Laurel Park: Dynamic Strike perfect at Miracle Wood distance

During their nearly 30-year association as owner and trainer, Robert Meyerhoff and Dick Small have tasted great success, winning the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Classic with the Maryland-bred Concern and banking $2.7 million with Broad Brush during his three-year racing career from 1985-87.

Meyerhoff, who races as Fitzhugh LLC, and Small have a potential rising star in Dynamic Strike, one of three Triple Crown nominees among a lineup of eight 3-year-olds in Saturday’s $75,000 Miracle Wood Stakes at Laurel Park.

Since running fifth in his career debut going six furlongs, Dynamic Strike is 2 for 2 at one mile, the distance of the Miracle Wood. In his first start at 3, Dynamic Strike proved best by 3 1/4 lengths in a three-horse field of first-level optional $50,000 claimers Jan. 24.

Dynamic Strike owns a good pedigree. His sire, Smart Strike, won the Grade 1 Iselin Handicap and Grade 3 Salvator Mile in 1996. His dam, Dynamic Deputy, won 5 of 13 starts and $344,020, including a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap. Her two previous foals, however, were just a combined 1 for 12 lifetime.

The colt who has been facing the classiest company in the Miracle Wood is Vegas No Show, who ships in from New York for what looks like a confidence builder after back-to-back off-the-board finishes in the Grade 2 Jerome and Grade 2 Remsen.

As a 2-year-old, Vegas No Show was a close second going a one-turn mile in the Grade 2 Nashua at Aqueduct and won the mile and 70-yard Dover at Delaware Park by a nose. He is a half-brother to Bullsbay, winner of the Grade 1 Whitney and Grade 3 Alysheba in 2009.

Over the past three seasons, Vegas No Show’s trainer, Kelly Breen, is 5 for 21 (24 percent) shipping into Laurel, but 0 for 8 in stakes.

The field also includes Where’s Dominic, whose two most recent races were 5 1/2-furlong sprints. Nevertheless, Where’s Dominic merits respect because trainer Mike Trombetta went 3 for 3 in Laurel stakes during January. From a small sampling of horses making their first start in a route in their third start off a layoff, Trombetta’s horses are 1 for 3, with the two others missing by a head and a neck. Two of those good performances came in stakes.