Maryland horsemen win on Belmont card

While the eyes of the racing world were focused on Justify’s successful quest to become the 13th Triple Crown champion, Maryland’s horsemen received some well-deserved attention of their own during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Belmont Park. For the second straight year, trainer Graham Motion upset the $1 million Manhattan (G1) on the Belmont Stakes (G1) undercard with a horse he brought from his base at Fair Hill in Elkton. After Ascend’s 27-1 upset in 2017, Spring Quality defied both Post 13 and his 18-1 odds to emerge a neck in front of a crowded finish line where none of the top nine finishers were separated by more than a neck. Augustin Stable homebred Spring Quality was racing for just the second time since his victory in the Red Smith Handicap (G3) last November at Aqueduct. He was second in the Fort Marcy (G3) on May 5 at Belmont in his season debut. Spring Quality was ridden by Hall of Famer Edgar Prado, who rose to prominence in Maryland in the 1990s and last month became just the eighth jockey to win at least 7,000 career races. A couple of hours before Spring Quality’s win, Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable and Terp Racing’s multiple stakes winner Still Having Fun sprang a 13-1 upset of the seven-furlong Woody Stephens (G2) for Laurel Park-based trainer Tim Keefe. LAUREL PARK: Owners John Salzman Jr., Fred Wasserloos and George Greenwalt will send Limited View to make her first start in nearly two months. Limited View is among a quartet of stakes winners in a field of eight that will line up for the $75,000 Alma North Stakes Saturday. The 7-furlong Alma North for 3-year-old fillies is carded11th on a 12-race program and starts the summer stakes schedule at Laurel, whose current meet began June 1 and runs through Aug. 19. First race post time is 1:10 p.m. Limited View, a Maryland-bred daughter of Freedom Child trained by Salzman, has not raced since finishing seventh in the 6-furlong Primonetta Stakes April 21 at Laurel. She was entered in the Adena Springs Miss Preakness (G3) on the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) undercard May18 at Pimlico Race Course, but scratched because of the weather. SCHEDULE CHANGE: The seventh annual Totally Thoroughbred Horse Show has been rescheduled to Saturday, Oct. 7, at Pimlico from its original date of July 7 because of heavy rains in May. All proceeds will benefit Beyond the Wire,