Channel Cat has what it takes to win Bald Eagle

Co-featured on the six-stakes Saturday card at Laurel Park is the newly created $150,000 Bald Eagle Derby, a 1 1/2-mile turf marathon for 3-year-olds that is intended to fill a gap on the racing calendar. By all appearances, it has achieved that goal.

The Bald Eagle has attracted a field of nine, including horses from the barns of Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown, Mark Casse, and Graham Motion. While the Pletcher-trained Channel Cat likely will be favored, he will have to earn the win against a promising group of still-developing runners.

The Laurel turf on Saturday can be expected to be less than firm. First post for the 12-race program has been moved up to 12:30 p.m. Eastern.

The card also includes the Grade 3 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup, the Find and the All Brandy for Maryland-bred or -sired horses, and two seven-furlong restricted stakes, the Challedon and Shine Again.

Channel Cat can check off a lot of the Bald Eagle requirements. He has shown he can get the distance, and five of his eight starts this year have come over courses listed as good or yielding.

If there is one concern for the son of English Channel, it’s that he’s had a busy month with a lot of shipping and returns on 17 days’ rest after winning a hard-fought battle in the Dueling Grounds Derby at Kentucky Downs.

Neepawa is coming off a 3 1/2-length front-running win for Casse in the 1 1/2-mile Breeders’, the third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, which was run over yielding ground. He took to the added distance of that race well, and may have found his niche after having had a difficult time getting up in shorter races.

Woodbine rider Jerome Lermyte will be down to ride.

Admission Office, trained by Brown, ran down Nakamura, who races for Motion, by three-quarters of a length over yielding turf in a 1 3/16-mile first-level allowance at Saratoga.

Way Early, trained by George Weaver, is flying under the radar. He finished second to Hawkish in the $500,000 Penn Mile in June and comes into this off a rallying New York-bred allowance win.

Hopefully the Laurel course is in good enough condition to keep both the $75,000 Find and $75,000 All Brandy on the turf.

The Find has drawn a strong cast of nine, plus two main-track-only entrants. The field includes Just Howard, the 2017 Maryland-bred Horse of the Year; O Dionysus, who has found a new home on turf for Gary Capuano; and local favorite Phlash Phelps, who won the Find in 2015 and finished a close third the following year for Rodney Jenkins.

Just Howard finished third in the off-the-turf Dixie at Pimlico to start his season for Motion. He has since finished a close fifth in the Arlington Handicap and won an open second-level optional claimer at Laurel. He looks primed for a top effort.

O Dionysus is unbeaten in three turf starts, including the 1 1/2-mile Cape Henlopen at Delaware Park. He is cross-entered in the Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup, but is expected to start in the Find if it stays on the grass.

The All Brandy has 11 fillies and mares entered for turf and four main-track-only hopefuls. Favoritism might go to the Michael Trombetta-trained My Sistersledge, who will stretch out in distance off a third-place finish in the six-furlong Jameela.

The seven-furlong Challedon, which is restricted to nonwinners of a stakes, rematches deep closer Rockinn On Bye and Union Blues, the second- and third-place finishers from the Coalition at Timonium. Rockinn on Bye is trained by Stephen Casey and Union Blues by Jennifer Shannon. The field also includes Top of Mind, who returned from a year layoff to win a 1 1/16-mile optional-claiming race for Jenkins, and Old Time Revival, who finished second in the Grade 3 Gotham earlier this year for trainer Kenneth Decker.

Trainer Ben Colebrook has cross-entered Kentucky shipper Siem Riep, whom he wants to run in the BWI Turf Cup. If the grass is soft, he will run in the Challedon.

Cairenn will start in her second Shine Again Stakes of the summer. Trained by Motion, she finished second in the restricted Shine Again going seven furlongs at Saratoga. She has since finished last of eight in the Grade 1 Ballerina.

The Shine Again field of eight also includes hard-trying Munificent, who is trained by Mary Eppler, and Angel at War, who is 7 for 15 and enters off an optional-claiming win at Delaware Park for trainer Mike Gorham.