Monday Morning Qb Program Favorite in One-Mile Allowance
Combat Queen Takes Inside Route to Third Straight Win Friday

BALTIMORE – Stakes winners Local Motive, Monday Morning Qb, Vance Scholars and Wait for It will line up among a field of eight for Saturday’s featured eighth race at Laurel Park.

Post time for the first of nine races is 12:25 p.m.

Built Wright Stables’ Monday Morning Qb is the 2-1 program favorite from outermost Post 8 in the third-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up going a one-turn mile. Winner of the 2020 Maryland Million Classic, 5-year-old Monday Morning Qb has one win in five starts since being claimed for $62,500 by owner-trainer Norman ‘Lynn’ Cash in August and exits a runner-up finish after setting the pace in a seven-furlong optional claimer Dec. 3 at Aqueduct.

Cash also entered stablemate Southern District, a 4-year-old son of Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Union Rags that ran fourth in the Tale of the Cat and Vosburgh (G2) this summer and fall in New York.

Steven Newby’s Vance Scholars won an off-the-turf edition of the 1 3/16-mile Bald Eagle Derby Aug. 6 at Laurel in his 3-year-old debut. Trained by Dale Capuano, he has run second or third in each of his last four starts, finishing second in the Sept. 8 Cape Henlopen and Oct. 22 Maryland Million Classic.

Bird Mobberley’s Local Motive, 3, is winless in six tries since capturing the one-mile Miracle Wood Feb. 19 at Laurel. Uptowncharlybrown Stud’s Wait for It is 0-for-8 in 2022 but owns 12 career victories including four stakes, the most recent coming in the 2021 Hard Spun at Presque Isle Downs.

Race 7 Saturday is a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance for 2-year-old fillies where Maryland Million Lassie winner Chickeness, bred, trained and co-owned by Jamie Ness, is favored at 8-5 on the morning line in a field of seven.

Also on Saturday, entries will be taken and post positions drawn for the final stakes on the 2022 calendar to be run Monday, Dec. 26 – the Heft for 2-year-olds and Gin Talking for 2-year-old fillies, 1 1/8-mile Carousel and 6 ½-furlong Willa On the Move for fillies and mares 3 and up, and 1 1/16-mile Robert T. Manfuso and six-furlong Dave’s Friend for 3-year-olds and up.

Notes: Jockey Johan Rosado doubled Friday aboard Awesome View ($8.80) in Race 4 and Combat Queen ($13.80) in Race 8 … Combat Queen and Mose Perfect ($9.80) in Race 6 are both trained by Mike Trombetta … Country Life Farm’s 5-year-old mare Combat Queen slipped through an opening along the rail at the top of the stretch and surged past pacesetter La Casa d’Oro to run her win streak to three races in Friday’s feature, a seven-furlong allowance for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares 3 and up.