Yodel E. A. Who Chasing Elusive Stakes Victory in $75,000 Challedon

LAUREL, MD – Less than a week after finishing off the board for the first time since joining owner-trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon this summer, Samui Sunset is entered for a shot at redemption in Saturday’s $100,000 Japan Turf Cup at Laurel Park.

The 59th running of the 1 ½-mile Japan Turf Cup and 36th renewal of the $75,000 Challedon sprinting seven furlongs, both for 3-year-olds and up, are among five stakes worth $575,000 in purses on a 10-race program marking opening weekend of the calendar year-ending fall meet.

Co-headlining the card are the $150,000 Laurel Futurity for 2-year-olds and $150,000 Selima for 2-year-old fillies, each scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the grass. Rounding out the stakes action is the $100,000 Twixt for fillies and mares 3 and up going about 1 1/16 miles.

First race post time is 12:40 p.m.

Samui Sunset finished eighth, beaten 6 ¾ lengths as the favorite, in a 1 1/16-mile allowance contested over a turf rated good Sept. 25 at historic Pimlico Race Course. The 5-year-old Seville gelding had never been worse than third in six tries since Sanchez-Salomon claimed him for $12,500 June 11, including two wins and three seconds.

“He didn’t handle the turf at Pimlico the other day. It was a little too soft for him. He came out of the race really well,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “He’s been great. We were looking at him a couple races before we claimed him and we liked the way he was running. He looked sound and everything to me so we went in and got him.”

Maryland-bred Samui Sunset has done well over his home course with three wins, four seconds and a third in 12 tries at Laurel. He won a 1 1/8-mile starter optional claimer on the turf in his first race off the claim, and was second by a head in a restricted allowance going a mile over a course rated good Aug. 5. Prior to his most recent start he had run twice at Colonial Downs with an Aug. 29 win at 1 1/16 miles and a runner-up finish going 1 3/16 miles Sept. 7.

“I liked his numbers and he’s been nothing but good for us. He never missed the board every single race except the last one. His numbers are really good,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “I haven’t tried him on the dirt but I think he’ll like that as well, especially in the winter. If it comes up sloppy, I think he’s going to like it even better.”

Sanchez-Salomon said trip is important to Samui Sunset, whose best races have been from off the pace. He has been ridden by Angel Cruz in each of his past three starts.

“If he gets in trouble and they have to check him a little bit, he’s a big horse and it takes him a while to get going again. If he doesn’t have to check and can run his race, he’ll love it and just keep on going,” he said. “I think he deserves the chance. He’s showing me he’s been asking for a chance against [stakes] competition. You never know.”

Trainer Lacey Gaudet is also looking for a better result with Bizzee Channel, who finished sixth after setting the pace in the one-mile Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3) Sept. 10 at Pimlico. It was the 6-year-old English Channel gelding’s first start since being claimed for $50,000 in mid-August at Colonial Downs.

“I guess we thought that last time was a lackluster race, but he ended up getting a pretty decent number so they want to try him again in stakes company,” Gaudet said. “We’re going to try and stretch him out a little bit. We think that he can handle the distance.”

Bizzee Channel won the 1 3/16-mile Arlington (G3) and was fifth, beaten less than four lengths, in the 1 ¼-mile Mr D (G1) last summer at Arlington Park. In each of his last four wins, he was able to sit off the lead and come running.

“The number was still good. Obviously this one won’t be graded. The last one was graded. We think that it’ll probably be a little bit easier company. It was a stacked field the other day,” Gaudet said. “I don’t think that we’ll have anybody that will be in front of him. I think the theory is that if we can get him to have a horse that he can follow, he likes to do that a little bit better and stalk a little bit more.”

Monmouth Stud’s Oceans Map won the Cape Henlopen last summer at Delaware Park and is coming off a runner-up effort in the Presious Passion Sept. 10 at Monmouth, both going the 1 ½-mile distance. The 5-year-old Liam’s Map gelding is winless in two previous tries over the Laurel turf, including a fifth in last year’s Japan Turf Cup.

Steven Newby’s Vance Scholars became a stakes winner with a 2 ½-length triumph in an off-the-turf edition of the 1 3/16-mile Bald Eagle Derby Aug. 6 at Laurel. He then ran 10th in the Virginia Derby (G3) on turf and most recently was a distant but decisive second to runaway winner Next in the Sept. 8 Cape Henlopen, also rained off the grass.

“That horse flew around there last time,” trainer Dale Capuano said. “[Vance Scholars] ran his race. The horse that beat him ran the last quarter in 23 and 2 going a mile and a half, so that’s killer time to finish up going that far. Mine ran in about 26 so he was just completely outrun. The horse that won ran fast and looked good doing it. He really was terrific.”

Beacon Hill, fourth by 2 ½ lengths in the Dinner Party (G2) May 21 at Pimlico; Royne, third in the Presious Passion; Carrothers and maiden What Say Thee complete the field. Armando R, Basso and Burning Bright are entered for main track only.

Yodel E. A. Who Chasing Elusive Stakes Victory in $75,000 Challedon

Troy Johnson, Charles Lo and Jagger, Inc.’s Yodel E. A. Who, a 13-time winner from 43 lifetime starts, takes a two-race win streak into his quest for a first stakes victory in Saturday’s $75,000 Challedon at Laurel Park.

A gelded 6-year-old son of Grade 1-winning millionaire Creative Cause and grandson of champion sprinter Speightstown, Yodel E. A. Who has run in five previous stakes but not since finishing 10th in the Maryland Sprint (G3) last May. He was second in the 2020 Rough and Ready at Gulfstream Park, both races coming for different connections.

Yodel E. A. Who was claimed for $30,000 on New Year’s Eve 2021 and went winless in two starts at Oaklawn Park to open 2022 before joining trainer Jamie Ness’ Parx-based operation.

“We were just hoping for a nice solid $30,000 claiming horse to bring back east here. There’s a lot of opportunities, and he showed us he’s a little bit better than we thought he was,” Ness said. “We’ve put him through every kind of condition we can and he went right through those, so now we’ve got to try him a little higher. When you keep winning races you’ve got to give them a little bump up.”

Yodel E. A. Who has three wins and a third from five starts with Ness including back-to-back optional claiming allowance scores sprinting six furlongs at Delaware Park Aug. 27 and Sept. 10, the latter by 5 ¼ lengths in 1:09.28.

“He’s doing great. We claimed him at Oaklawn and brought him out there and he’s really done good. I ran him in a couple of allowance races and he won and he ran in a real tough allowance here at Delaware and he won. We were like, there’s not much else we can do but put him in a stake,” Ness said. “This stake happened to come up with the right kind of condition and at the right time, so here we are.”

Yodel E. A. Who is winless in six prior tries going seven furlongs, but Ness doesn’t have distance concerns.

“I think it will be better yet. He’s kind of a closing sprinter, and closing sprinters kind of like seven furlongs,” he said. “I really like him. He’s a nice horse and he’s coming into the race really good, so I expect a really good effort. He’s ready to go.”

Trainer Jose Corrales entered stablemates Air Token and Backnthewoods. Corrales Racing’s Air Token won the 2021 Maryland Million Sprint and ran third in two subsequent sprint stakes at Laurel behind Whereshetoldmetogo, and is making his third start off a layoff. Barak Farm’s Backnthewoods exits a two-length restricted allowance victory Sept. 11 in the slop at Pimlico.

Factor It In, third last out in the six-furlong Chesapeake Aug. 16 at Colonial Downs; Famished, racing first off the claim for trainer Horacio DePaz; Torch of Truth, making his first start since running fifth in Laurel’s Harrison E. Johnson Memorial March 19; Treasure Tradition, last seen winning a seven-furlong restricted allowance March 26 at Laurel; Goldenize, Crouchelli and Excellorator are also entered.

The Challedon honors the Maryland-bred son of Challenger II that won 20 of 44 starts and $334,660 in purses from 1938 to 1942, was recognized as Horse of the Year in 1939 and 1940, and inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1977. Winner of the 1939 Preakness and 1939-40 Pimlico Special, Challedon also sired 13 stakes winners before his death in 1958.