Just Philtored an impressive debut winner
Brittany Russell snags Pimlico training title
Joyce Adamson wins $1,000 in “Charm City Challenge”
LAUREL, MD – “We’ll give this one to David,” trainer Kieron Magee said after Devil Pays In Gold rallied to capture Friday’s featured seventh race, a $53,000 second-level allowance for fillies and mares at six furlongs.
Trainer David Howard claimed Devil Pays in Gold for $20,000 out of a runner-up effort at Pimlico on May 29, 2023. Racing for Shake and Bake Stables, Devil Pays in Gold started ten times for Howard, winning twice, finishing second once, and placing third on three occasions.
Last March, Howard passed away after suffering a heart attack. He was 45.
“Every time he wins, I think of David,” Magee said. “He was one of my best friends. He picked the horse out. It was his horse. I’m just helping out.”
Shake and Bake Stables moved Devil Pays in Gold to Magee’s care, and two weeks after Howard’s death, the mare won a state-sired allowance at Laurel Park.
It was the first of four wins that Devil Pays in Gold secured for Magee in 2024, including the Maryland Million Distaff Starter Handicap.
Freshened after the Maryland Million, Devil Pays in Gold started twice earlier this year, finishing second against second-level allowance competition.
On Friday, the 5-year-old was best. Traveling sweetly while outside and in stalking range, she advanced widest under jockey Ismerio Villalobos, then kicked down My Flicker to prevail by 1 ½ lengths in 1:12.15. Favored Devil Pays in Gold returned $6 to win.
Magee had high praise for Villalobos.
“He’s a good kid,” Magee said. “He works hard. He tries hard. He’ll go anywhere you want him to go. He went to Penn National for me last night. The kid didn’t have a great bug year. He was in some bad spots. He called me and asked if I would help him if he came here.”
Bred in Maryland by Two Legends Farm, Devil Pays in Gold is a daughter of Uncle Lino and has won 8 times from 26 starts for earnings of $306,728.
*Just Philtored an impressive debut winner
Yedsit Hazlewood rode back to the winner’s circle, an astonished look on his face.
“Oh my God, boss,” the 17-year-old apprentice jockey told trainer Gary Capuano. “[She was] so good.”
Just Philtored was undoubtedly that in today’s third race, a $47,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies at 4 ½ furlongs, as she dominated six other first-time starters to win by eight lengths in 52.92 seconds over the good track.
Just Philtored hopped up in the air at the start, then was pinched back in the first few strides. Hazlewood allowed her to settle into a steady rhythm, and the filly grew comfortable as Last Gift, and Marriedtothegame battled through an opening quarter of 23.52.
Last Gift bore out badly on the turn, which could have changed the race’s complexion. Tipmanee, who traveled in behind the leaders, received a golden rail run turning into the stretch while Just Philtored traveled five wide in the six path.
In this case, the ground loss meant nothing. Just Philtored changed leads on cue, blew past Tipmanee, and was off to the races. Tipmanee finished second, 1 ¼ lengths ahead of Marriedtothegame. Doc’s Miracle, Last Gift, Whatarewedoing, and Pichu completed the order of finish.
Just Philtored returned $5.80 to win as the betting favorite after acting skittish in the paddock and post parade.
“She’s going to get a break,” Capuano said. “Her mind needs a little bit of [maturing]. We’re going to send her to the farm after this and let her mellow out. All those fillies [from this family] were the same way. As babies, they get a little quirky. But they all got talent. They all could run.”
Capuano wasn’t exaggerating. Just Philtored’s dam, Slow and Steady, has now foaled 12 winners from as many runners. Among them are stakes-winners Malibu Beauty, Steady Warrior, and Steady N Love, as well as stakes-placed performers Lucky in Malibu, Hanky Doodle, and Fast Tracked.
Foaled in Maryland, Just Philtored is a homebred owned by ZWP Stable and Non Stop Stable. She is by Great Notion, the state’s perennial leading sire. Capuano said that the filly showed him something in her morning workouts.
“She did everything right,” Capuano noted. “She was pretty forward. She was never real fast out of the gate. That was a concern, but she picked it up. She’s pretty quick.”
Just Philtored is named after Capuano’s children, Justin, Phillip, and Tori.
“Tori, my daughter, said you gotta name one Just Philtored.”
*Russell captures Preakness training title
The more things change, the more they stay the same, as Brittany Russell captured the final training title at Pimlico Race Course before the upcoming track renovation.
Russell, Maryland’s leading trainer by wins in 2023 and 2024, saddled four winners during the six-day meet, besting Jamie Ness and Anthony Farrior by one victory. Among her triumphs was Bosserati’s victory in the $100,000 The Very One Stakes at five furlongs on turf.
It was Russell’s fourth consecutive Pimlico training title.
After stints assisting trainers such as Brad Cox, Jimmy Jerkens, Ron Moquett, and the late Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard, Russell ventured out on her own in 2018, winning with her first starter, Oh My, on Feb. 25, 2018, at Laurel.
Russell surpassed the $1 million mark in season earnings for the first time in 2020. She won her first graded stakes the following year when Wondrwherecraigis took the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap at Aqueduct.
She grabbed 100 of 453 races for $4,370,961 million in 2022 and reached career highs across the board in 2023 with 687 starters, 177 wins, 142 seconds, 95 thirds, and $7,999,367 in purse earnings.
In 2023, Russell ended Claudio Gonazlez’s six-season reign atop the annual Maryland leaderboard by notching 118 victories at Laurel Park and Pimlico, finishing five ahead of runner-up Ness. Russell also won a race at the Maryland State Fair meeting at Timonium on her way to becoming the first female trainer to achieve year-end honors.
Last year, Russell earned 113 victories at Laurel and Pimlico, 16 more than Ness.
On the jockey’s side, Flavien Prat rode five winners during the Preakness Meet, one more than Irad Ortiz Jr., Jaime Rodriguez, and Hazlewood. Prat piloted three stakes winners, including Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan heroine Margie’s Intention.
*Joyce Adamson wins $1,000 in Charm City Challenge
Opening Day at Laurel Park was a payday for Joyce Adamson, the only contestant in the “Charm City Challenge” to correctly select the winners of the final five races on Laurel’s program. In doing so, Adamson won a $1,000 bonus prize.
The “Charm City Challenge” is a free online handicapping contest where players make selections on the last five races of each Laurel Park card during this meet. If a player picks the winner in all five legs on a single day, that contestant will win or share in the $1,000 bonus.
Based on the popular “Pick and Pray” handicapping tournaments, the “Charm City Challenge” offers cash prizes to the contestant with the highest cumulative bankroll for the entire Laurel Park meeting. Registration remains open until June 1. For more information, click here.
