Hybrid Eclipse Opens Season with $100,000 Nellie Morse Win

BALTIMORE – Baxter Racing Stable’s Swayin to and Fro sat off long shot pacesetter Liscolvin for a half-mile before taking the lead, turned back Grade 1-placed shipper Pass the Champagne and held off late-running Fille d’Esprit to become a graded-stakes winner in Saturday’s $250,000 Barbara Fritchie (G3) at Laurel Park.

The 71st running of the Barbara Fritchie for fillies and mares 4 and older sprinting seven furlongs was the fifth of six stakes worth $900,000 in purses on a Winter Carnival program co-headlined by the 47th renewal of the $250,000 General George (G3) for 4-year-old and up.

Swayin to and Fro ($14.40) completed the distance in 1:23.75 over a fast main track to provide trainer Mario Serey Jr. and jockey Richard Monterrey with their first graded-stakes victories. Serey claimed the 4-year-old South Carolina bred for $16,000 last May at historic Pimlico Race Course and won eight of 13 subsequent starts including four stakes.

“I told everybody when I claimed this filly and I saw the potential and I saw the talent, every race she proved it. I’m so proud of her. This is a great, great filly,” Serey said. “When I claimed her, I talked to the owner and [said], ‘This is a stakes winner.’ The class and the talent of the horse, they tell you right away.”

The speedy Swayin to and Fro was content to let 21-1 shot Liscolvin take the early lead, going the opening quarter-mile in 22.44 seconds. Monterrey, aboard for the first time, sat chilly in second until taking over the top spot following a half in 45.20 tracked by Pass the Champagne, making just her seventh start and second in 12 months.

Swayin to and Fro extended her lead after going six furlongs in 1:10.47 having put away Pass the Champagne and fellow graded-stakes placed shipper Union Lake. Multiple stakes winner Fille d’Esprit, who snapped Swayin to and Fro’s two-stakes win streak in the Jan. 21 What a Summer, was beginning to roll on the far outside and make a strong late bid but came up a half-length short.

Moody Woman finished third, followed by Pass the Champagne, Prodigy Doll, Quiet Imagination, Union Lake and Liscolvin.

“I told Richie, ‘Break her good, get in a good position and make her comfortable. If nobody follows you, she’s OK. She can go to the lead. When you come to the straight and you feel a ton of horse in your hands, just wait and at the quarter pole let her go,’” Serey said. “All the good horses make it easy. She doesn’t need much. She’s a sweet filly. Today she showed she can win the Grade 3.”

Monterrey, who turns 39 next month, is a native of Venezuela who won his first race in the U.S. in 2003 at Gulfstream Park. A Mid-Atlantic regular who did not ride between 2017 and 2020, he owns 775 career victories.

“I have a lot of emotions and feelings going on in my heart and mind. So much joy and gratitude for the opportunity Mario and the owners gave me to ride this amazing filly. From the get-go, she wanted to go. To win my first graded-stakes with her and Mario, I am blessed,” Monterrey said.

“Five years ago I was watching this race from home and I told my wife, ‘I’m going to be riding that race one day,’” he added. “Turns out I am the winner. I lost my passion when you struggle. But that time I was away showed me so much gratitude for the things I love, and that’s riding horses. I appreciate every horse I ride.”

Hybrid Eclipse Opens Season with $100,000 Nellie Morse Win

The Elkstone Group’s Hybrid Eclipse kicked off her 5-year-old campaign in style Saturday by driving away from Award Wanted and Pistol Liz Ablazen to win the $100,000 Nellie Morse.

A daughter of Paynter ridden by Jevian Toledo and trained by Brittany Russell, Hybrid Eclipse ($4.60) covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.96 and was a 4 ½ length winner over Award Wanted. Pistol Liz Ablazen was third.

A distant third in the Beldame (G2) at Aqueduct last fall and winner of the Thirty Eight Go Go at Laurel in November, Hybrid Eclipse was rated off the pacesetters Runaway Monet and Pistol Liz Ablazen down the backstretch past fractions of :23.92 and :48.23. Fifth just two lengths away from the leaders entering the far turn, Toledo guided Hybrid Eclipse to the outside and moved four wide around the turn before taking the lead inside the final eighth.

Hybrid Eclipse has now won seven of 19 starts, including Caesar’s Wish last summer at Laurel. It was the third straight win on the card for Toledo and second in a stakes following Nimitz Class in the $100,000 John B. Campbell.

The Nellie Morse pays tribute to the fourth of just six fillies to win the Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, a feat she accomplished in 1924 just three days after capturing the Pimlico Oaks, now run as the Black-Eyed Susan (G2). As a broodmare her daughter, Nellie Flag, was the champion 2-year-old of 1934 and beaten favorite in the 1935 Kentucky Derby (G1). Descendants of Nellie Morse, through Nellie Flag, include three-time Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Forego, 1976 Kentucky Derby winner and 3-year-old champion Bold Forbes, and 1943 champion handicap mare Mar-Kell.