Cordmaker prevails in Harrison Johnson Memorial

Besides one failed turf experiment, Cordmaker had made his nine other starts in one-turn dirt races. Stretched out to 1 1/8 miles on Saturday in the $100,000 Harrison Johnson Memorial at Laurel Park, the 4-year-old son of Curlin scored his first open-stakes victory.

Cordmaker benefited from a heads-up ride by Victor Carrasco, who kept him within several lengths of the leaders without asking him for any speed. On the backstretch, after a slow half-mile in 49.29 seconds, John Jones, Twisted Tom – who hopped in the air at the start – and General Downs lined up across the track on the lead while being stalked by 2-1 favorite Unbridled Juan.

When the field began to bunch up on the far turn, Carrasco boldly sent Cordmaker up to challenge four wide between horses while inside Unbridled Juan. Cordmaker came away with the lead entering the stretch and then held Unbridled Juan at bay to win by 1 1/2 lengths. It was a head farther back to the hard-trying Bonus Points in third.

Cordmaker paid $10.80 to win and was timed in 1:50.29. He covered his final furlong in 12.45 seconds after an opening mile in 1:37.84.

Cordmaker is trained by Rodney Jenkins and owned by the Hillwood Stable of Ellen Charles, who purchased him for $150,000 at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale at Timonium. He is the older half-brother of the 3-year-old filly Las Setas, who was scheduled to run in the Beyond the Wire Stakes later on the Laurel card.

"All year, he's been a different horse," Jenkins said. "He's just steadily getting better. He's grown up a lot."

Now 4 for 11, Cordmaker came into the Johnson Memorial off an eighth-place finish in the Grade 3 General George at Laurel, which is starting to look like a key race. The first two horses to run back out of the General George were Do Share and Life in Shambles, who finished first and second last weekend in the Grade 3 Tom Fool Stakes at Aqueduct. The General George was won by the promising sprinter Uncontested, who is 2 for 2 since returning from a lengthy layoff.

The Johnson Memorial was the second stakes win for Cordmaker, who has earned $200,463. He won the Maryland-bred Jennings going a mile at Laurel in December.