Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
On Leave drops into All Along
The Grade 3, $250,000 De Francis Memorial Dash on Saturday at Laurel Park is supported by six turf stakes, all featuring good-sized fields. The 12-race card, which will be streamed live on DRF.com, begins at 1:10 p.m. Eastern and is scheduled to wrap up at 6:40.
The All Along, a 1 1/16-mile grass race for fillies and mares, is the second-richest race of the day at $150,000 and has a field of 10. The undercard also includes five $100,000 stakes. There are four turf sprints, two for 3-year-olds and up and a pair for 2-year-olds, plus a turf marathon.
On Leave, whom trainer Shug McGaughey ships down from Belmont Park, is well spotted in the All Along. In her most recent start, the Grade 2 Ballston Spa on Travers Day at Saratoga, she made a middle move to bid for the lead outside of Dickinson. Although she flattened out in the stretch, On Leave was beaten only 3 1/4 lengths by the victorious Lady Eli.
“We’ll give her a bit of a class relief and see what happens,” McGaughey said.
A Grade 2-winning daughter of War Front, On Leave is 5 for 11 in her career. McGaughey gives the mount to the locally based Forest Boyce.
On Leave may be the horse to beat, but the All Along is a competitive race. Light Up Our World and Gianna’s Dream, the second- and third-place finishers in the Grade 3 Violet at Monmouth Park, enter off solid efforts, and Neil Drysdale ships in Juno from California.
Gianna’s Dream, trained by Mike Maker, showed the way until deep stretch in the 1 1/8-mile Violet before being overtaken by Tricky Escape and nipped for second by Light Up Our World. She should appreciate the slightly shorter distance of the All Along.
Light Up Our World was checked along the inner rail on the first turn of the Violet while making her third U.S. start. She is trained by Arnaud Delacour.
Juno has good speed and isn’t likely to change her style in this race. She seems quicker than Gianna’s Dream.
A longshot to consider is Martini Glass, who came up a length short of upsetting Songbird in the Delaware Handicap for trainer Keith Nations. She enters off a troubled journey in the $200,000 Lady Jacqueline at Thistledown. She was bumped at the start and then bottled up along the inside in that 1 1/8-mile dirt race before finishing second to Money’soncharlotte, who has won four races in a row.
Martini Glass, whom Nations claimed for $16,000 out of her debut in February 2016 at Tampa Bay Downs, is a seventime winner and an earner of $305,000. She won a starter race on turf at Tampa last winter.
“When we claimed her, we thought she was a turf horse,” Nations said. “When we ran her on grass this winter at Tampa, she just exploded. We’ve been wanting to get her back on turf. I’m curious to see how she runs against this high-caliber field.”
◗ In the Laurel Dash, Snowday will return on two weeks’ rest for trainer J. Willard Thompson after finishing third, beaten a half-length by Pure Sensation, in the Grade 3 Turf Monster at Parx.
Other contenders in the sixfurlong race include Dream Mover, who is coming off an allowance win at Saratoga for Jimmy Jerkens; Blu Moon Ace, who is cross-entered in the De Francis Memorial Dash by trainer Kevin Patterson; and Class and Cash, who will be shortening up in distance for Jane Cibelli.
◗ The sister race to the Laurel Dash, the Sensible Lady Turf Dash, will rematch the Horacio De Paz-trained Ginger N Rye and Miss Ella, the one-two finishers in the Smart N Fancy at Saratoga. Miss Ella, trained by Graham Motion, finished strongly in that race and gets a little more ground to work with Saturday.
◗ Wesley Ward has contenders in the Laurel Futurity and Selima, six-furlong races for 2-year-olds. He has Battle Station, a debut winner over New York-breds at Saratoga, in the Futurity and Light Up the Town, a Monmouth Park debut winner, in the Selima.
The Futurity field also includes Majestic Dunhill, a Saratoga maiden winner for George Weaver, and the Christophe Clement-trained Therapist, who closed with a rush to defeat statebreds while making his debut at Saratoga.
The Selima, the first stakes on the card, includes the debut winners Mel’s Gone Wild, Madame X, and Proportionality, all of whom didn’t fare well in Saratoga stakes in their second starts. Wise Gal comes out of a nice debut win at Laurel.
◗ The 1 1/2-mile Laurel Turf Cup will match a competitive field of 11 topped by Infinite Wisdom and Manitoulin.
Infinite Wisdom, trained by Brian Lynch, scored a front-running victory in the 1 5/8-mile John’s Call at Saratoga, a race restricted to nonwinners of a graded stakes on turf in 2017.
Manitoulin, conditioned by Jimmy Toner, finished fourth in the Grade 3 Arlington Handicap two races ago and most recently closed well to be second to the sharp Saratoga allowance winner Hello Don Julio.