Graded winners On Leave, Pricedtoperfection Top $150,000 All Along
Graded winners On Leave, Pricedtoperfection Top $150,000 All Along
Holiday Star Continues Comback in $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup
Total of Six Grass Stakes on Tap for Saturday’s Fall Festival of Racing
LAUREL, MD – Graded stakes winners On Leave and Pricedtoperfection will break side-by-side each looking to bounce back from disappointing efforts in Saturday’s $150,000 All Along at Laurel Park.
The 1 1/16-mile All Along for fillies and mares 3 and older and the 55th running of the $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup for 3-year-olds and up going 1 ½ miles are among six stakes over Laurel’s world-class turf course that complement the 26th running of the $250,000 Xpressbet Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) on a 12-race Fall Festival of Racing program.
Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey won the All Along last year with Onus when it was run as the Lady Baltimore. This year, he sends out another Stuart Janney III homebred in 4-year-old War Front filly On Leave who, like Onus, will be ridden by Forest Boyce. They will carry topweight of 120 pounds from the rail in the field of nine.
On Leave is exiting the Aug. 26 Ballston Spa (G2) at Saratoga where she stalked a duel up front between Dickinson and Antonoe before tiring to be last of five, beaten 3 ¼ lengths by Lady Eli – all three Grade 1 winners. Prior to that she came up a neck short following a dramatic rally on the outside in the one-mile De La Rose.
“She came back fine. The last race didn’t turn up the way I thought it would,” McGaughey said. “It was a heavy race. I knew [Dickinson] was going to go and I thought we’d be laying right behind her but they sent [Antonoe] and that kind of messed things up for us.
“We’ll give her a bit of a class relief and see what happens,” he added. “She’s runs good every time. She’s a nice filly.”
A front-running winner of the 1 1/8-mile Sands Point (G2) last fall, On Leave began this year running second behind Cambodia in the 1 1/16-mile Gallorette (G3) May 20 on the Preakness (G1) undercard at historic Pimlico Race Course. Cambodia, also by War Front, has won back-to-back Grade 2 events at Del Mar.
“She ran really good in that last race at Pimlico to Cambodia and Cambodia has come back and won a couple stakes out in California,” McGaughey said. “The turf probably had a little bit more give in it that day than she likes, so we’re looking forward to bringing her down there.”
Madaket Stables and Head of Plains Partners’ Pricedtoperfection, who drew Post 2 under Feargal Lynch at 118 pounds, has gone winless since taking the one-mile Sweetest Chant (G3) last January. She has placed in four stakes since including the Commonwealth Oaks (G3) in September at Laurel.
The 1 1/8 mile Oaks was the last start for Pricedtoperfection before rallying to finish fourth, beaten two lengths, in a one-mile optional claiming allowance July 22 at Saratoga. Returning to graded company for her subsequent start, she pressed the pace before weakening to sixth in the Violet (G3) last out Aug. 19 at Monmouth Park.
“I was a little disappointed. I thought she ran very well first time back at Saratoga, so I was hoping for a better effort,” trainer Graham Motion said. “I might put some blinkers on her on Saturday. It just seemed like she didn’t really get into the race the other day. I’m hoping the third race off the layoff is going to be a help to her.
“It’s possible that race took a little more out of her than I thought it did, but I thought it was really encouraging and it was logical to take the next step and go to the stake at Monmouth,” he added. “She’s done well since. Maybe the mile and a sixteenth might suit her a little better. Miss Temple City, we really thought strongly that she was a miler. It makes sense for this filly, as well, to shorten her up a little bit.”
Pricedtoperfection will meet a familiar foe in Merriebelle Stable’s Light Up Our World, second as the favorite in the Violet for another Fair Hill-based trainer in Arnaud Delacour. The Violet was the third U.S. start for the Irish-bred Zoffany filly since coming to the U.S., having run second in her June 1 debut at Belmont Park and fourth in the Dr. James Penney (G3) in July at Parx.
“I thought she ran a good race at Monmouth; we just got beat by a better horse that day,” Delacour said. “She got shut off going into the first turn and our jock had to take back pretty aggressively. It may have cost her a little bit but she recovered pretty good from that and I thought she ran a good race. We’ll hope for the best with her.
“She’s been very consistent and run very well for us,” he added. “I’m just hoping for a little bit of a cut in the ground, because she’s performed very well on a softer turf in Europe. I’ve been trying all summer to get some soft turf but I haven’t able to so far. She’s only run on firm turf and I think some cut in the ground would help her.”
Also entered are multiple stakes winner Gianna’s Dream, an optional claiming allowance winner July 15 at Laurel that was most recently third in the Violet; multiple graded-stakes placed Juno for California-based trainer Neil Drysdale; Martini Glass, second in her last three starts including a one-length loss to retired champion Songbird in the July 15 Delaware Oaks; stakes winner Paige and Kelly Rubley-trained stablemates Northern Smile and Indian Paint.
Holiday Star Continues Comeback in $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup
Augustin Stable’s two-time Grade 3 winner Holiday Star, fourth in his return from a 21-month break between races last month, finds himself back in stakes company in the $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup.
A gelded 7-year-old son of Harlan’s Holiday, Holiday Star had been training steadily at Fair Hill for trainer Graham Motion prior to his return, where he was fourth throughout in a 1 1/8-mile allowance Aug. 16 at Saratoga.
“He’d been off almost 2 years so I was very happy with the way he ran. It was a very competitive race and I thought he ran very respectably coming off that long of a layoff, probably as well as they could have hoped him to,” Motion said. “It’s tough to find races to come back in for horses that kind of want to go a distance of ground like that. If he can return to his old form I think it puts him in the mix on Saturday, but he’s a couple of years older so we’ll see. He’s done well in the morning. I’ve been very happy with his works.”
Holiday Star went five furlongs in 1:02.60 Monday following a pair of six-furlong breezes, all over Fair Hill’s all-weather track, prompting Motion and owner George Strawbridge to delay retirement. Three of his six career wins have come in six tries at the Turf Cup distance, including back-to-back victories in the Sycamore (G3) at Keeneland.
“He had some old issues and we just decided to give him a lot of time. We even considered retiring him but he just seemed to be doing so well that Mr. Strawbridge wanted to give him another chance,” Motion said. “I’ve been very happy with how he’s trained. I think he really thrives going this distance. I think it’s what he wants. Hopefully having the race under his belt will really help him. He had a nice work on Monday so hopefully this is something that should be a good opportunity for him.”
Dr. Michael J. Harrison’s veteran Maryland homebred Talk Show Man will make his 31st career start in the Turf Cup. Trained by Ham Smith, the 7-year-old gelding won a one-mile allowance by a head July 22 and got caught inside on a soft turf in the Aug. 19 Find, finishing fifth, beaten just 2 ¼ lengths.
“He’s doing fine. He came out of the last race real good,” Smith said. “The better part of the racetrack was further out and we got stuck down inside which didn’t help us much. It got a little tight around the far turn there and it cost him a little bit and the horses on the outside had free run and they finished 1-2.
“I’m not worried about the distance or anything like that. I think he’ll run good,” he added. “He’s going into this one as good as he’s gone into any of them. He’s doing real good right now so I expect him to run good. He’s always been a nice horse and very good to us.”
An unknown in the Turf Cup field is Guy Pariente’s Canessar, making his North American debut after winning five of 10 starts in his native France. He joined trainer Arnaud Delacour’s Fair Hill string this summer. His wins have come at distances of 1 ¼, 1 ¾, 1 7/8 and 1 9/16 miles.
“He came in about a month and a half ago and he’s done well. He’s breezed every week and seems to have acclimated every well. It’s going to be the first time on Lasix so I hope that he can perform well,” Delacour said. “Going by watching him in the mornings he could be pretty close to the pace but we’ll see. He’s a nice prospect for me.
“I put him in my routine and he has done everything well so far,” he added. “We’ll see when we run, really, if he likes that kind of race. The main thing is we run on the flat ground here where in Europe it goes up and down. That’s going to be different.”
Renown and St. Albans Boy, winners of the 2016 and 2015 Turf Cup, respectively, are also entered in an attempt to become the first repeat winners in its history. Renown went on to win the Sycamore (G3) and 2017 Secretariat at Great Meadow but is winless in his last three, while St. Albans Boy has not reached the winner’s circle since the Turf Cup, returning from a 13-month layoff to run seventh Aug. 11 at Monmouth.
Infinite Wisdom, winner of the John’s Call Aug. 23 at Saratoga last out; Find runner-up Ghost Bay; Highly Prized, Manitoulin, Motivational and Pizmo Time complete the field.
