Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Familiar names top fields in Virginia-restricted stakes
Laurel Park will welcome its homeless Virginia neighbors from the south Saturday for a series of statebred stakes that Laurel has hosted since the closing of Colonial Downs following the 2013 season.
On Saturday, the four $75,000 turf races include two at a mile and a pair of 5 1/2-furlong sprints, one at each distance for males and another for females. The stakes are for Virginia bred or -sired runners.
Four more stakes for Virginia-registered horses are scheduled for Aug. 4 at Laurel.
This could be the last season these races are run in Maryland since Colonial Downs was purchased in April for more than $20 million following the passage of legislation that will permit the owner of Colonial Downs to operate slot-machine-style games ontrack and at 10 locations across Virginia. The sale gives hope that racing will return to Virginia in the coming years.
Special Envoy moved to the top of the Virginia-bred division last year when he swept the three distance turf races at Laurel – the Edward Evans, Hansel, and Bert Allen. On Saturday, he will shoot for a repeat win in the one-mile Evans.
Last year, Special Envoy prepped for the Evans with a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Red Bank at Monmouth Park. This year, he comes into the race off a nine-month layoff.
Special Envoy is a 7-year-old son of Stroll owned and bred by Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Firestone. He is based at Fair Hill with Arnaud Delacour, who has worked him seven times since April 29.
The Evans field also includes River Deep and Sticks stately dude, who will be making their first starts in Virginia-bred company, and Speed Gracer, who finished third in the Evans and Hansel and second in the Allen last year.
River Deep developed into one of the top horses based in Maryland last fall for trainer Phil Schoenthal, winning four straight races. He finished fifth in his return from a layoff of more than four months several weeks ago and has every right to regain his best form Saturday.
In the Nellie Mae Cox, a onemile race for fillies and mares, Queen Caroline will try to pick up where she left off last year, when she won the Cox, finished third in the William M. Backer, and then won the Brookmeade for trainer Michael Matz.
Her chief adversary figures to be Armoire, who finished second in all three races for Delacour.
New to the statebred mix is Well Blessed, who concluded her 4-year-old season by winning three of her last four starts for Delacour and the Firestones.
In the 5 1/2-furlong White Oak Farm, the 11-year-old Two Notch Road will try to keep a streak alive. Two Notch Road, trained and co-owned by Glenn Thompson, has won a Virginia bred stakes each season since 2014.
Two Notch Road won the Punch Line in 2014 and 2015, the White Oak Farm in 2016, and the Meadow Stable last year. Despite his age, he is always competitive with statebreds.
Do What I Say will be aiming for a repeat win in the M. Tyson Gilpin, a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares. She closed from seventh to win this race a year ago at 12-1 and in her next start finished third to Northern Eclipse in the Camptown.
Do What I Say returned to the races in good form in early May for trainer Mike Trombetta, finishing second in a secondlevel optional-claiming race.
Northern Eclipse won her seasonal debut for trainer Hugh McMahon a year ago and enters the Gilpin off a seven-month layoff. She is likely to make good use of her early speed.