up finish for James C. Wolf’s Artful Splatter following the Carousel and one-mile Geisha Jan. 29 at Laurel. She was third in the seven-furlong Conniver March 19, her first sprint since running fourth in the same race last year, and returns to a distance where she has earned five of her eight career wins for trainer Kieron Magee.

C J I Phoenix Group and No Guts No Glory Farm’s 6-year-old mare Fille d’Esprit, trained by Jerry Robb, is an eight-time winner that ran third by a length in the Barbara Fritchie (G3) Feb. 19 at Laurel. She came back to romp by eight lengths in the Conniver, stalking the pace before making a three-wide move and drawing away.

Sharp Starr and Shalimar Gardens are New York-breds owned by Barry Schwartz and trained by Horacio DePaz. Sharp Starr, a 5-year-old Munnings filly, earned graded credentials in the 2020 Go For Wand (G3) at Aqueduct, and was sixth in the 2021 Fritchie behind 47-1 upset winner Hibiscus Punch, her only previous trip to Laurel.

She went on to capture the 1 1/16-mile Empire Distaff in October, beating fellow state-breds over a sloppy track at Belmont Park, and ran fourth in defense of her Go For Wand title. Third in the Bay Ridge to end the year, she launched 2022 running fourth in the one-mile Heavenly Prize March 9 at Aqueduct.

“I think the distance will suit her fine. She’s a talented filly, so we figured we’d give her a shot in there,” DePaz said. “She’s been great. She’s a filly that we developed. We had her before her first race and got her started. She’s always shown talent, so it’s been nice to be able to get some nice black type with her. We continue trying to develop her. Having that first start this year was important to get her season going.”

Shalimar Gardens, a 4-year-old daughter of champion Uncle Mo out of the Officer mare Princess Violet, has run two solid races against New York state-breds at a mile this year. She finished second as the favorite in a Jan. 13 optional claiming allowance for older females, then came back March 11 to win a similar spot against 3-year-olds and up by 5 ¾ lengths.

“She’s still got her conditions but we figured that this would be a good spot to try and get some black type for her and for the mare. We like her a lot,” DePaz said. “She’s definitely a talented filly. I don’t think the Aqueduct track the way it was playing throughout the winter was her favorite or to her liking, so hopefully Maryland will be OK as far as the surface goes.”

Shalimar Gardens has previous stakes experience, having run fourth in the seven-furlong Raven Run (G2) at Keeneland and 1 1/8-mile Comely (G3) at Aqueduct in back-to-back starts last fall. She earned a trip to Kentucky after a front-running 11 ¾-length maiden special weight romp over open company at Belmont in her third start.

“We took her down to Keeneland and we thought that was a really good performance. It would have been nice to run third but she beat some nice horses in there and ran against some very nice horses,” DePaz said. “We did try stretching her out at Aqueduct going a mile and an eighth and she finished fourth. I don’t know if it was because it was a very demanding track or the distance, but she ran a really impressive mile at Belmont when she broke her maiden and then came back in the Raven Run. It wasn’t a bad run. She had to overcome the one hole that day.”

Horacio Karamanos has the call on Sharp Starr from Post 9 while Jaime Rodriguez will ride Shalimar Gardens from Post 5.

Pick Five Racing’s Primacy is a 5-year-old daughter of Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Union Rags that cost $240,000 as a 2-year-old in training in 2019. She has finished third or better in nine of 11 starts and will be stepping up to stakes company for the first time off one-length optional claiming allowance victories Jan. 20 and Feb. 18 at seven furlongs and one mile, respectively.

Gainesway Stable and Antony Beck’s Finding Fame will be making her 10th start, second since last August and first in a stakes. The 5-year-old Empire Maker mare returned to run second in a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance March 5 at Laurel, her first race for trainer Michael Trombetta, but was disqualified to third after drifting out and bumping in the stretch.

“We just want to take a crack at maybe hitting the board in a stake with her,” Trombetta said. “She’s trained good and something they’ve had on the radar screen is to try to get some black type on her. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to get that done, but we’re going to give it a try.”

Forest Boyce will be up on Finding Fame from Post 3.

Sweet Willemina, winner of the Claiming Crown Glass Slipper and Salvatore M. Debunda PTHA President’s Cup last year; Flight to Shanghai, making her first start since Sept. 29; Hashtag Lucky, a winner of two straight for Laurel-based trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon; and Moma Tiger, second by two heads and a nose in her last three starts, complete the field.