Diamond King gets chance to regroup in Heft Stakes

The six Christmastide Day stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday include a pair of sevenfurlong races for 2-year-olds and two Maryland-restricted stakes for 3-year-olds and up. Average field size is just under 11 horses per race.

One of the most intriguing horses on the card is Diamond King, who is entered in the $100,000 Heft Stakes, which is named for the late horse owner Arnold Heft.

Diamond King won his first two starts by open lengths at Parx for trainer Butch Reid. The runner-up in his debut, A Different Style, came back to win twice, including the James F. Lewis III Stakes at Laurel. He will be one of Diamond King’s chief rivals on Saturday.

In his second outing, Diamond King defeated American Talent by 2 1/2 lengths in an optional-claiming race. American Talent came back to beat allowance company in his next start.

Reid then sent Diamond King to Churchill Downs for the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club, but things quickly went awry. Diamond King was put in tight quarters nearing the first turn and clipped heels, throwing jockey Frankie Pennington to the ground.

Diamond King and Pennington have both recovered from the incident.

“We were very fortunate,” Reid said of Diamond King. “He had a couple of scratches, a little swelling, but he healed up nicely and came out of it good. Fortunately, the rider did too.”

Pennington, who was kicked by a trailing horse, had a laceration under his eye and back pain. He recently resumed riding and will be aboard Diamond King in the Heft.

Diamond King, who races for Chuck Zacney and LC Racing, was a $235,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-yearolds in training sale at Timonium in May.

“He’s right up there with all of the 2-year-olds I’ve had,” said Reid, who has been training since 1985. “He’s not a big horse but is very athletic, which is how I like them. What happened at Churchill would traumatize a lot of horses, but he took it in stride.”

A Different Style, who was beaten two lengths by Diamond King in his debut, is now 2 for 3, all for trainer John Servis.

Heft Stakes entrant Whirlin Curlin has posted major upsets for Gary Capuano in his last two races. Whirlin Curlin paid $49.80 to win the restricted Christopher Elser Memorial at Laurel on Nov. 25, then came back two weeks later to take the Maryland Juvenile Futurity by a neck at a $45.80 mutuel.

In the $100,000 Gin Talking Stakes, the 2-year-old filly Limited View will try to score her fourth consecutive victory, all for trainer and co-owner John Salzman Jr. Although she has broken poorly at times, Limited View did everything right in her most recent race, the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship.

Oldfashioned Style, who is based in New York with Gary Contessa, is coming off a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Tempted at Aqueduct. She has good speed and figures to go with Limited View early.

Strategic Dreams, one of two Rudy Rodriguez entrants, comes into the Gin Talking off an optional-claiming win at Aqueduct.

The $75,000 Jennings is an interesting one-mile race that includes the winners of its last two editions, John Jones and Noteworthy Peach. Both are trying regain their best form.

John Jones is winless in three starts since returning from a nine-month layoff. Trained by Lacey Gaudet, he is well suited for a one-turn mile.

Noteworthy Peach, the 2015 Jennings winner, returned from a layoff of more than a year to finish a well-beaten fifth in the Howard Bender Memorial, a six-furlong race for Maryland-breds. Having had that race, he should move forward for Capuano, especially at this more preferable distance.

Capuano’s other entrant, Final Prospect, also is a contender, as is Clubman, who races for Jonathan Maldonado.

The $75,000 Politely, a sixfurlong stakes for Marylandbred fillies and mares, has a field of nine topped by My Magician.

A $25,000 claim by Claudio Gonzalez in May, My Magician has since won three times, including the Dashing Beauty Stakes at Delaware Park and the Maryland-bred Geisha at Laurel. She was overmatched by Ms Locust Point and Ivy Bell last time out in the Willa On the Move.

“Back with Maryland-breds, she is going to be tough to beat,” Gonzalez said.

Renaissance Rosie won three straight races before finishing sixth in the Mahoning Valley Distaff in her most recent start. Bumped at the beginning of that race, she was last away from the gate before rushing to early contention. She seems properly spotted here.