Miss Harriett Goes the Distance in $75,000 Miss Disco
Laurel Summer Meet Resumes with Eight-Race Program Friday

BALTIMORE – Augustin Stable and Catherine Parke’s Sparkle Blue, exiting four consecutive graded-stakes, put her class on display by powering through the stretch and turning back stubborn longshot Cut From Class to win Sunday’s $100,000 Big Dreyfus at Laurel Park for the second consecutive year.

The fifth running of the 1 1/8-mile Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and up on the Dahlia turf course headlined a 10-race program that included the $75,000 Miss Disco for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-old fillies sprinting seven furlongs.

Favored at 1-5 in a field of seven, Sparkle Blue ($2.60) covered firm ground in 1:47.82 with regular rider Jorge Ruiz for her seventh career win and fifth in a stakes. Two of those wins have come against graded company in the 2022 Valley View (G3) at Keeneland and March 9 Hillsborough (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs.

Both Sparkle Blue and Cut From Class had to survive a claim of foul from jockey Forest Boyce, rider of fifth-place finisher Charmed Way, alleging interference in mid-stretch. After a stewards’ review, the claim was dismissed.

“It looked like she had a pretty clear trip until the last sixteenth [of a mile],” winning trainer Graham Motion said. “But she’s very professional and Jorge rides her with a lot of confidence. I thought he was in a great spot.”

Cut From Class, off at 12-1 while taking a three-race win streak into her stakes debut, broke alertly from Post 2 and found herself in a familiar spot on the lead, going the opening quarter mile in 23.46 seconds with seven-time stakes-placed Tic Tic Tic Boom applying pressure on her outside. Sparkle Blue raced three wide in third as Cats Inthe Timber, a dirt stakes winner trying turf for the first time, settled on the rail in fourth.

The top two runners remained unchanged after a half in 48.29 as an eager Charmed Way worked her way up to third between horses, with Sparkle Blue still in the clear in fourth. Cut From Class dug in determinedly once straightened for home as Cats Inthe Timber and Tic Tic Tic Boom dropped back and Sparkle Blue launched her bid. Ruiz and Sparkle Blue came with a steady run as the field crowded together near the sixteenth pole and got up to win by a half-length.

Cut From Class held second, a neck ahead of Sparkle Blue’s Motion-trained stablemate, Sun Bee, who trailed in the early going. It was three-quarters of a length back to late-running Glittering Lights in fourth followed by Charmed Way, Tic Tic Tic Boom and Cats Inthe Timber.

Sparkle Blue won last year’s Big Dreyfus by 2 ¼ lengths, also as the favorite with Ruiz aboard. The 5-year-old mare, bred by Parke and partnered in ownership by Augustin’s George Strawbridge Jr., had placed in each of her first three races this year before running ninth in the New York (G1) June 7 at Saratoga.

“We kind of threw her to the wolves a little bit last time in Saratoga in what was almost like a Breeders’ Cup prep. The ground was very soft that day and she struggled a little bit,” Motion said. “Catherine and I got together [with] Mr. Strawbridge and we decided to come back to where she won last year. It seemed like a nice place to get her confidence back.”

Sparkle Blue earned $60,000 for the win to push her career bankroll to $957,988. She may make her first bid to become a millionaire in Kentucky, where she ran second in the Ladies Turf (G3) last fall out of her Big Dreyfus win.

“She ran really well at Kentucky Downs last year, so that’s something we’ll definitely think about,” Motion said.

Miss Harriett Goes the Distance in $75,000 Miss Disco

Narrow Leaf Farm homebred Miss Harriett made a triumphant return to state-bred competition by turning away early bids from Overly Dramatic and favored Daughter of Time and pulling clear to a front-running 2 ¼-length score in the $75,000 Miss Disco.

It was the third career stakes win for Miss Harriett ($4.80), following a 62-1 upset of the 2023 Maryland Million Lassie in her career debut and the Feb. 24 Wide Country which, like the Miss Disco, was sprinting seven furlongs at Laurel.

Ridden by Forest Boyce for trainer Brandon McFarlane, Miss Harriett completed the distance in 1:25.14 over a fast main track for her fourth win in nine starts. It was the second straight win for Boyce, who took Race 7 Sunday with Coast Along ($2.80) for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.

“[It was] just [a matter of] getting back to her home ground and giving her a little bit of an easier trip than some of the company she’d been facing,” owner-breeder David Baxter said. “I think she’s proven that she likes seven furlongs. It actually might even be a little better than going shorter.”

Breaking inside each of her three rivals, Miss Harriett went 22.65 seconds for the first quarter-mile pressed on her right hip by Overly Dramatic with New York shipper Daughter of Time, sent off at 6-5, racing in the clear three wide. Daughter of Time moved up to second after a half in 45.75 but drifted out entering the stretch while Miss Harriett began to edge away.

Go Sherry Go rallied up the rail to get second, 1 ¼ lengths ahead of Daughter of Time, with Overly Dramatic finishing fourth in her stakes debut. Brazilian Girl and Enemynumbernine were scratched.

Miss Harriett had faced open company for seven consecutive starts. She finished third in Laurel’s April 20 Weber City Miss around two turns; 10th in the six-furlong Miss Preakness (G3) May 17 over her home track at historic Pimlico Race Course; and eighth in the June 16 Stormy Blues sprinting 5 ½ furlongs at Laurel, her lone turf try.

“I think seven [furlongs] is the number for her. She really tries to dig down. We did try one race going further and she did OK, but she got caught at the end,” Baxter said. “We’d love to see her come from off the pace but so far she seems to like to set the pace and then have her way. If she has a little bit of company, she’ll dig in.”

Bred in Maryland by Alfred G. Vanderbilt, Miss Disco was a multiple stakes winner during her racing career but is best known as the dam of Hall of Famer Bold Ruler, winner of the Preakness (G1) and Horse of the Year in 1957 and sire of 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat. She was named Broodmare of the Year in 1958.

Notes: Jockey Jevian Toledo recorded his first win in Maryland since April 20 at Laurel aboard Repole Stable’s first-time starter Overwish ($4) in Sunday’s opener, a maiden special weight for fillies and mares ages 3, 4 and 5. The 3-year-old daughter of Hall of Famer Curlin completed seven furlongs in 1:26.03 over a fast main track … Toledo was injured in a spill April 21 at Laurel, where he returned to riding July 14. He won two races July 18 and one each July 19 and 20 at Colonial Downs … Jockey J.G. Torrealba rode back-to-back winners with Thunder in Paris ($14) in Race 3 and Band Camp ($3.20) in Race 4 … In her 6-year-old season opener, Watch Me Disappear ($104.20) went all the way on the lead and held off favored Little Josie Wales late to spring a 51-1 upset in Race 2, a 5 ½-furlong claiming sprint on the All Along turf course … Multiple stakes winner and twice Grade 3-placed Prince of Jericho, pointing toward a start in the $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash July 28, breezed four furlongs in 48.40 seconds Sunday at Laurel, third-fastest of 45 horses … Laurel’s summer meet resumes with an eight-race program Friday, July 26 starting at 12:25 p.m. There will be carryovers of $3,202.85 in the $1 Jackpot Super High Five (Race 6) and $2,572.04 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 3-8).