Laurel: Salary Cap moves up

Five of the seven 3-year-olds scheduled to run in the $60,000 Sonny Hine at Laurel Park Saturday also were entered in the $100,000 Gallant Bob Handicap at Philadelphia Park the same day, throwing a cloud over the field for both races.

One certain starter for the six-furlong Hine is Salary Cap, a six-time winner in 11 starts who makes a huge class jump to stakes company after crushing conditioned claimers by nearly 16 lengths on Sept. 9, earning a career-best 95 Beyer. He was claimed out of that race for $25,000 by trainer A. Ferris Allen III.

"In the condition book, there was nowhere to race him where we could move him up one notch," Allen said. "We either had to run him back for $25,000 or take the ambitious path by placing him in a stakes.

"The big question is his class, and we will find that out on Saturday. I'm not sure that he's as fast as his last Beyer Speed Figure made him out to be. He faced a fairly weak group."

Joey Carson, easy winner of all three of his starts, all at Delaware Park, will go off favored if he runs. As of Thursday, trainer Tim Ritchey was undecided whether to run him in the Hine or the Gallant Bob.

"He's shown promise from the beginning," Ritchey said of Joey Carson, a son of Lord Carson who did not begin racing until July 31. "We've been very patient with him. He's a fairly big horse who wasn't ready to race as a 2-year-old."