Several Horses with Maryland Ties Among Breeders’ Cup Pre-Entries

BALTIMORE – Mopo Racing’s undefeated 3-year-old filly Moquist will put her perfect record on the line as she preps for next month’s stakes debut in Friday’s salty, stakes-quality feature at Laurel Park.

Moquist is the 8-5 program favorite in Race 4, a third-level optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting seven furlongs that drew a field of six, including multiple stakes winners Dontletsweetfoolya (5-2) and Needs Supervision (7-2), both coming off layoffs.

First race post time is 12:25 p.m.

Trainer Dale Capuano is pointing the daughter of 2016 Florida Derby (G1) and Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Nyquist to the $100,000 Safely Kept for 3-year-old fillies, also at seven furlongs, Nov. 27 at Laurel.

“The races, we know, are going to get tougher as she goes on so we’ll see what happens. This should be a good prep for her to go into the stake, so the timing is good,” Capuano said. “We’re looking forward to it. Hopefully she’ll continue to run well. Most of them don’t win every time.”

Moquist drew Post 2, inside both Dontletsweetfoolya (Post 4) and Needs Supervision (Post 5). She has won each of her races in front-running fashion by a combined 8 ¾ lengths, all against older horses, the most recent a 3 ½-length triumph over a fast, sealed track Oct. 16 at Laurel.

“She doesn’t have to be in front. Luckily, she normally breaks well,” Capuano said. “When you break well and you have speed like she does, it’s an advantage. Hopefully she breaks well and gets a good trip, and we’ll see if she can step it up another notch.

“She’s been doing well, so when they’re good I like to run ‘em,” he added. “She needs more experience, because when she runs in that stake and runs against stakes horses, they’re going to have a lot more experience than she has. They get a lot more racing than working, so I see no reason why she shouldn’t run.”

Jorge Ruiz rides back for the third straight race.

Five Hellions Farm’s 4-year-old Dontletsweetfoolya reeled off five consecutive wins last year capped by back-to-back stakes triumphs in the Primonetta and Willa On the Move at Laurel. She is winless in three tries this year starting with the Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3) Feb. 20 and has gone unraced in 138 days since the June 13 Shine Again to then-undefeated Chub Wagon at historic Pimlico Race Course.

Lacey Gaudet-trained Dontletsweetfoolya, by Grade 1 winner Stay Thirsty, has been working regularly at Laurel since mid-September for her return. She was scratched from a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint Sept. 30 to await this spot.

Regular rider Jevian Toledo gets the assignment.

Howling Pigeon Farms, Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable and Madaket Stables’ Needs Supervision will be making her first start since the March 6 Heavenly Prize at Aqueduct, a span of 237 days. She returned to training in late July at Delaware Park and has had her last three works this month over Laurel’s main track.

“She’s had plenty of time off, but that was through no fault of her own. We were going to send her to the breeding shed and timing just didn’t work out, and now she’s back,” trainer Jerry O’Dwyer said. “I’m happy with how she’s been doing. She has been breezing well. She was ready to run there last month but the race didn’t go, so she’s sitting on go. It’s a solid allowance race and I’m looking forward to see what she does.”

Unlike Moquist and Dontletsweetfoolya, Needs Supervision has done her best racing from off the pace. In 2019, she won the Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds and Safely Kept at Laurel and has run in 14 consecutive stakes, placing in four others. Her last non-stakes start came in her juvenile finale in November 2018.

“It will be an interesting race,” O’Dwyer said. “Needs Supervision is never quick away from the gate anyway, so she’ll be sitting behind them somewhere, hopefully not too far off. I think the seven-furlong trip is a lovely distance for her [to] blow away a few cobwebs and see where we are with her.”

Angel Suarez is named to ride.

Also entered are Bluefield and Mike Trombetta-trained stablemates Lookin Dynamic, runner up in the March 13 Conniver at Laurel, and Villanelle.

Several Horses with Maryland Ties Among Breeders’ Cup Pre-Entries

Klaravich Stables’ Consumer Spending, rallying winner of the Oct. 2 Selima at Laurel Park, was among several horses with connections to Maryland pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships Nov. 5 and 6 at Del Mar.

Trained by Chad Brown, Consumer Spending was pre-entered in the $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1). She will be attempting to follow the same path as Maryland-bred Sharing, who parlayed a victory in the Selima to a 13-1 upset in the 2019 Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Koala Princess, based with Arnaud Delacour at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., was also pre-entered in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. She has won her only two starts, taking the Sept. 12 Ainsworth last out at Kentucky Downs.

Ready to Purrform, a 3 ¼-length winner of the Laurel Futurity Oct. 2 for Cox, was pre-entered in the $1 million Juvenile Turf (G1), where he is the second of six horses on the also-eligible list.

Estilo Talentoso, runner-up in the Feb. 20 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3) at Laurel, was pre-entered in the $1 million Filly & Mare Sprint (G1), which drew only seven horses with the presence of five-time Grade 1 winner Gamine. Following the Fritchie, Estilo Talentoso placed in back-to-back Grade 1 stakes, won the Bed o’ Roses (G3) and was second in the Princess Rooney (G2).

Lael Stable’s Arrest Me Red was pre-entered in the $1 million Turf Sprint (G1). The 3-year-old colt won on debut in August 2020 at Laurel Park for Delacour and is 2-0 since being moved to trainer Wesley Ward this year. Both wins came in stakes, most recently the Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational (G3) against older horses Oct. 2.

On the also-eligible list for the Turf Sprint are Caravel and The Critical Way. Bred and co-owned by Liz Merryman and trained by Fair Hill-based Graham Motion, Caravel won the $100,000 The Very One May 14 at historic Pimlico Race Course when Merryman was his trainer, before selling a majority share to Bobby Flay following a victory in the July 24 Caress (G3) at Saratoga. The Critical Way was second by a neck in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint May 15 at Pimlico.

The $2 million Sprint (G1) saw 12 pre-entrants including Special Reserve, winner of the Maryland Sprint (G3) May 15 at Pimlico for trainer Mike Maker, and Lexitonian, winner of Pimlico’s Chick Lang (G3) and Laurel’s Concern in 2019.

Maker-trained Somelikeithotbrown, winner of the May 15 Dinner Party (G2) at Pimlico, was pre-entered in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1), where he is the fourth also-eligible. Channel Cat, winner of the 2018 Bald Eagle Derby at Laurel, was pre-entered and is on the also-eligible list for both the Mile and $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1).

Four-time Grade 1-winning multi-millionaire Knicks Go, bred in Maryland by Angie and Sabrina Moore, topped several horses with connections to Maryland pre-entered Wednesday in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar.

Four-time Grade 1-winning multi-millionaire Knicks Go, bred in Maryland by Angie and Sabrina Moore, was pre-entered in the $6 million Classic along with Medina Spirit, third in the May 15 Preakness (G1); Grade 1 winner Art Collector, fourth in the 2020 Preakness; and Max Player, fifth in the 2020 Preakness and sixth in the May 14 Pimlico Special (G3).

Notes: Jockey Forest Boyce and Hall of Fame trainer Jack Fisher teamed up for two wins Thursday with Welshman ($6.60) in Race 1 and Mystical Man ($4.80) in Race 3.