Circle Home Closes to Win $125,000 Maryland Million Ladies

BALTIMORE – On the opposite end of a narrow loss last year, Ken Garcia homebred Starstruck Notion came with a steady run down the center of the track to reel in favored Sky’s Not Falling and win Saturday’s $125,000 Maryland Million Turf by a nose at Laurel Park.

The Turf for 3-year-olds and up and $125,000 Ladies for fillies and mares 3 and older, both going 1 1/8 miles on the Dahlia turf course, were among eight stakes and four starter stakes worth $1.08 million in purses on ‘Maryland’s Day at the Races’ celebrating the progeny of stallions standing in the state.

Starstruck Notion ($8.60) completed the distance in 1:47.84 over a firm course to earn his first stakes victory, a year after the 4-year-old gelding came as close as he ever had when he was three-quarters of a length behind Wicked Prankster in the 2023 Turf.

“A narrow win was fantastic,” trainer Pat McBurney said. “I kept looking for the wire. To win a race like this on a day like today, it’s fantastic.”

The win also extended the streak of Starstruck Notion’s sire, Great Notion, to 15 consecutive years with a Maryland Million winner. It was the 21st overall Maryland Million n for Great Notion, trailing only Not For Love (37) and Allen’s Prospect (22).

Jockey Forest Boyce, aboard for the first time since last year’s Turf, settled Starstruck Notion in third as Sports Editor was eager for the lead and held in through splits of 23.44 and 47.28 seconds while under pressure from 30-1 long shot Goodbye Note.

Sky’s Not Falling, winner of the 2022 Maryland Million Turf Sprint, moved into contention on the outside around the turn, opened up by 2 ½ lengths at the top of the stretch and appeared to be home free until Starstruck Notion, tipped outside by Boyce, closed stoutly and got his nose down in time.

“It was a beautiful ride by Forest. He can be rank early and she parked him in behind those horses and he settled for her,” McBurney said. “It worked out very good. I didn’t think he was going to get there but it was a bob of the head, so it was very nice.

“He likes to sit in that fifth or sixth race, four to seven lengths off depending on the speed or the pace,” he added. “I just reminded Forest, last year I had told her that he had been rank and even in his previous stakes race he was rank. She knows to park him behind horses like she did, so very well done.”

It was 2 ¼ lengths back to Grade 3-placed Crabs N Beer in third, followed by Sports Editor, Goodbye Note, Hanksdiviningrod, Street Copper and Riccio. Maryland-bred also-eligibles Vax a Nation and Mission North were scratched.

Circle Home Closes to Win $125,000 Maryland Million Ladies

Dark Hollow Farm’s Circle Home, originally on the also-eligible list, rallied from far back under jockey Jevian Toledo to win the $125,000 Maryland Million Ladies by a neck over the pacesetter Precious Avary. Next Episode was third.

Trained by Miguel Vera, Circle Home, second to last down the backstretch in the eight-horse field, covered the 1 1/8-mile course in 1:48.10. The victory was Toledo’s 18th in the Maryland Million, equaling the record of victories with Hall of Famer Edgar Prado in the 39th edition of the Maryland Million.

Precious Avary broke on top and led nearly the entire race while setting fractions of :23.57, :46.86 and 1:10.08. But Toledo rallied Circle Home from far back to just get up in the final strides.

For Circle Home, a 5-year-old mare by Bodemeister out of the Flatter mare Safe Journey, it was her fourth victory in 21 starts. The filly came into the Ladies off a third-place finish in the All Along Sept. 14 over the Laurel course. The mare has four wins, four seconds and two thirds in 15 turf races.

“I am impatient all week trying to get into the race because I know she fits in this race,” Vera said. “It feels amazing [winning a Maryland Million race]. I’ve been waiting for this for a while.”