Owner-Trainer Considering Late Nomination to Triple Crown
Winner, Private Terms Runner-Up Joe Possible for April 16 Tesio
Connections Mulling Options for Beyond the Wire Winner Luna Belle

LAUREL, MD – J R Sanchez Racing Stable’s Shake Em Loose was ‘really happy’ the morning after his mild upset in Saturday’s Private Terms for 3-year-olds at Laurel Park, giving owner-trainer Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon reason to consider nominating the ex-claimer to the Triple Crown.

Third choice in a field of seven at 5-1, Shake Em Loose posted a 1 ¾-length victory in the about 1 1/16-mile Private Terms, his two-turn debut, turning away even-money favorite Joe down the stretch.

“He’s doing great. He’s really happy. He’s a little tired, but he ran his guts out yesterday. He didn’t want to get beat,” Sanchez-Salomon said Sunday. “Nothing is for sure in this game, but if you get a horse that runs like the way he did yesterday … I don’t know what to tell you. I was just so excited to see him win.”

Sanchez-Salomon claimed Shake Em Loose, a gelded son of Grade 1 winner Shakin It Up, for $16,000 out of a maiden triumph last November at Laurel. He has won three of four starts since, including a 59-1 upset of the Dec. 26 in the Heft in the first race for his new connections. The lone loss came when he broke in the air in the Jan. 29 Spectacular Bid and finished seventh.

“The way I see it, every single race that he’s run for me except for the one where he had the trouble and didn’t run, he’s improving and he’s moving up little by little,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “He’s an exciting horse. I hope we can keep doing what we’re doing with him and he can keep getting better and better day by day.”

Shake Em Loose was not among the 312 early nominees for $600 to the Triple Crown by the initial Jan. 29 deadline. The second deadline is March 28 at a cost of $6,000. After that, supplemental nominations to each of the Triple Crown races can be made at the time of entry – $200,000 for the Kentucky Derby (G1), $150,000 for the Preakness (G1) and $50,000 for the Belmont (G1).

Sanchez-Salomon is pointing Shake Em Loose to the $125,000 Federico Tesio going 1 1/8 miles April 16 at Laurel. For the seventh straight year, the Tesio is a ‘Win and In’ qualifier for Triple Crown-nominated horses to the Preakness, to be held May 21 at historic Pimlico Race Course.

“My next step is the Federico Tesio,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “I think we’re going to pay the money to nominate him to the Preakness. I feel really good about him. I want to wait and see how he does this week, but he’s really good, really happy this morning.”

The Tesio is also a possibility for The Elkstone Group’s homebred stakes-winner Joe, Maryland’ champion 2-year-old of 2021 who had a three-race win streak snapped in the Private Terms.

“It’s surely in play if he’s training well and doing well,” trainer Michael Trombetta said Sunday. “It certainly makes sense.”

Joe, whose streak included wins in the Maryland Juvenile and an optional claiming allowance Jan. 23 in his two-turn debt, settled in mid-pack in the Private Terms and loomed a threat once straightened for home but could not get to the winner.

“I was hoping he’d do a little better, but he still ran a good race,” Trombetta said. “He kind of found himself in a strange traffic thing there at the sixteenth pole. I think he was kind of drifting in and the other horse was kind of drifting out a little bit and we had to correct and straighten and maybe lost a little momentum, but we still couldn’t figure out a way to get past the last horse. It just wasn’t smooth, but other than that he ran well.”

Trainer Hamilton Smith said he remains undecided what to do with 3-year-old filly Luna Belle, Maryland’s 2021 juvenile filly champion who extended her win streak to four stakes with a dominant 3 ½-length triumph in the one-mile Beyond the Wire. Smith co-owns the horse with Deborah Greene and also bred the daughter of Great Notion with Greene and her late father, Fred Greene Jr.

The next local option for Luna Belle is the $125,000 Weber City Miss going about 1 1/16 miles April 16 at Laurel, which affords the winner an automatic berth to the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) May 20 at Pimlico.

“We haven’t thought too much past this race,” Smith said. “The Weber City is there, and there’s a few out-of-town races coming up a little later on after the Weber City. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with her yet. I’ll see how she goes this week and then make a decision.”

Smith and Greene were at the Elloree Training Center in South Carolina, owned and operated by Smith’s older brother, Goree, to watch some of their 2-year-olds run in the Elloree Trials, including a full brother to Luna Belle, Run Bucky Run.

Luna Belle raced closer to the pace in the Beyond the Wire than she had in her previous races, particularly the Feb. 19 Wide Country, where she had to rally from last and weave through traffic in the stretch, winning by three lengths. Smith’s son and assistant, Jason, saddled Luna Belle Saturday.

“I told my son to tell the jock that going a mile she should be closer than in her sprints, anyway. It looked like speed was holding up pretty good all day. I just told him not to give her too much to do late,” Smith said. “Once she got going you could see he had a pretty good hold of her and he was just trying to contain her all the way down the backside.

“She ran well. When he asked her to go, she went. She finished up good and strong, so I was glad to see that. I always thought she could go a little further,” he added. “It looks like we’ve got some options with her now. She’s not strictly a sprinter, put it that way.”

Jason Smith said Luna Belle exited the Beyond the Wire in good shape.

“She was bouncing around the shedrow this morning, so that’s a good thing. I’m very pleased with how she came out of the race. She ran big. She’s a heck of a filly, I’ll tell you,” he said. “Knock on wood, she keeps moving in the right direction. If she keeps doing the way she’s doing, she’s going to be probably the best filly we’ve ever trained.”