Juvenile Action Returns to Laurel to Open Saturday’s Nine-Race Program
Maryland Million Winner B Determined Successful in Thursday Return

BALTIMORE – Lael Stables’ undefeated Chez Pierre, impressive winner of the Henry S. Clark April 23 in his stakes debut, will make the step up to graded company for his next start.

Trainer Arnaud Delacour said Thursday that the 4-year-old gelding will be pointed to the $250,000 Dinner Party (G2) for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles on the grass May 21 at historic Pimlico Race Course on the undercard of the 147th Preakness Stakes (G1).

This year will mark the 121st running of the Dinner Party, Pimlico’s oldest stakes race and the eighth-oldest in the country. It debuted in 1870 and was won by Preakness, the Hall of Famer for whom the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown is named.

“I’ll be looking at the Dinner Party,” Delacour said. “It seems like he’s very efficient on firm turf or firmer turf. He’s won on soft [ground] in France, but we never thought that was to his liking. I’m probably going to aim him to the Dinner Party depending on the weather.”

Based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., Delacour said the $500,000 Shoemaker Mile (G1) May 30 at Santa Anita would be the backup plan for Chez Pierre. Now 5-0, Chez Pierre was bred in France where he made his first three starts before capturing his U.S. debut in March at Tampa Bay Downs.

“Logistically it’s way easier to run in the Dinner Party than it is to run at Santa Anita. That would be our first choice, but I want to make sure the ground is to his liking,” he said. “He’s the kind of horse that gets you excited to go to the barn every day and see him run, and you don’t mind taking chances with that kind of horse because they’re solid. It’s definitely a great joy.”

Chez Pierre went off the 4-5 favorite in the one-mile Clark over six others including multiple graded-stakes winner Field Pass, beating that rival by 5 ½ lengths in 1:34.83 over a firm All Along turf course.

“I was very pleased with that. It looked like the number came back pretty strong, as well,” Delacour said. “I would say as expected because it was a fast pace, so the numbers are always good when that happens, but it was definitely a good performance.”

Field Pass won last summer’s Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3) by a neck over Ramsey Solution with the Delacour-trained Talk Or Listen another 1 ½ lengths back in third. Talk Or Listen also ran second by a length to Field Pass’ stablemate Somelikeithotbrown in the 2021 Dinner Party.

“Chez Pierre was training so much better than Talk Or Listen I thought that if he just duplicated what he was showing in the morning, he should be able to beat Field Pass,” Delacour said. “I didn’t know he was going to win by [5 ½] lengths, but I thought he would run well.”

Juvenile Action Returns to Laurel to Open Saturday’s Nine-Race Program

Juvenile racing returns to Laurel Park for the first time this year with a 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight sprint for fillies that kicks off Saturday’s nine-race program.

Post time is 12:40 p.m.

Seven first-time starters were entered in the main track event including a pair from Laurel-based trainer Jerry Robb, Gene Gould Jr.’s Tappin Josie and Robb’s own No Guts No Glory Farm’s Maryland homebred Cocktail Dreaming.

Bred in Pennsylvania, Tappin Josie is by Anchor Down, undefeated in his only two starts at 2 before going on to become a multiple graded-stakes winner and the leading Iowa-based sire in 2021 and 2022. Cocktail Dreaming is a son Bourbon Courage, one of Maryland’s leading sires that went unraced at 2 but won his first two career starts at 3 before taking the 2012 Super Derby (G2) and retiring with more than $1.2 million in purse earnings.

Other Maryland homebreds entered in Saturday’s opener are Lady Olivia Northcliff’s Bee Queen and Rashids Thoroughbred Racing and Kingdom Bloodstock Inc.’s She’s So Fly, both based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md.

Bee Queen, trained by Carla Morgan, is by millionaire Imagining, also one of Maryland’s leading sires whose offspring include multiple stakes winner Monday Morning Qb and multiple stakes-placed Quiet Imagination. Phil Schoenthal-trained She’s So Fly is a daughter of first-crop sire Irish War Cry, himself undefeated at 2 including the 2016 Marylander at Laurel prior to becoming a multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire.

In from Hawthorne for trainer Brian Brooks is Carl Hess Jr.’s Roaringlikethunder, daughter of another first-crop sire in Free Drop Billy, a Grade 1 winner at 2. Completing the field are Matthew Schera’s hombred Alexis’s Storm, by Race Day, and Mo Town filly Galactic Tide, owned and trained at historic Pimlico Race Course by Courtney Young.

Robb, Brooks and Schoenthal are also represented Sunday in a 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight for 2-year-olds carded as Race 3 on a 10-race program. The field of nine first-time starters includes Sheffield Stable’s Ricco, a Cross Traffic colt trained by Robb; Brooks-trained Putthepastbehind and Dontinvademyspace, respectively by sires Gone Astray and Social Inclusion and both owned by Carl Hess Jr.; and John Gardiner and Frank McEntee’s Honor Code colt Stinson Beach, trained by Schoenthal.

Trainer John Salzman Jr. entered the pair of Coffeewithchris, a Ride On Curlin gelding he owns with Fred Wasserloos and Anthony Geruso, and Bird Mobberley’s Army Mule colt Left Hand Thread.

Notes: Mint Meadows Farm and Donald Metzger’s B Determined ($8.40), unraced since taking the Maryland Million Turf Starter Handicap last October, made a triumphant return in Race 6 Thursday, a one-mile allowance for 3-year-olds and up. The winning time was 1:35.87 over the Bowl Game turf course … Race 7 saw Madison Avenue Racing Stable Inc. and Jagger Inc.’s Dilly Dilly Philly ($2.80) register her second straight win and third in as many starts at Laurel in a starter allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting six furlongs over the main track … Five-pound apprentice Jean Alvelo doubled Thursday with Volnay ($17) in Race 3 and Royal Number ($12) in Race 8 … The 20-cent Rainbow 6 was solved by one lucky bettor Thursday for a jackpot payout of $15,170.46.