De Francis Dash highlights stakes card at Laurel Park

Switzerland and Always Sunshine, whose lone graded-stakes success each came in the same Maryland race two years apart, and a trio of multiple stakes winners are among nine older sprinters entered in a wide-open edition of the $250,000 Xpressbet Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) on Saturday at Laurel Park. The 27th running of the 6-furlong De Francis for sprinters 3 and up highlights seven stakes, six scheduled for Laurel’s turf course, worth $900,000 in purses on a 13-race Fall Festival of Racing program that was rescheduled from Sept. 15 because of the threat of severe weather from Hurricane Florence. Also on tap are the $150,000 All Along for females 3 and up at 11⁄ miles; $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup for 3-year-olds and up at 1½ miles; $100,000 Laurel Dash for 3year-olds and up and $100,000 Sensible Lady Turf Dash for fillies and mares 3 and older; $100,000 Laurel Futurity for 2-year-olds and $100,000 Selima for 2-year-old fillies, all going 6 furlongs. First-race post time is 12:30 p.m. The De Francis is carded as Race 10, with a post time of 5 p.m. This year’s De Francis marks the fifth and final race in the 3-year-old and up dirt sprint division of the revived Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship Series, an assortment of 25 races at tracks in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania which kicked off May 18 and 19 at Pimlico.