Chalon Targets Third Straight Win in $100,000 Alma North
Chalon Targets Third Straight Win in $100,000 Alma North
Stablemates Laki, Taco Supream Tangle in $100,000 Polynesian
Cordmaker Looks to End Drought in $100,000 Deputed Testamony
Tasting the Stars Launching Comeback in $100,000 Twixt
LAUREL, MD – Lael Stables’ Chalon, a seven-time stakes winner approaching $1 million in career earnings, has another chance to add to her already impressive resume when she headlines Saturday’s $100,000 Alma North at Laurel Park.
The six-furlong Alma North for fillies and mares 3 and up, in its fifth year, is among four $100,000 stakes that help kick off Laurel’s Preakness Prep Weekend festivities, which continue with a special Labor Day holiday card Monday, Sept. 7 featuring the Federico Tesio and Weber City Miss for 3-year-olds.
Also on tap Saturday are the six-furlong Polynesian and about 1 1/16-mile Deputed Testamony for 3-year-olds and up, the latter returning to the stakes calendar for the first time since 2008, and the about 1 1/16-mile Twixt for fillies and mares 3 and older.
Post time for Saturday’s 11-race program is 12:10 p.m.
A bay daughter of 2011 Florida Derby (G1) winner Dialed In, Chalon has been as good as ever this year after kicking off her 6-year-old campaign with an uncharacteristically poor effort in the June 27 Vagrancy (G3) at Belmont Park, her first start in nearly nine months.
Sent off as the favorite, Chalon wound up last of six after being bumped from both sides leaving the gate and getting trapped inside on a main track rated good, matching the worst finish of a 21-race career where she has only run worse than third four times.
“It was her first race back but I think it was more a case of it having rained before the race and it looks like she didn’t like the track,” trainer Arnaud Delacour said. “She was on the inside, kind of stuck on the rail, and didn’t really like that. Other than that, she hasn’t done anything wrong this year.”
Chalon bounced back to win each of her two subsequent starts, both in stakes – the six-furlong Dashing Beauty July 11 over a fast track at Delaware Park and the 5 ½-furlong Incredible Revenge Aug. 16 at Monmouth Park, rained off the grass to a sloppy and sealed main track.
Roy and Gretchen Jackson purchased Chalon for $550,000 out of Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky Fall 2017 Mixed Sale, after she had won three of eight starts including the Jersey Girl Stakes as a 3-year-old and $292,295 in purse earnings for Rockingham Ranch and trainer Peter Miller.
Since joining Delacour, Chalon has put together a record of six wins and five seconds from 13 starts with $679,600 in purses earned, leaving her $28,105 shy of the $1 million mark. In their first start together she won the six-furlong Primonetta in April 2018, her only previous try at Laurel.
“I was kind of hoping she could get [to $1 million], because she was a nice filly before we bought her,” Delacour said. “But, it looks like she has stayed at that level and been there ever since.”
Chalon has run second in seven graded-stakes, including a head loss to eventual champion female sprinter Shamrock Rose in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Churchill Downs. Among her other stakes wins was a popular two-length triumph in the six-furlong Skipat last spring at Pimlico Race Course.
“She’s always been very consistent,” Delacour said. “She continues to love her job. She is just really a neat horse.”
Maryland’s four-time leading rider Trevor McCarthy has the call on Chalon from Post 3 at co-topweight of 125 pounds.
Jerry Romans, Charlie Spiring and Zoom and Fish Stable Inc.’s Bye Bye Bertie is seeking her fifth career win, all at Laurel, and first in a stakes in the Alma North. Trained by Hamilton Smith, the 4-year-old Alternation filly is three-for-five in 2020 including back-to-back allowance sprint victories over the winter.
Bye Bye Bertie ran sixth in the one-mile Nellie Morse in her only previous stakes attempt March 14, and racing in Maryland was paused the next day for 2 ½ months amid the coronavirus pandemic until May 30. Racing for the first time since the Nellie Morse, she pressed the pace before tiring to be eighth in a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint, her grass debut.
Most recently, Bye Bye Bertie rallied for a half-length victory over fellow Alma North aspirant Never Enough Time in an off-the-turf, third-level optional claiming allowance going 5 ½ furlongs Aug. 8 under Xavier Perez, who gets the return call from Post 6.
“She ran much improved that day. The two prior races to that one she didn’t do too well, but we changed up her training a little bit and she seemed like a happier filly and ran accordingly. She was one of the longest shots in the race and she beat some nice fillies in there,” Smith said. “We’re hoping she runs good in there. She’s been training well for the race and everything looks good going in. She acts like she can be a pretty nice little filly. We hope that her best is still ahead of her.”
Bye Bye Bertie won her first three races racing on or close to the lead, but she rallied from next-to-last in her last start, where never trailed by more than five lengths behind the leaders including Never Enough Time, who dueled through rapid fractions of 21.98 and 45.01 seconds.
“It depends on how the race sets up but it looks like she can go either way. I was impressed with her race coming from off the pace like she did the other day,” Smith said. “She didn’t have a clear path all the way through the lane. She had to adjust. It looked like she was going to go up in between those horses and then it closed up and got a little tight so the kid chose to move her out and go around and she didn’t quit running. She kept moving, so we like that.”
R. Larry Johnson’s Maryland homebred Never Enough Time ran fourth, beaten 4 ½ lengths, in last year’s Alma North, contested at seven furlongs, again dueling for a half-mile before fading. The 4-year-old Munnings filly didn’t race again for 12 months until mid-June, finishing off the board in a Laurel turf sprint.
A winner of each of her first two starts to earn a trip to the 2019 Adena Springs Miss Preakness (G3), where she ran fifth prior to the Alma North, Never Enough Time bounced back from her 2020 debut with a front-running 3 ¾-length optional claiming allowance score July 11 at Monmouth Park.
“We brought her back off the layoff on the turf, and she didn’t like it at all,” trainer Mike Trombetta said. “I think now is the time to take a crack at a stake with her. We can always circle back around and if we don’t win the stake try the three-other-than allowance again or something. This fits her schedule and if she’s up for it, it’s a good time to give it a try.”
Never Enough Time will carry 121 pounds including jockey Julian Pimentel from Post 2.
Also entered are Amy’s Challenge, second in the Madison (G1) and third in the Humana Distaff (G1) last spring; Bunting, 10-for-15 in the money at Laurel including three wins; 2019 Mahoning Distaff winner Last True Love, fifth to Chalon in the Dashing Beauty; and Break Curfew.
Alma North was the 1971 Horse of the Year and 1972 sprint champion in Maryland, amassing 23 wins from 78 starts before being retired in early 1974. She won 15 stakes, topped by the Matchmaker (G1) in 1973.
Stablemates Laki, Taco Supream Tangle in $100,000 Polynesian
For the first time since they met in the Maryland Million Sprint last fall, stakes-winning stablemates Laki and Taco Supream will line up in the same starting gate for Saturday’s 16th running of the $100,000 Polynesian at Laurel Park.
Hillside Equestrian Meadows’ Laki has won at least one stakes in each of the past four years including the 2017 Not For Love, 2018 Polynesian and Howard Bender Memorial and 2019 Frank Whiteley Jr. at Laurel.
He opened his 7-year-old season by winning the five-furlong Oceanport Centennial Stakes July 3 at Monmouth Park, his first race in nearly nine months, and followed with back-to-back runner-up efforts sprinting seven furlongs at Laurel, beaten a half-length and a neck respectively by Arthur’s Hope and Arch Cat, the latter Aug. 20.
“The original plan was to skip the race with Laki, just thinking it might be too close to his last race, but he just came out of the race so good and it’s right here in front of us at Laurel,” Dilodovico said. “We’ll take a look at the race and see what’s doing.”
Big Bertha Stable’s Taco Supream got the better of his stablemate with a three-quarter-length upset of multiple graded-stakes winner Call Paul in the Maryland Million Sprint, a race where Laki ran fifth. The 5-year-old El Padrino gelding is winless in four tries in 2020, finishing second behind runaway winner Top Line Growth in a one-mile, third-level optional claiming allowance Aug. 14 at Laurel.
“The last time Taco and Laki ran against each other, Taco beat him pretty well,” Dilodovico said. “Hopefully they both run well. I am kind of excited about the distance change for Taco. Not that I think a mile is too far for him; he ran behind a monster last time, but we’ve had luck through the years shortening up distances.”
Laki and Taco Supream will face a major challenger in Madaket Stables, Ten Strike Racing, Michael Kisber and Black Cloud Racing Stable’s Whereshetoldmetogo, making his second start this year exiting a third-place finish in the six-furlong Iowa Sprint July 5 off a six-month layoff.
Also by El Padrino, Whereshetoldmetogo is two-for-three lifetime at Laurel with both wins coming in 2018 sprint stakes, the seven-furlong Concern and six-furlong Star de Naskra, for previous trainer Anthony Pecoraro. Now with trainer Brittany Russell, Whereshetoldmetogo owns two other stakes wins and was second, beaten a neck by Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire, in the 2018 Gallant Bob (G3).
Eastern Bay, a winner of two of three starts since being claimed by meet-leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez in February; 2019 Smoke Glacken winner Meru; Onemoregreattime, second behind Whereshetoldmetogo in the Star de Naskra; recent Laurel allowance winner Tappin Cat and Gary Capuano-trained General George (G3) runner-up Threes Over Deuces are also entered.
The Polynesian honors the upset winner of the 1945 Preakness (G1) that won 27 of 58 career starts and win or place in 29 stakes. At stud, Polynesian is best known as the sire of Native Dancer and became one of eight Preakness winners to sire a Preakness winner when Native Dancer won the 1953 edition.
Cordmaker Looks to End Drought in $100,000 Deputed Testamony
Hillwood Stable’s multiple stakes winner Cordmaker, stretching out off back-to-back fifth-place finishes going seven furlongs, looks to regain his winning form in the $100,000 Deputed Testamony, which returns to the stakes calendar for the first time since 2008.
Cordmaker is winless in three tries this year, also running fifth in his debut, an open, one-mile allowance July 3 at Laurel. It was the 5-year-old’s first start since capturing the DTHA Governors Day Handicap last September at Delaware Park.
Last year, the son of two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin won five of eight starts including the Harrison E. Johnson and Polynesian at Laurel, and was beaten two necks when third behind Tenfold and You’re to Blame in the historic Pimlico Special (G3).
Highweighed at 125 pounds, four more than each of his rivals, Cordmaker will face familiar foes in Harpers First Ride and Tybalt, who respectively finished first and second in the July 3 allowance. Both trained by summer meet leader Claudio Gonzalez, MCA Racing Stable’s Harpers First Ride went on to run fifth in the Monmouth Cup (G3) and finish second in a muddy Parx allowance Aug. 12.
BB Horses and MCA Racing Stable’s Tybalt showed promise early in his career, placing in the Tyro Stakes and First State Dash at 2 and Laurel’s Miracle Wood and Private Terms at 3, the latter behind multiple stakes winner Alwaysmining. He has gone winless in 10 starts but owns two seconds and three thirds during that stretch.
Grade 3-placed Grumps Little Tots, racing first off the claim for South Florida-based trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., Awesome D J, Infuriated and Compound It complete the field.
The Deputed Testamony pays homage to the last Maryland-bred winner of the Preakness Stakes (G1), who upset Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Sunny’s Halo in 1983. Bred and raced by Bonita Farm and Francis P. Sears and trained by Bill Boniface, Deputed Testamony also won the Haskell (G1) and Federico Tesio in 1983.
Tasting the Stars Launching Comeback in $100,000 Twixt
Newtown Anner Stud Farm’s stakes winner Tasting the Stars, unraced since suffering her first career loss in last summer’s Virginia Oaks, will make her long-awaited return in Saturday’s 38th running of the $100,000 Twixt.
Trained by Michael Stidham, Tasting the Stars went unraced at 2 before winning her first three starts last year by a combined 11 lengths. Two came on the dirt at Fair Grounds before moving to the turf to capture the one-mile Just Jenda Stakes last July at Monmouth Park.
A bay daughter of Bodemeister out of the Awesome Again mare Pink Champagne, Tasting the Stars has been working steadily at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. for her comeback including successive bullet five-furlong breezes Aug. 19 and 27 over the all-weather surface.
James C. Wolf’s Artful Splatter became a stakes winner with her upset of Anna’s Bandit in the Jan. 18 Geisha at Laurel, in the midst of a five-race win streak that ended March 6. Most recently, the 4-year-old Bandbox filly romped by 8 ½ lengths in a one-mile, second-level optional claiming allowance over a sloppy and sealed main track July 31.
Puerta Cerrada Stable’s Juliana was a two-time Group 1 winner in her native Peru as a 2-year-old in 2018. She came to North America earlier this year and has yet to win from three starts, running second last out in a 1 1/8-mile optional claiming allowance over Woodbine’s all-weather surface July 11.
Also entered are Smooth With a Kick, an Aug. 9 allowance winner at Saratoga, and Wicked Awesome, exiting a fifth-place finish in the Delaware Handicap (G2) July 11.
Twixt was a Maryland-bred champion each year she raced, from 1972 to 1975, retiring as Maryland’s all-time leading money winner at $619,143. Maryland’s Horse of the Year in 1973 and 1974, she won 18 stakes from 71 starts for trainer Katy Voss, daughter of breeders Mr. and Mrs. John Merryman, and is a member of the Maryland-bred Thoroughbred Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of 2013.
