Recruiting Ready back from layoff for Christmastide Stakes Day

The six stakes on Christmastide Stakes Day at Laurel Park on Saturday have come up strong, especially the $100,000 Dave’s Friend, carded as race 8.

The six-furlong Dave’s Friend has drawn a field of 10, but Do Share, who won the Gravesend at Aqueduct last Saturday, will be scratched, according to trainer Linda Rice. That still leaves a salty field that includes Recruiting Ready, Afleet Willy, Favorite Tale, El Areeb, and Struth.

Recruiting Ready will be making his first start since finishing third in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens at Belmont Park in June for trainer Horacio De Paz.

“We think he’s going to develop as a 4-year-old into a pretty decent horse,” De Paz said. “I’d be surprised if he needs the race, but it’s going to be cold this week, and I’m sure they’ll be working the track a lot. It could be loose.”

Afleet Willy will be shortening up in distance after two-turn stakes wins at Laurel and Delaware Park. The 6-year-old warrior Favorite Tale was second to the quick Chief Lion in the $200,000 Fabulous Strike at Penn National in his most recent start.

In the seven-furlong Heft Stakes, a $100,000 race for 2-year-olds, Diamond King will try to get back on track for trainer Butch Reid after clipping heels and throwing jockey Frankie Pennington entering the first turn of the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs.

Pennington will be back aboard Diamond King, who had scored two impressive victories at Parx before shipping to Kentucky.

In the $100,000 Gin Talking, the temperamental 2-year-old filly Limited View will shoot for her fourth consecutive victory, all for trainer John Salzman Jr. Oldfashioned Style, who was second in the Grade 3 Tempted for trainer Gary Contessa, should offer a strong challenge.

The other stakes are the $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go, a one-mile race for fillies and mares, and a pair of $75,000 Maryland-bred stakes, the Jennings and the Politely.