Ethan West has Unfaithful Rose ready for Xtra Heat

LAUREL, MD—A fleet of 3-year-olds from Gary Capuano’s stable heads to Laurel Park on Saturday for the $100,000 Spectacular Bid Stakes at seven furlongs.

The Spectacular Bid shares top billing on the ten-race program with the $100,000 Xtra Heat Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs. First post is 12:00 pm ET, and there are two “Value Pick 5 wagers” with a low 12% takeout.

The Spectacular Bid is the first race in Maryland’s stakes series for sophomores, leading up to the 151st Preakness on May 16 at Laurel Park. The series also includes the $100,000 Miracle Wood, run at one mile on February 21; the $100,000 Private Terms at 1 1/16 miles on March 21; and the $150,000 Federico Tesio on April 15. Once again, the 1 1/8-mile Tesio will serve as a “Win and In” qualifier for Triple Crown-nominated horses seeking entry into the Preakness.

Saying Capuano was stocked with quality 2-year-olds in 2025 would be an understatement, as 16 of them won at least one race. Three of them, led by Heft Stakes winner Hollywood Import, entered the Spectacular Bid.

“It’s crazy,” Capuano said after the Heft, reflecting on his remarkable season. “It’s hard to do. All the horses have run really well this year. How do you figure it?”

Pocket 3’s Racing’s Hollywood Import received a brilliant ride from Mychel Sanchez to capture the Heft. The Honor A. P. colt, who had never been closer than last at the pace call in any of his three prior races, broke sharply, set an uncontested pace, and held sway.

“He warmed up really, really well,” Sanchez said after the Heft. “He’d been breaking well, but when he got covered with dirt, he [found himself] back. Now, with the outside post, I had an idea he’d be closer. He broke really, really well, and I took it from there.”

Capuano had briefly considered running Hollywood Import, listed at 9-2 on Horse Racing Nation’s Ed DeRosa, in Saturday’s $200,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct.

“He’s been training well,” he said. “He’s another one I was thinking of stretching out, but I couldn’t get enough done with him to stretch out to 1 1/8 miles. He’s a good fit, so I’m not worried about that. He definitely fits with the program [here].”

Hollywood Import’s training program leading up to the Spectacular Bid has been unconventional. After breezing one mile in 1:51.20 on January 22, he worked two days later, breezing a half-mile in 53.80, both times in company with another of Capuano’s entrants, Wild Warrior.

“[For the mile work], they just went really easy for those horses,” Capuano said. “The track was slow, but they did their own thing, and didn’t go real fast. They didn’t get tired. With [last weekend’s snowstorm] coming, you don’t know how long we’re going to be out, so I said let’s get another little breeze into them. They didn’t go real fast again, but they got enough out of it.”

Rose Petal’s Stable’s Wild Warrior, who ran in four consecutive route races to start his career, makes his first sprint appearance in the Spectacular Bid. The Improbable colt stayed close to a quick pace in a first-level allowance victory at Laurel on December 14.

“I’m not sure [seven furlongs] is his ideal distance,” Capuano admitted. “He’s shown some speed. We were looking at the Withers for him, and then, with timing and missing a little bit of training, I thought 1 1/8 miles was just a little too much. We figured we’d put him in here and see how the race shakes up. He’s doing real well. He’s a good-feeling horse. He deserves a shot at it.”

Rose Petal Stable also campaigns Awesome Andy, who earned the field’s highest Beyer Speed Figure, 77, by winning a first-level allowance race over 5 ½ furlongs on January 9. DeRosa made Awesome Andy the 3-1 morning line favorite.

In that race, he rallied up the rail to collar the pacesetter, then held off late-running Sculcos Folly, who flattered the form by winning his next start in New York with a 92 Beyer.

"He's pretty gutsy,” Capuano said after the race. “To come back, he was down on the inside like that. [The leader] made it tight on him, and he just kept digging in. [Being down inside] doesn't seem to bother him much."

The late-blooming Awesome Andy has never been off the board in five starts and has won his last two races, including a maiden special weight at seven panels on December 20.

Awesome Andy sold for $10,000 as a weanling and was later purchased by Capuano on behalf of Rose Petal for $16,000 as a yearling.

“I just looked at him,” Capuano said after the allowance win. “The pedigree was fine. He was just a nice-looking horse. It looked like he would be okay. He's picked up a check every time. He’s run with some decent horses. He's just improved.”

Mount Peru Farm’s Code of Silence, the winner of Laurel’s restricted Maryland Juvenile Stakes at seven furlongs on December 6, breaks from the rail in the Spectacular Bid after finishing third in a first-level allowance at one mile on January 10.

A late-running gelding by Blofeld, Code of Silence faced difficult conditions in that allowance race, run in a driving sleet. He settled at the back behind slow fractions and lost valuable ground when angling six wide into the stretch. Tim Keefe, who has started 2026 on a very hot note in Maryland, conditions Code of Silence.

Midway Racing’s Trendsetter ships up from his Kentucky base for trainer Ben Colebrook. The Modernist gelding began his career with two dirt wins at Colonial Downs, including the Hickory Tree Stakes on August 2, and has since raced exclusively on synthetic and turf. In his most recent start, Trendsetter finished a late-closing second to odds-on Hometown Bound in Turfway Park’s Turfway Prevue Stakes.

"We took advantage of the Virginia-certified [conditions], a great program, so we were able to start him in slightly softer competition,” noted trainer Ben Colebrook. “In the last race at Turfway, he bobbled and jumped and overreacted coming out of the gate, which cost him. He wants to run a little farther, so we’re slowly increasing his distance in his races. Ideally, I think he could be a one-turn miler, even a two-turn grass horse at some point. Given his build, nothing about him suggests he’s really a sprinter. The seven furlongs will be a good first jumping-off point.”

Colebrook maintains that Trendsetter is still a work in progress.

“He's a very green, immature horse, as far as his mental aspect,” he said. “I think he’s a horse that hasn’t put it all together yet, and when he does, I think there’s a big upside for him. Every time Luan [jockey Machado] comes back, he says there’s so much more in the tank. He’s still not giving everything. I think more racing is what he needs. He never struck me as a real precocious type.”

Hard to Blame, Star Sweeper, and Close the Gate round out the field.

The Spectacular Bid is named for the Maryland-based Hall of Famer whose 26 career wins included the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby and Grade 1 Preakness Stakes in 1979. An Eclipse Award winner in each of his three seasons on the track, Spectacular Bid went undefeated in nine starts as a 4-year-old, finishing his career with a walkover in the Grade 1 Woodward at Belmont.

*Ethan West has Unfaithful Rose ready for Xtra Heat.

Unfaithful Rose has come a long way since being dismissed at 12-1 on the tote board for her career debut, a five-furlong maiden special weight race at Belterra Park on August 16.

“When she first came in, she was much smaller than the other 2-year-olds,” said trainer Ethan West, who conditions Unfaithful Rose for Thorough Crowd and Mr. CPA Racing. “It’s hard to set the bar high when you’ve got all these great big 2-year-olds, and she’s barely 15 hands.”

Unfaithful Rose finished second in her debut and in her second start, a six-furlong race at Belterra, but has put things together in her last two races. Those strong recent performances led DeRosa to tab her as his 3-1 morning-line favorite in the Xtra Heat.

“In her first couple of starts, it took her a little while,” West said. “She didn’t run badly, but she didn’t run fantastic. Then, on the third start, the lightbulb clicked on for her.”

That lightbulb moment came in the third race, a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight at Mahoning Valley on October 22. Unfaithful Rose won by 12 lengths and improved her Beyer Speed Figure by 42 points to a career-high 76.

West needed to determine whether that race was a fluke. He shipped Unfaithful Rose to Fair Grounds to seek tougher competition, and she responded by finishing third, beaten three-quarters of a length, in a $125,000 optional claimer on December 4.

“She ran exceptionally well down there and was beaten by a nice filly,” West said.

The runner-up from that race, Luv Your Neighbor, returned to finish second in two Kentucky Oaks point races at Fair Grounds, beaten by less than a length each time.

Mychel Sanchez rides Unfaithful Rose from post 3.

Capuano counters with John Hazard’s Sweet Shenanigans, listed as the 4-1 second choice on the morning line. Sweet Shenanigans hit the board in her last three races, finishing third as the odds-on favorite in a first-level allowance on December 27.

“She really ran well,” Capuano said. “I still think a lot of her. I thought she’d break out by now, but she’s run against some really talented fillies. It’s hard to knock her. I like this filly. She’s got to step up a little bit. She trains really well.”

Won Ton is unbeaten in two starts for Huntertown Farm and trainer Jeff Runco. A four-length debut winner in a sharp sprint at Charles Town on Oct. 25, the Tonalist filly then beat Sweet Shenanigans in that first-level allowance last month.

Haymarket Farm’s Tap Into Grace, a winner on both dirt and turf, makes her sophomore debut for trainer Brittany Russell after finishing second in Penn National’s Blue Mountain Stakes on November 26.

StarLadies Racing and Adelphi Racing’s For the Ladies should show good speed from her inside post for trainer Tom Morley. A romping winner in her second start, a maiden special weight at Aqueduct on November 29, For the Ladies finished third in a first-level allowance there three weeks ago.

Lance Rutledge’s Bresha wired the field in her career debut, a restricted maiden special weight race on the All-Weather surface at Turfway Park on December 26. Trained by Wayne Catalano, Bresha is by Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Spun to Run and has a strong dirt pedigree. Her third dam, Caressing, won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and this family has also produced Travers Stakes winner West Coast.

Victory Music is a strong contender for trainer Michael Maker. A Three Diamonds Farm homebred by Maclean’s Music, Victory Music finished third in Oaklawn’s restricted Astral Spa Stakes on December 14.

The Xtra Heat is the opening race of Maryland’s stakes series for 3-year-old fillies, leading up to the Black-Eyed Susan on May 15 at Laurel Park. The series also includes the $100,000 Wide Country, run at seven furlongs on February 21; the $100,000 Beyond the Wire at one mile on March 21; and the $150,000 Weber City Miss on April 15. The 1 1/16-mile Weber City Miss will serve as a “Win and In” qualifier for the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

The Xtra Heat is named for the Hall of Famer who won 26 of 35 starts, including the Grade 1 Prioress Stakes and two editions of the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Stakes. An Eclipse Award winner as the Outstanding 3-Year-Old Filly in 2001, Xtra Heat also finished second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.