Copper Tax surges in stretch to take Private Terms Stakes

LAUREL, MD - Gary Capuano never lost faith in Copper Tax, and his confidence was rewarded when the colt stormed down the stretch to win Saturday’s $100,000 Private Terms Stakes for 3-year-olds racing 1 1/16 miles at Laurel Park.

Ridden by apprentice J. G. Torrealba, Copper Tax broke from the rail in the nine-horse field, and saved ground in midpack as Speedyness made the lead inside of a hard-held Point Dume.

Those pacesetters raced through fractions of 23.51 and 47.39 seconds while Inveigled found a sweet stalking position in third.

Speedyness, who had won four of his last five starts, including Laurel’s Miracle Wood on Feb. 24, streaked past the six-furlong mark in 1:12.90, but Torrealba had Copper Tax on the move. He altered the colt to the four path to bid inside of a menacing Circle P and set off for home.

Speedyness and Inveigled were game, but Copper Tax had proper momentum, and he got to the wire a neck better than Inveigled in 1:46.38 over a sloppy track that had been deluged by over an inch of rain.

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Speedyness finished another head behind in third. Then came Circle P, Startswithadream, Speed Runner, Point Dume, Celtic Contender and I Know Map.

Favored Copper Tax returned $6.60 and gave Torrealba his first stakes victory.

“He’s been riding really good,” Capuano said of Torrealba, who piloted Copper Tax for the first time. “Jaime [Rodriguez} was obviously tied up [riding Speedyness] and [Mychel] Sanchez was riding [Inveigled], so I was up in the air on who to use. He’s been working with me in the mornings and has ridden a couple for me. Bug riders, they’re hungry. They ride hard and he did that.”

After winning five consecutive races, Copper Tax was considered the best 2-year-old to compete in the Mid-Atlantic region in 2023. After wiring the field in the one-mile Rocky Run at Delaware and rallying from last to capture Laurel’s James F. Lewis III, Capuano decided to test Copper Tax in Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Remsen.

Copper Tax broke from post 9 in the Remsen, a nine-furlong test contested over a muddy and inside, speed-favoring track, raced four wide for most of the way, was steadied on the second turn, then finished evenly for sixth. The top-two finishers, Dornoch and Sierra Leone, have both won major Kentucky Derby preps this spring.

Capuano sent Copper Tax to the farm for a freshening, then adverse weather conditions scrapped a scheduled start to his 3-year-old campaign in Laurel’s Spectacular Bid.

Forced into Plan B, Capuano ran Copper Tax in Tampa Bay’s Grade 3 Sam F. Davis on Feb. 10, and the colt finished a disappointing tenth.

“When I got down there, he looked great,” Capuano said. “I let him breeze through the stretch the Wednesday before the race, and he struggled. I’m just guessing he never got a hold of the racetrack.”

Capuano scratched out of the one-mile Miracle Wood to concentrate on the Private Terms and was concerned the weather threw another monkey wrench into the works.

“I was hoping they’d cancel like New York and run next weekend,” Capuano said. “The rail was no good. I drew the one hole. I told [Torrealba] to get off the rail as soon as he can.”

Bred in Kentucky by Lance Sullenberger, Copper Tax was purchased for $45,000 as a yearling by Rose Petal Stable. He is a son of Copper Bullet out of stakes-placed dirt sprinter Wilhelmina, has won six of nine starts for lifetime earnings of $311,500, and will likely run next in Laurel’s $125,000 Federico Tesio at 1 1/8 miles on April 20.

The Tesio is a “Win and You’re In” for the Preakness.

***Beyond the Wire Stakes

Phil Schoenthal was absent from the track on Saturday for good reason as he celebrated his daughter’s 16th birthday.

Determined Driver gave Schoenthal even more of a reason to enjoy the day when she walloped four other 3-year-old fillies in the $100,000 Beyond the Wire over a one-turn mile.

Racing a route of ground for the first time, Determined Driver sat a nice outside tracking trip with her sights set on pacesetters Kissedbyanangel and Aoife’s Magic after fractions of 24.29 and 48.10 seconds.

Jockey Forest Boyce pushed the button on the bend, and Determined Driver immediately responded. She grabbed the lead after six furlongs in 1:13.92, then breezed to the wire to prevail by 12 1/2 lengths in 1:39.68.

Kissedbyanangel was second, 1 1/2 lengths better than Aoife’s Magic. Kiss for Luck and Go Sherry Go completed the order of finish. Patricia Ann scratched.

Determined Driver paid $4.20 as the betting favorite.

“It’s the trip I envisioned,” Schoenthal said via phone interview. I talked to Forest this morning and with the scratch of the speed horse from New York, I told her it was more of a rider’s race,” Schoenthal said via phone interview. “It worked out great.”

“I had my doubts,” Schoenthal said about Determined Driver’s ability to successfully stretch out to a mile. “I trained her mother, who was a much better sprinter.”

Bred by 2500 Determined Stud, Determined Driver is a homebred owned by D Hatman Thoroughbreds. She is by Dialed In out of a half-sister to Grade 1-winning turf router Illuminant. She has won three times with two seconds from five starts with $178,810 in lifetime earnings.

Schoenthal mentioned Laurel’s $125,000 Weber City Miss on April 20 at 1 1/16 miles as a potential next spot. “The goal would be to get her to Preakness weekend. If that means the Miss Preakness [Grade 3, $150,000 at six furlongs] or, if she wins the next one, the Black-Eyed Susan [Grade 2, $300,000 at 1 1/8 miles], or maybe the Hilltop [$100,000 at one mile on turf] even because I still want to see her back on the grass at some point.”

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