Motion has contenders in both Selima and Laurel Futurity

BALTIMORE – Two-year-olds going two turns on the turf can be fun and adventurous, so maybe it’s apropos that a couple of longtime Laurel Park fixtures, the Selima and Laurel Futurity, are part of a Preakness Day card fitting the same description.

A generation or two ago, both were important late-season races held on the Laurel main track as graded events. Things change – especially in this year of the coronavirus – and now they find themselves, once again, as non-graded, $150,000 races supporting something else in a greater context.

The Selima, which leads off the 12-race Saturday program with an 11 a.m. Eastern post time, is for fillies, while the Laurel Futurity (race 8, 3:22 p.m.) is for colts and geldings. Both go at 1 1/16 miles over a turf course that figures to be firm following several dry days.

Selima Stakes

A maiden with one start is the morning-line favorite, but such is the power of Chad Brown. Domain Expertise, a Kitten’s Joy filly who was narrowly defeated in a two-turn turf race on closing day at Saratoga, is one of two Brown fillies among a well-matched field of eight, along with Fluffy Socks.

Owned by Klaravich Stables, Domain Expertise was well backed in her career bow Sept. 7, closing steadily to finish second by a half-length, earning a 69 Beyer Speed Figure. With two morning works in the interim, she’ll have local kingpin Victor Carrasco aboard from post 4.

Fluffy Socks won a Kentucky Downs maiden race the same day that Domain Expertise debuted, getting a 65 Beyer. She’ll break from the rail, guided by another top local jockey, Trevor McCarthy.

A Graham Motion filly, Invincible Gal (post 3, John Velazquez), owns the highest Beyer in the field, having earned a 71 in winning at first asking at Saratoga in an Aug. 7 turf sprint. The British-bred subsequently was a rallying second as the favorite in the ungraded Sorority going a mile on the Monmouth Park turf.

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Other possibilities in an interesting opener include Golden Voice, Zeyaraat, and Line Dancing, all of them last-out maiden-special winners. Of those, maybe Line Dancing has the most upside at a price, given how visually impressive she was in persevering to prevail in her Aug. 28 debut going two turns at Laurel.

Two more maidens, Celestial Cheetah and Tic Tic Tic Boom, round out the cast.

Laurel Futurity

A maiden is a lukewarm program favorite in this race, too, although Pivotal Mission (3-1) just missed in a rich stakes last out. With Velazquez riding for Motion, he’ll break from the rail in a field of 10. He returns from a half-length defeat in the $498,000 Juvenile on opening day of the Kentucky Downs meet last month.

“It is a little unorthodox, running a maiden in a stakes, but I really feel like he shouldn’t be a maiden still,” said Motion, who will equip the colt with blinkers for the first time Saturday. “He’s had some unlucky trips and ran well last time.”

Motion also will send out an intriguing newcomer, Wootton Asset (post 3, Paco Lopez), a Madaket Stables purchase making his stateside debut after winning two of four starts in his native France.

“He really wants firm ground, so hopefully we’ll get that Saturday,” said Motion.

A couple of Motion’s neighbors at the Fair Hill training center, Arnaud Delacour and Tres Abbott, also have contenders in the Futurity. Delacour sends out Arrest Me Red (post 6, Julian Pimentel), an eye-catching debut winner in a Laurel turf sprint, while Abbott counters with No One to Blame (post 2, Keiber Coa), an easy maiden winner in an off-the-turf mile at Delaware Park last month.

Besides Pivotal Mission, two other maidens will contest this – and one of them, Hidden Enemy (post 8, Joe Bravo), actually boasts the highest Beyer in the field, a 76. The Irish-bred colt is in from Saratoga for Steve Asmussen.

The Laurel Futurity leads off a pick-four wager, comprising races 8-11 and ending with the Preakness.