Diamond King the talent in Tesio Stakes

Probably there is some sort of hierarchy of talent and form in the $125,000 Federico Tesio Stakes, but it’s sure not easy to discern it.

The Tesio, race 10 of 11, is the featured race among five stakes Saturday at Laurel Park. It’s carded for 1 1/8 miles on dirt and is a nominal prep for the Preakness on May 19, but these 3-year-olds are a long distance from competing with the top of what looks like a strong crop for the 2018 Triple Crown.

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Laurel has made the Tesio a Win and You’re In race for the Preakness, and whoever comes out of this mishmash to visit the winner’s circle Saturday is guaranteed a berth in the big race, provided the horse is Triple Crown nominated. Eleven are entered, but Navy Commander is expected to be scratched in favor of a race at Charles Town.

Diamond King’s connections had designs on the Kentucky Derby, according to trainer John Servis, but while they would take a Preakness slot, Diamond King just needs to get back into action and back on the right track.

Quite possibly the most talented horse in the Tesio, Diamond King scored two Parx Racing wins to start his career last year, then lost his jockey into the first turn of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs when put in tight quarters. He returned at Laurel on Dec. 30 with a game win in the seven-furlong $100,000 Heft Stakes. He dueled for the lead, was passed in upper stretch by a rival who sat just off the pace, and came back to win going away, galloping-out a mile in front.

Diamond King was transferred from trainer Butch Reid to Servis, who saddled him to a third-place finish in the Feb. 3 Swale Stakes at Gulfstream. Diamond King broke from the fence and had some trouble, but still didn’t finish off that race with the same energy he’d shown in previous wins.

“I hadn’t had him that long, but I was a little concerned going into the race since he was kind of training just okay,” Servis said. “He’s a lot better horse now.”

Still, Diamond King had to be scratched sick from the Private Terms Stakes on March 17 at Laurel, and stretching out to nine furlongs after 10 weeks off with a horse less than enthusiastic in his training has Servis concerned about fitness.

Still Having Fun won the Whitely and the Miracle Wood this winter at Laurel and was an odds-on favorite for the Private Terms, but he got off to a very poor start, pulled too hard around the first turn and down the backstretch, and after making a strong bid into contention between the three-eighths and quarter poles, he flattened out to finish fourth in his two-turn debut. Still Having Fun has a sprint-leaning pedigree, but it’s possible the early trouble, rather than distance limitations, led to his defeat last time.

“We all think we’d like to try him one more time here just so we can get a better idea as to what his abilities may or may not be as far as distance,” trainer Tim Keefe said.

V.I.P. Code won the Private Terms at odds of 36-1, but trainer Phil Schoenthal has said he always believed his horse would best suit two-turn races. Distance is one major question for the Mark Casse-trained Noble Commander, who has started his career with two one-turn wins in Florida-bred competition. Noble Commander at least figures to be part of the pace, but perhaps as an underlay. No Tesio runner has more distance experience than American Lincoln, who has run 1 1/8 miles his last two starts – both Aqueduct maiden races. Still getting over a serious bout of colic, according to trainer Linda Rice, American Lincoln finished third behind Tesio entrant Holland Park in the first of those two races, but he was a different horse March 16, traveling smoothly, taking control around the far turn, and drawing away to win by more than 18 lengths, geared down late.

“You could see he was blossoming in March,” Rice said, and maybe that means American Lincoln comes into full bloom Saturday.

Nine enter Weber City Miss

Shamrock Rose is listed as the 7-5 morning-line favorite for the $125,000 Weber City Miss, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race for 3-year-old fillies, but bettors should think hard about accepting such low odds. Shamrock Rose boasts big-name connections in trainer Mark Casse and jockey Julien Leparoux, and exits two six-figure stakes, but her best performances have come in sprints, and even putting distance preference aside, she does not appear to possess a meaningful talent edge.

But it’s easier to be against the favorite than for someone else in the Weber City Miss, which drew nine entrants. The tepid pick is Indy Choice, who races with blinkers added for trainer Jason Servis while racing for the first time since a below-form showing in the Grade 2 Demoiselle on Dec. 2 at Aqueduct.