Racing returns to Laurel for 33-day summer meet

Following a 12-day break after the Preakness meet at Pimlico, Maryland racing will resume Friday at Laurel Park with a summer stand that will run through Aug. 20.

The 33-day meet has a $1.67 million stakes schedule comprised of 21 races, 16 of which are evenly split between events for Maryland-bred or Maryland-sired runners and Virginia-bred or Virginia-sired horses. The richest race of the season is the $100,000 Stormy Blues, a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-old fillies.

Racing will be held Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern but will be moved up to 12:35 p.m. this Saturday for Belmont Stakes Day.

The vast Laurel turf course, which can accommodate six different lanes, has not been used since the winter-spring meet ended May 7. It figures to get a good workout over the next 2 1/2 months before racing moves to the Timonium fair for a seven-day meet from Aug. 24 to Sept. 4.

With Trevor McCarthy sidelined until the fall with a shoulder injury, the jockeys’ race is wide open. Horacio Karamanos, who is nearing the 2,000th winner of his career, Feargal Lynch, and Kevin Gomez tied for leading rider at the 12-day Pimlico meet. They will be joined by Jevian Toledo, Steve Hamilton, whose business continues to improve, and a handful of others who have good backing, including Hall of Famer Edgar Prado.

Trainers Kieron Magee, Linda Rice, and Claudio Gonzalez all figure to have success at the meet. Magee and Rice tied for leading trainer at the Laurel winter-spring meet. At Pimlico, Magee and Graham Motion tied atop the standings with six wins each, one more than Mary Eppler and Mike Trombetta.

The opening-day 10-race card is topped by a first-level allowance for Maryland-breds. Six of the races are on grass.

Imperial Hint breezes twice

Imperial Hint, who came down with pneumonia after shipping to Dubai in March for the $2 million Golden Shaheen on World Cup Day, is back on the Parx Racing work tab for trainer Luis Carvajal Jr.

Imperial Hint worked a slow three furlongs in 37.58 seconds on May 27 and then picked up the pace last Saturday, going a half-mile in 48.32.

“He’s doing fantastic now,” Carvajal said. “I have three works left for him, and I think he will be ready to run.”

Carvajal and owner Ray Mamone have been discussing possible comeback spots for Imperial Hint, a winner of 6 of 10 starts and $349,000. Imperial Hint has won three stakes, including the Grade 3 General George at Laurel Park in February.

“We are about 80 percent sure we will be sending him to Gulfstream Park for the Smile Sprint,” Carvajal said.

The Grade 3 Smile Sprint has a purse of $250,000 and will be run at six furlongs July 1.

Carvajal, who has a small stable based at Parx, has won three races there recently. On May 23, he sent Malekith out for a $177.40 upset in a $5,000 claiming race. Dexter Haddock, a 10-pound apprentice, was aboard.

“The horse always cheats, so I put a bug boy up on him and told him to ride like the race was a quarter-mile,” Carvajal said.

Malekith’s victory was not the biggest upset of his career. In 2007 at Gulfstream Park, Carvajal won a $16,000 maidenclaiming race with Running Super Star, who paid $310.80.

Navarro picking up steam

After a slow start to the meet, Jorge Navarro has rocketed to his normal position atop the Monmouth Park trainer standings. Over the past two weeks, Navarro has gone 10 for 19 at Monmouth, and now leads the standings by four wins over Jason Servis and Patrick McBurney, who each have won six races.

Navarro has won the last four training titles at Monmouth.

From Saturday through Tuesday, Navarro went 8 for 15. He won four races at Monmouth, three at Parx, and one at Delaware Park.

This Friday and Saturday, Navarro’s focus will be at Belmont Park, where he has four horses entered in stakes. On Friday, he will run El Deal in the Grade 2 True North and Mia Torri in the Grade 3 Bed o’ Roses. On Saturday, he has Sharp Azteca in the Grade 1 Met Mile and War Story in the Grade 2 Brooklyn.

Nik Juarez shot to the top of the jockey standings last weekend, going 6 for 16. Juarez won twice on Saturday and four times Sunday. He leads the standings with 14 wins, five more than Jose Ferrer and Eddie Castro.

Joe Bravo also had a good weekend at Monmouth, going 5 for 10.

Paco Lopez, who has won the last four riding titles at Monmouth, is 3 for 30 at this meet. Lopez did win two races at Penn National on Saturday, including the $200,000 Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup, and a race at Belmont Park last Friday.

Rough riding at Penn National

Buoyed by beautiful weather, Penn National put on a good show last Saturday on Penn Mile Day. The races were interesting, and a good-sized crowd turned out.

The 11-race card handled $3.2 million, with more than $1 million bet on the $500,000 Penn Mile, the first Grade 2 race in the track’s history.

While things went smoothly on the business front, there was some rough riding on the card. With seven stakes slotted and riders coming in from New York and up from Maryland, there were four separate jockey objections in the first seven races, including three in races 6 and 7.

In race 1, a Pennsylvaniabred maiden race, Angel Suarez checked his mount while on the pace leaving the threeeighths pole and subsequently claimed foul against jockeys Felix Pinero, Angel Rodriguez, and Edwin Rodriguez. All three objections were disallowed.

In race 6, the $200,000 Penn Oaks, Feargal Lynch tried to split the leaders in upper stretch but couldn’t get through. He claimed foul against Luis Saez, the rider of the winner, Dynatail, who had the lead but did drift. The objection was not allowed.

In race 7, the $200,000 Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup, Horacio Karamanos had to check his mount, Oak Bluffs, along the inner rail entering the far turn of the five-furlong turf sprint when Rainbow Heir and Javier Castellano came up on his outside. The stewards let the order of finish stand.

In the same race, frontrunning winner Bold Thunder was disqualified from first to second after he ducked out sharply from a left-handed whip from Irad Ortiz Jr., herding runner-up Richard’s Boy outward. Bold Thunder held on to win by a head but was disqualified after Paco Lopez on Richard’s Boy claimed foul.