Admirals War Chest targeting Maryland Million three-peat

October has been a big month for owner-breeder Stephen Sinatra, who sold the $300,000 topper at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale. On Saturday at Laurel Park, Sinatra will try to set a Maryland Million record when Admirals War Chest shoots for his third consecutive win in the Classic.

The only other horse to own three victories in the $150,000 Classic, which will be run for the 32nd time Saturday, is Eighttofasttocatch, who won the race in 2011, 2013, and 2014. He finished fifth in 2012.

Admirals War Chest is trained by Corby Caiazzo, who doubles as Sinatra’s manager at Berkely Farm, a 160-acre spread in Darlington, Md. The 60 to 70 horses who call Berkley home include racehorses, broodmares, weanlings, and yearlings.

Berkley has a five-furlong training track and an indoor jogging path. Admirals War Chest trains at the farm, where Caiazzo lives with his wife, Allison, and their two children.

“I like the training but I also like to watch the babies grow up, to see how they develop and which ones turn out to be the better ones,” Caiazzo said. “I like the whole aspect of what we do here.”

World Affairs, the highest seller at the Timonium yearling sale, was bred in Kentucky but raised at Berkley Farm. He is by leading first-crop yearling sire Cairo Prince, whose offspring are drawing high prices.

“We were all happy with that,” Caiazzo said. “I knew he was going to bring some money, but not that much. I thought he might go for $100,000 or $150,000. The sire is just so hot right now.”

Caiazzo, 45, cut his teeth assisting former standout rider Vincent Bracciale Jr. with his horses and then working for trainer Charles Hadry, who developed more than 40 stakes winners, including Wood Memorial winner Private Terms. Caiazzo also did a stint at Ocala Stud.

“When Vince was still riding, he had a couple of mares and some yearlings, then later on he had a few at the track,” Caiazzo said. “I worked for Charlie at Laurel. He had Finder’s Choice, Warning Glance, a lot of nice horses.”

Caiazzo admits he is apprehensive about Admirals War Chest’s race Saturday. A 6-year-old gelding, he has only started once since last November, finishing fifth in an optional-claiming race Oct. 8 at Laurel.

Admirals War Chest was being prepared for the Jennings Stakes at Laurel last December but developed a quarter crack, according to Caiazzo. Admirals War Chest was close to making his comeback when he had another minor setback.

“It was not the plan to run him two weeks before the Million,” Caiazzo said. “I had three other races for him, and none of them went. He’s been ready to run since September. I wanted to start him three weeks earlier than we did.”

Admirals War Chest is a free-running horse, who has won the last two editions of the 1 1/8-mile Classic by opening sizable leads. In 2015, he held on to win by a diminishing neck. Last year, he cruised by 3 1/2 lengths.

“Last year was easier,” Caiazzo said. “He was really good going into the race. This year’s different. It’s a little more stressful. The two weeks scares me a little bit.”

Crabcakes back in top form

After a minor midseason slump, Crabcakes has won her last two starts impressively and looks like one of the more solid plays on Saturday’s Maryland Million card at Laurel Park.

Crabcakes was bred and is raced by the Buckingham Farm of Elizabeth Houghton, who died in August at age 79. Crabcakes is trained by Houghton’s nephew Bernie, who races out of Penn National.

When Crabcakes squares off against older rivals in the $100,000 Maryland Million Distaff, she will be making her second start for the Morgan’s Ford Farm of Front Royal, Va., which is owned and operated by Wayne and Susan Chatfield-Taylor.

“My aunt loved her horse racing,” Houghton said. “She and the Chatfield-Taylors were very good friends for like 100 years. When she passed, she left them all of her horses, the broodmares, the yearlings, probably around 10 or 12 of them. They got a good one in Crabcakes.”

Crabcakes hadn’t yet made her debut when the Maryland Million was run a year ago. She began her career with a fivelength romp at Penn National in December and then came back to win the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Stakes for statebreds at Laurel a week later.

Following a 6 1/4-length optional-claiming romp at Laurel in January, Crabcakes didn’t win in her next four starts, all open stakes. Although she didn’t race badly, and finished second in three of those races, she didn’t seem to be progressing.

“For a few starts, she was breaking bad,” Houghton said. “We gave her some time off, and she’s doing better. We’ve learned she likes a little time between her races.”

Houghton freshened Crabcakes for two months and brought her back in the Miss Disco, a stakes restricted to Maryland-bred or -sired 3-year-old fillies at Laurel. She won by 1 1/4 lengths.

He wheeled her back last month against older fillies and mares in an open second-level optional claimer, and she whistled by almost six lengths.

With a 9-5-3-0 record and earnings of more than $231,000, Crabcakes comes into the seven-furlong Distaff at the top of her game.

“She’s getting older, and I can see she’s bigger and stronger now,” Houghton said. “She’s only three and has to run against older, but she’s all set for Saturday.”

◗ First post at Laurel switches from 1:10 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. beginning Friday.

Conviction in Pimlico murder

Keith Davis Jr. was convicted of second-degree murder in a Baltimore court Tuesday for the 2015 murder of a Pimlico Race Course security guard.

Kevin Jones, 22, was shot 11 times near the track while on his way to work at 5 a.m. on June 7, 2015.

Davis, 26, was arrested hours after the slaying following a police chase. He was shot several times while being apprehended.

The case has been controversial because Davis’s wife, Kelly, and Baltimore Bloc, a local activist group, contend he was wrongly accused and have rallied in his support at a number of public events.

Davis was tried twice for the killing. In May, a mistrial was declared in his first trial when the jury deadlocked.

Davis will be sentenced Dec. 10. He faces 50 years in prison.