Surface Switch No Problem for Keep Your Distance in Laurel Feature
Surface Switch No Problem for Keep Your Distance in Laurel Feature
Quartet of Sprint Stakes Highlights Closing Weekend of Summer Meet
Summer Meet-Ending Four-Day Race Week Starts Thursday, July 26
Rainbow 6 Carryover of $11,332 for Sunday’s 10-Race Program
LAUREL, MD – Super C Racing Inc.’s Keep Your Distance, racing first time off the claim for trainer Kieron Magee, led from gate to wire for an easy four-length victory in Saturday’s featured third race at Laurel Park.
Under jockey Jorge Vargas Jr. Keep Your Distance ($9.80) ran 5 ½ furlongs in 1:04.53 in the $50,000 third-level optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up that was rained off the turf onto a sloppy main track.
A 4-year-old Concord Point filly, Keep Your Distance went straight to the front and kept even-money favorite Munificent at bay through fractions of 22.54, 46.05 and 58.07 seconds and sailed home for her eighth career win, seventh at Laurel. Munificent was a clear second, followed by Rocky Policy and Up Hill Battle.
Magee claimed Keep Your Distance last July at Laurel for $16,000 and they won six of 12 starts together before she was haltered out of a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint victory May 5 for $25,000. Magee got her back for the same price out of her previous start, a runner-up finish going one mile July 6.
“I was thrilled it came off the grass, and she’s deadly on the front end,” Magee said. “I had her before and did well with her. Everything worked out well [today] with the weather and coming off the grass. She’s so fast on the front end, when she gets the lead she’s tough to beat.”
In Saturday’s co-feature, Two Rivers Racing Stable and MCA Racing Stable’s My Enigma was a 2 ½-length winner of Race 9, a $45,000 second-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up moved off the turf to the main track. The winning time for 5 ½ furlongs was 1:05.39.
Quartet of Sprint Stakes Highlights Closing Weekend of Summer Meet
Four six-furlong sprint stakes worth $300,000 in purses will be run Saturday, Aug. 18 to highlight closing weekend of Laurel’s 40-day summer meet.
Contested on dirt will be the $75,000 Star de Naskra for 3-year-olds and the $75,000 Miss Disco for 3-year-old fillies, both at six furlongs. Going the same distance over Laurel’s world-class turf course will be the $75,000 Ben’s Cat for 3-year-olds and up and the $75,000 Jameela for fillies and mares 3 and up.
Laurel Park wraps up its summer meet Sunday, Aug. 19. Racing shifts to the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium Aug. 24 to Sept. 3 and returns to Laurel for the calendar year-ending fall meet Friday, Sept. 7.
Starting Thursday, July 26, Laurel will race four days a week through the conclusion of the summer meet.
Rainbow 6 Carryover of $11,332 for Sunday’s 10-Race Program
Sunday’s 10-race program will have a jackpot carryover of $11,332.12 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (Races 6-10) after going unsolved during Saturday’s card.
Tickets with five of six winners each returned $165.46.
The Rainbow 6 sequence Sunday includes a $42,000 entry-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up in Race 7, a $40,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies in Race 8, and a $35,000 entry-level allowance for Maryland-bred/sired horses in Race 9.
First race post time is 1:10 p.m.
Notes: Jockey Victor Carrasco registered a riding triple Saturday with Censure ($17) in the first race, My Enigma ($13.20) in the ninth and Gorse ($4.80) in the 10th. Jockey Kevin Gomez had two wins, aboard Crazed ($4.40) in the second and Goodluckjohnathan ($12.20) in the sixth.
