Simoff confident Jumping the Gun will fire fresh in Weber City Miss
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Jumping the Gun will make her 3-year-old debut as the 7-5 morning-line favorite in the $150,000 Weber City Miss Stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday. Bettors will have to trust the talented filly on her juvenile form alone, but this was always the plan for trainer Andy Simoff.
“It was a little dodgy when I first brought her in from the farm because the weather was a little tough, but she hasn’t missed any work,” Simoff said. “She’s been right on schedule. She’s sound, scopes clean, so she’s coming into the race as good as you can hope.”
Alongside the $150,000 Federico Tesio, the Weber City Miss will serve as the co-feature on a 12-race card at Laurel Saturday. The winner of the 1 1/16-mile race will earn an automatic berth in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan on May 15.
In the field of nine 3-year-old fillies, Jumping the Gun is one of two who has not yet raced this year, but she is also one of two with prior graded stakes experience. In December, Simoff shipped her to Aqueduct for the Grade 2 Demoiselle, where she was a distant runner-up behind Zany, who is expected to be a strong contender in the Kentucky Oaks.
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While Simoff was giving his filly an extended winter break, several local contenders had plenty of time to grow familiar with one another ahead of the Weber City Miss. Miss Fulton Gal, Ivy Girl, Law School, and Momaxie can all be tied together by four races since January.
Miss Fulton Gal and trainer Mike Gorham are coming off a major breakthrough in the $100,000 Beyond the Wire, as the filly earned her first stakes victory over two-time stakes winner Peach Tie.
Ivy Girl, who finished well behind Jumping the Gun in the Demoiselle, has spent her entire 3-year-old campaign shipping from New York for trainer Amelia Green. She finished second behind Miss Fulton Gal in a Laurel allowance in February before upsetting Law School in the $75,000 Main Line at Parx.
King T. Leatherbury
The 2026 edition of the King T. Leatherbury Stakes will be the first run since the legendary trainer, for whom the race is named, passed away in February. In a pleasant coincidence, the field assembled for the occasion could not be much stronger. The group of 13 turf sprinters features 10 stakes winners, most of whom will be making their 2026 debuts.
Doncho, who broke the world record at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf at Ellis Park last year, will return to his favorite distance in his first start since suffering a shoulder injury in the Grade 2 Woodford in October. Trainer Michelle Lovell said he was “lucky” to avoid a serious setback and has not noted any issues in training this year.
“He thinks a lot of himself right now, and he marched on the trailer this morning like a beast,” Lovell said. “He’s as good as he can be.”
Doncho is one of many shipping to Laurel in hopes of finding a comfortable stakes start, along with the likes of Outlaw Kid, Chasing Liberty, and Schwarzmeier, who earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure in an allowance victory at Fair Grounds last time out.
But while the shippers are doing their part in building a strong field, several local contenders stack up well off long breaks. Familiar rivals Had to Have Him and Whenigettoheaven are both slated to return, renewing a yearslong rivalry.
Trainer Nolan Ramsey said Whenigettoheaven seems to have everything going against him in his 2026 debut, as the 7-year-old drew the far outside post in what was intended to be a prep for the $100,000 Ben’s Cat. The same path led to success last year, but the trainer said he expects to be up against it Saturday.
Had to Have Him will return with considerably brighter expectations from trainer John Salzman Jr. The 5-year-old ended his 2025 campaign in peak form, winning back-to-back stakes at Laurel.
“He has some issues with his feet and we fixed those and he’s training super right now,” Salzman said.
Prince of Jericho, a stakes winner on dirt for Brittany Russell, will finally switch to turf in his 25th career start. In October 2022, he made his debut in a maiden race taken off the turf, finishing third behind stablemate Post Time.
Henry S. Clark
Neat could not have had a more nightmarish time in Maryland last year, losing two stakes with horrendous trips in the midst of a turbulent campaign. Trainer Rob Atras is hoping for calmer waters in this year’s edition of the $100,000 Henry S. Clark Stakes, a familiar mile race on turf.
Last year, Neat tried the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita before shipping to Laurel for the Clark. This year, he returned in an allowance at Fair Grounds, where he came up a half-length short in a five-horse blanket finish.
“After all the stuff that he endured last summer in multiple races, it was just nice to have an uneventful race and a good trip and a good finish,” Atras said.
While Neat tries to avoid more misfortune in a field of 11 on Saturday, Cruise the Nile has not encountered an ounce of trouble ahead of his stakes debut for Graham Motion. Since switching surfaces in December, the front-runner has won three easy starts on turf and synthetic at Gulfstream.
“I’m not completely surprised, but perhaps I’m surprised about how comfortably he’s won,” Motion said. “To put a three-race streak together is unusual, but he’s always shown us that he had above-average ability.”
Dahlia
Motion has not seen as much of Ribaltagaia as he would have liked, but the 5-year-old mare with plenty of potential will make her second start for the trainer in the $100,000 Dahlia Stakes.
After making her stateside debut for European trainer Gianluca Bietolini in December 2024, Ribaltagaia entered Motion’s barn for her 2025 campaign. She ran once, finishing second in the $100,000 Violet at Monmouth Park.
“She’s had a few nagging issues that kind of flared up again after she ran at Mommouth,” Motion said. “But she’s had a pretty consistent breezing schedule down at Palm Meadows, hasn’t really missed a breeze since she got started.”
Instead of pushing her along in Florida over the winter, the trainer decided to wait until turf racing resumed in Maryland. He said he has been targeting the Dahlia, a mile race on turf, for some time, and she stands out as a prime contender in the field of nine older fillies and mares.
Summerintahoe, a 5-year-old mare trained by Michael Ewing, is a tepid 2-1 morning-line favorite in her third career stakes start. The front-runner ran four times in 2025 and wrapped up her campaign with an allowance victory at Kentucky Downs in September.
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