Quintet of $60,000 turf stakes highlight Oaks undercard
The two best Virginia-breds in five statebred-restricted, $60,000 stakes on Saturday at Laurel happen to be entered in the same race.
Rose Brier is the even-money favorite and Special Envoy the second choice on the track’s morning line for the Bert Allen, a 1 1/16-mile grass race open to Virginia-bred 3-year-olds and up.
The quintet of stakes for Virginia-breds, all of which are contested on turf, support the card’s featured race, the Grade 3 Commonwealth Oaks. All the races as well as last weekend’s Commonwealth Derby and Commonwealth Cup are sponsored by the Virginia Equine Alliance, which is trying to keep Virginia flat racing alive after Colonial Downs was shuttered following its 2013 racing season.
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Rose Brier, trained by Jane Cibelli with Trevor McCarthy named to ride, has won only once in seven starts this year, but four of his races in 2015 have come in open-stakes competition, and Rose Brier has held his own. He is the defending race winner in the Bert Allen, having won the race last year by 3 1/4 lengths.
But Special Envoy didn’t start in the 2014 Bert Allen, and he might prove Rose Brier’s equal. Trainer Arnaud Delacour has judiciously run the 4-year-old Special Envoy through his allowance conditions, interspersing the occasional stakes try, and after a third-level allowance win Aug. 1 at Monmouth, Special Envoy finished second, beaten just a neck, in the Grade 3 Cliff Hanger there. He has the speed to get first run on Rose Brier and, at 4, has more upside than his 6-year-old chief rival on Saturday.
Brookmeade a tough call
The Brookmeade, the filly-and-mare counterpart to the Bert Allen, has none of the same clean handicapping lines, the bulk of the field, on paper, all lumped together in terms of ability and win potential.
So, why not take a proven angle here – trainer Jamie Ness off the claim? Ness and longtime patron Midwest Thoroughbreds claimed Why Not Be Queen for $20,000 on Aug. 31 at Delaware, and there’s a decent chance they had this very spot in mind for the filly. All Ness has done is win with 34 percent of his last 208 horses racing after a claim, those starters producing a $2.32 return on investment, and if Why Not Be Queen goes postward at something close to her 5-1 morning-line price, that number could rise higher.
Two Notch Road can repeat
The 8-year-old Two Notch Road has landed in an excellent spot to notch his first win of 2015.
The lightly raced gelding by Partner’s Hero has raced only 23 times in his career while scoring four wins, and one of them came a year ago in the Punch Line, which he won by two lengths at odds of nearly 4-1. No such price seems forthcoming Saturday, with Two Notch Road the even-money favorite on the morning line to beat nine rivals in this 5 1/2-furlong sprint.
◗ The sister race to the Punch Line, the Oakley, looks far more contentious and includes a bevy of fillies and mares who appear better suited to turf than dirt. Exaggerated, trained by Delacour, has raced only once but won a turf-sprint maiden race over the Laurel course last month by 2 1/4 lengths, and with moderate second-out improvement, she might handle this bunch, albeit at likely underlaid odds.
◗ Handicappers won’t find much to go on in the Jamestown, a turf sprint for 2-year-olds. Holiday Wishes might have the best grass form, but her maiden win came around two turns, and Gem, who debuted with a close fifth in a Saratoga grass-sprint maiden race, will attract betting support.