Filly Sprint Among Eight Stakes Worth $1.3 Million in Purses Saturday, Sept. 21

LAUREL, MD – Stakes winner Needs Supervision, unraced since her lone try against graded company in mid-February, is set to launch her comeback in Saturday’s inaugural $100,000 Warrior’s Reward Weather Vane at Laurel Park.

The six-furlong Weather Vane for 3-year-old fillies is among eight stakes worth $1.3 million in purses during Round 1 of Laurel’s September to Remember Stakes Festival, highlighted by the $250,000 Xpressbet Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) and $200,000 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3). Laurel will open its doors at 11 a.m. with a first-race post time of 12:25 p.m.

Trained by Laurel-based Jeremiah O’Dwyer for Howling Pigeon Farms, Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable and Madaket Stables, Needs Supervision has been pointed to the Weather Vane since finishing fifth in the Rachel Alexandra (G2) Feb. 16 at Fair Grounds.

“This has been our target race. She’s been training here and can run right from our back door,” O’Dwyer said. “We like that.”

A bay daughter of 2012 Haskell (G1) winner Paynter, Needs Supervision was purchased by O’Dwyer for $55,000 during Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale last May at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. Five months later she debuted running second at Penn National before breaking her maiden as the favorite in a seven-furlong sprint in November at Laurel.

Two more wins followed, one in the slop at Churchill Downs three weeks later to cap her juvenile campaign, and a three-quarter-length triumph in the one-mile, 70-yard Silverbulletday Stakes Jan. 19 at Fair Grounds to kick off her sophomore season. The stakes victory was her first start since being sold privately following the Churchill race, though she remained in O’Dwyer’s care.

“She didn’t run very well in her last race and she came up with some lower airway inflammation that took forever to heal up. That’s what kept her out for so long,” he said. “It just took her a while to get her lung and airway and everything back right again. She’s been training good at Laurel and we’re looking forward to getting her back on the racetrack.”

Following the Rachel Alexandra, Needs Supervision went five months between breezes before returning to the work tab last month at Laurel. She shows four works, two of them bullets, including a half-mile from the gate in 47 seconds Sept. 14 – the fastest of 64 horses.

“I feel like she’s back on her game,” O’Dwyer said. “She’s an impressive filly anyway. She’ll always kind of breeze fast if you let her. You have to gear her down. She’s not rank or anything, but she’s one of those fillies where you don’t realize how fast you’re going when you’re on her. She’s just a very good filly. She’s very fast, and she likes to show us.”

O’Dwyer said the connections have always had high hopes for Needs Supervision, and he praised the owners for their patience in getting her back to the races.

“We had the dream of her being a [Kentucky] Oaks filly but when we had the setback, the owners were magnificent,” he said. “They let me give her all the time that she needed and I’m sure she’ll reward them in the long run.”

Needs Supervision will break from Post 6 in a field of 11 at co-topweight of 122 pounds. Jockey Feargal Lynch has the call.

“She hasn’t run in a while and I think going three-quarters is a good spot to start her back,” O’Dwyer said. “Coming off a long layoff you’re always hopeful, but you never know what to expect. She’ll move forward a lot from this race. She’s not 100 percent tight, but she’s ready to start back.”

Right Time Racing III and Madaket Stables’ Meadow Dance takes a two-race win streak into the Weather Vane, taking a 6 ½-furlong allowance sprint by 3 ¾ lengths June 22 at Churchill and a six-furlong optional claiming allowance by three-quarters of a length in front-running fashion Aug. 3, both over older horses.

A maiden winner at first asking, Meadow Dance was third in the 1 1/16-mile Alcibiades (G1) last fall at Keeneland in just her third start. Sheldon Russell rides for trainer Brad Cox from Post 3 at 120 pounds.

Jerry Durant’s Adventurous Lady put together a three-race win last summer and fall, including stakes wins in the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity at Lone Star and E. L. Gaylord Memorial at Remington Park. The Kantharos filly has gone winless in four tries since but has raced just twice this year, off-the board stakes finishes in February and July.

Hillwood Stable’s homebred Bunting was a gutsy half-length runner-up behind Introduced in the six-furlong Miss Disco Stakes Aug. 17 at Laurel, setting the pace and dueling through the stretch before giving way. The daughter of Grade 3 winner Bandbox fired a bullet in her first work back from the race, going four furlongs in 48.20 seconds Sept. 3, and posted a five-furlong move in 1:00 Sept. 13.

“She’s doing well. She’s a nice filly to be around. She’s pretty fast. We’re real happy with her,” trainer Rodney Jenkins said. “She’s very brave and she tries hard. She got outrun last time, but she certainly put up a good show.”

Also entered in the Weather Vane are Lady T N T, second in a pair of sprint stakes over the winter at Oaklawn Park; Decoupage, Foggy Dreams, Jennemily, M C Hamster, Take Charge Angel and Talkthetalk.

New to the Maryland Jockey Club stakes calendar in 2019, the Weather Vane pays homage to the Maryland-bred mare trained by Richard W. Delp that won 17 races and $724,532 in purses from 1996 to 1998.

A former claimer bred by William B. Delp, Weather Vane went on to register 14 stakes victories including the Safely Kept (G3) and Miss Preakness in 1997, the latter before it was graded, and capped her career by being named Maryland-bred champion older female of 1998.