Deep fields audition for Claiming Crown

In an attempt to increase Northeast horsemen’s participation in the Claiming Crown, Laurel Park will host Claiming Crown Preview Day on Sunday. The nine starter-allowance races on the card have the same conditions as the nine Claiming Crown races that will take place Dec. 5 at Gulfstream Park. Purses for the Laurel races are between 35 percent and 40 percent of what Gulfstream will offer. Total purses for the day are $410,000.

Sunday’s races offer guaranteed win-and-you’re-in berths in the Claiming Crown races. The Laurel winners also will receive free transportation to and from Gulfstream.

Gulfstream and Laurel are both owned by The Stronach Group.

The featured race is the $70,000 Jewel (race 8), a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up who have started for a claiming price of $35,000 or less since Jan. 1, 2014. The corresponding Gulfstream race will be worth $200,000.

The Jewel preview will match Noteworthy Peach, trained by Gary Capuano; Indycott, a $50,000 claim at Saratoga by Danny Gargan; and Mr Palmer, who enters off a $20,000 claiming win at Belmont Park for Rudy Rodriguez.

Noteworthy Peach won a second-level optional claimer Oct. 3 at Laurel in his first start in more than five months. Last spring, the 3-year-old son of Read the Footnotes finished second in the Federico Tesio Stakes.

Capuano recently said his “ultimate goal is to get Noteworthy Peach to the Jennings,” a one-mile handicap Dec. 26 at Laurel. If he were to win Sunday, he could take the Florida route to the Jennings.

“Over the summer, I gave him a break,” Capuano said. “He’s been a surprise. Early, he never showed that kind of grit as a 2-year-old.”

Indycott, in his first start for Gargan, finished third in the $190,000 Temperence Hill Invitational, a 1 5/8-mile race Sept. 12 at Belmont Park.

The Preview Day races have lured some horses you wouldn’t think would be eligible.

Galiana, an eight-time stakes winner and earner of $616,621, will face males in the Express (race 5), a six-furlong race for horses who have started for a claiming price of $7,500 or less. She won a $7,500 maiden-claiming race at Delaware Park in her career debut in June 2013.

Galiana will race for trainer Jose Rodriguez and owner Maria Romero on Sunday as owner and trainer Rodolfo Romero is serving a 90-day suspension for being found in possession of hypodermic needles. Romero’s Delaware Park barn was searched after Galiana was found to have two painkillers in her system – a violation of Delaware racing rules – following her Sept. 12 win at Delaware.

Trainer Doug Matthews has shipped in Seeking Treasure from Illinois. In her last start, Seeking Treasure finished second, beaten a nose, in the $298,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint, a 6 1/2-furlong turf race.

Seeking Treasure is entered in the Tiara (race 6), a 1 1/16-mile grass race open to fillies and mares who have started for a $25,000 claiming price or less since Jan. 1, 2014.