Quint's Brew has a fight on his hands in General George
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In order to continue moving forward in a resurgent 5-year-old campaign, Quint’s Brew will have to go through a gauntlet of familiar faces in the $200,000 General George Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park. The gelding has had his fair share of run-ins in the Mid-Atlantic since his 2024 debut, and every rival on the block seems ready to collect.
“It’s a very tough field, not a slam dunk by any means,” trainer Ned Allard said. “But it’ll all get answered on Saturday.”
Allard is one of several trainers who lost significant training time because of extremely cold temperatures in January, which left him concerned about Quint’s Brew ahead of the General George, a race he won last year before finishing second in two graded stakes at Aqueduct.
“It’s been rough weather ever since [the Jennings], and it has been for everybody,” Allard said. “We’ve missed a few days of training here and there, but so has everyone else. He seems to be sharp. He had a good breeze, and I think we’ve got him ready for it.”
Slam Notion, a gelding trained by Robert Bailes, will make his 4-year-old debut off a two-month layoff, having upset Quint’s Brew in the $100,000 Bender Memorial to wrap up his 2025 campaign on Dec. 20.
“It really looks like he loves that 45- to 60-day break,” Bailes said. “After the race in December, we had already been looking at [the General George] a little bit. It fit our schedule, so we’re real pleased with that. Wasn’t happy with the weather situation, but that’s what you deal with in winter racing.”
The field of seven features four stakes winners, but judging by this metric alone would exclude a profoundly dangerous contender. Since finishing third behind Barbadian Runner and Post Time in the $150,000 Maryland Million Classic in November, Blue Kingdom has done just about everything but win in stakes company while hanging in against the best for trainer Jamie Ness.
After a peculiar fifth-place showing in the Bender Memorial, Blue Kingdom challenged Quint’s Brew in earnest in the Jennings last time out, taking the three-time stakes winner to the limit and coming up short by a nose. He drew the rail for the seven-furlong General George.
“He ran really well last time, led until the last jump,” Ness said. “I couldn’t be happier with the way he ran. He missed a lot of training coming into this race, but so did everybody else. We’re all in the same boat.”
Blue Kingdom and Slam Notion have been recent foes for Quint’s Brew, but another rival from his distant past also is looking for a second chance. In his March 2024 debut, Quint’s Brew scored an upset maiden victory over Petingas Twin, now a 5-year-old gelding trained by Anthony Farrior.
While Quint’s Brew has made a career out of brilliant stints between sizable layoffs, Petingas Twin has spent most of his time plugging away, painstakingly building himself into a high-level contender after 21 career starts. In November, he earned his first stakes score in the $100,000 Dave’s Friend.
The stacked General George field also includes Point Dume, winner of the $100,000 Fire Plug Handicap last month, and improving allowance runners On the Mark and Freeze the Fire.
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