Laurel Park: Joint Custody among three stakes winners stretching out in Miracle Wood

Joint Custody, Extrasexyhippzster, and Germaniac all romped to stakes victories in their most recent starts. But what will happen when the trio of 3-year-olds clash going an unfamiliar distance?

That’s the question handicappers must ponder in the Miracle Wood, one of four $100,000 stakes on Saturday’s card at Laurel Park.

The one-turn mile of the Miracle Wood represents a furlong longer than Joint Custody raced when he cruised by 5 1/2 lengths in the Maryland Juvenile Championship on Dec. 28 and the same extra distance for Germaniac, who soared to a 91 Beyer Speed Figure when he won the Frank Whiteley by 6 1/2 lengths three weeks ago.

The Miracle Wood is a quarter-mile longer than Extrasexyhippzster raced when he shipped to New York to dominate a short field in the Don Rickles on Dec. 21.

To complicate matters, the trainers of all three horses do not have much success with last-out winners stretching out from sprints to routes. Germaniac’s trainer, Tim Tullock, is 1 for 6 in that category. That lone win, however, came when Full Moon Blues connected at 11-1 in the 2010 running of the Grade 3 Tempted.

Mike Trombetta, trainer of Extrasexyhippzster, is 1 for 21 with last-out dirt winners going from sprints to routes. But last year, his horse Where’s Dominic showed a 15-point improvement on the Beyer scale while finishing second in the Miracle Wood.

John Robb, who trains four-time winner Joint Custody, is 0 for 7 with last-out winners trying a route for the first time. He’s slightly better (2 for 11) with all last-out dirt winners going sprints to routes, but that 18 percent hit rate is still below his 27 percent overall success in 2013.

Others who merit respect include the Todd Pletcher-trained Master Lightning, who faces softer company after flashing speed and fading in the Grade 2 Jerome three weeks ago, and Undertaker, an easy maiden winner over a sloppy track going a mile and 70 yards at Parx Racing a month ago.

In the other stakes:

◗ Javerre, winner of last year’s Grade 3 General George Handicap, preps for a possible defense of his title in that seven-furlong race next month in the 1 1/16-mile Native Dancer. His eight rivals include New York shipper Mail, who dominated an overnight stakes at Aqueduct on Dec. 27, and Indian Jones, who missed by a nose in the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup at Parx and was beaten only 2 1/2 lengths in the Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Marathon.

◗ Winning Image, a three-time stakes winner during her five-start campaign in 2013, makes her first start since October against a field of female sprinters that includes She’s Ordained, winner of last month’s Willa On the Move, in the six-furlong What a Summer.

◗ Penn National-based Taris, who won her career debut in New York by nearly 12 lengths with an 88 Beyer, looks fastest among seven 3-year-old fillies in the seven-furlong Wide Country.