Angelos pair look solid in Laurel undercard stakes
The three $50,000 Maryland-bred stakes on the Saturday card at Laurel are every bit as interesting as the two $100,000 open-company headliners.
The Marathon Farms of Peter Angelos, the chief executive and majority owner of the Baltimore Orioles, has a contender in both the Maryland Juvenile Futurity and the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship, a pair of seven-furlong races.
In the Futurity, Angelos has Showalter, whom he named after Orioles manager Buck Showalter. A son of Quality Road out of the stakes winner Lucette, Showalter won his Nov. 29 debut by a neck in a game, front-running performance over open company. The runner-up, Hennessy Fire, who pushed Showalter hard in the stretch, came back last Saturday to finish a good second at Laurel.
Showalter’s yearling half-brother by Uncle Mo sold for $240,000 at the Keeneland January sale this year and then sold for $360,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale. Showalter is trained by Robert Leaf Jr., who has a modest stable at Pimlico.
“I was expecting that kind of ability but maybe not that kind of tenacity,” Leaf said of Showalter. “I mean, you never know until they run, but he’s a super-tough horse. He’s a trouper.”
Showalter will face Maryland Million Nursery winner Corvus and Ravenheart, who was fourth as the Nursery favorite and has since finished sixth in the Grade 2 Remsen.
Angelos and trainer Gary Capuano will send out the favored Lexington Street in the Juvenile Filly Championship. A daughter of the Kentucky-based Street Sense, Lexington Street is 3 for 4 in her career. She made short work of her rivals in the Maryland Million Lassie and comes into this race off an impressive victory over open company in a one-mile optional-claiming race. Lexington Street was bottled up in traffic along the inside on the far turn and had nowhere to go when behind horses in upper stretch. Jockey Jevian Toledo remained patient, and then worked her through a tight opening in midstretch and was able to run down the front-runner, who had gotten the jump on her.
Maryland Million Classic winner Admirals War Chest will carry 120 pounds in the Jennings Handicap and concede four to eight pounds to his 11 rivals.
Admirals War Chest does his best work on the lead, and jockey Taylor Hole is likely to send him from post 11 in this one-turn mile. Admirals War Chest gave trainer Corby Caiazzo his first stakes win in the Classic.
Other Jennings contenders include D C Dancer, who stretches out in distance for trainer Mike Trombetta following several good sprint tries; Bridget’s Big Luvy, who won the Private Terms Stakes at Laurel in March for Jeremiah Englehart; and Noteworthy Peach, who scored a nice second-level optional win in October for Capuano.