Barbadian Runner to target Maryland Million
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After running at five different tracks since May, trainer Henry Walters will finally get a chance to bring Maryland-bred gelding Barbadian Runner home to Laurel Park and keep him there. After a short rest, Walters plans to enter the 3-year-old on Maryland Million Day in October.
On Friday, Barbadian Runner snapped a streak of three straight runner-up finishes to earn the biggest victory of his career in the $500,000 Robert Hilton Memorial at Charles Town. Squaring off against Kentucky Derby runners Owen Almighty and Neoequos, Walters’s gelding benefited from an early scramble for the lead and surged late under Forest Boyce to win by 2 1/2 lengths.
“He had to negotiate a good trip and that’s what he got,” Walters said. “Everything set up for him out in front.”
Before his tour of the Mid-Atlantic region this summer, Barbadian Runner made 10 of his first 11 starts at Laurel, his home base throughout his 3-year-old season. Walters entered him in the $100,000 Polynesian on Sept. 6, the first Saturday of Laurel’s fall meet, but after running him twice in August, the trainer said that he feels more comfortable waiting until October.
Walters still isn’t sure if Barbadian Runner is best suited to the $150,000 Maryland Million Classic at 1 1/8 miles or the $100,000 Maryland Million Sprint at six furlongs. He will likely consider the gelding for both races, which will be run on a 12-race statebred stakes card on Oct. 18.
“I think we’ll just sit home and wait for the Maryland Million, whether it be the Sprint or the Classic,” Walters said. “We’re leaning more toward the Classic, but I’ll nominate to both ends.”
In one of the best campaigns in the Mid-Atlantic region this year, Barbadian Runner has won four stakes races in nine starts. He has only finished out of the money once, when he was fourth in the $100,000 James W. Murphy on turf at Pimlico.
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