Smith duo should complement each other in Conniver
Trainer Hamilton Smith has entered a pair of runners with complementary styles in the $75,000 Conniver Stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday. To find Lionhearted Lady after the break, keep your eyes on the leaders. To locate Miss Bullistic early, try the other half of the field.
The Conniver, a seven-furlong race for older Maryland-bred fillies and mares, has attracted a field of nine. Last year’s winner, Eddy Gourmet, is one of three in the race trained by Mary Eppler.
The careers of Lionhearted Lady and Miss Bullistic are as different as their racing tactics. Miss Bullistic was a quick learner at 2 and made her final four starts that year in stakes. Lionhearted Lady was patiently guided through her allowance conditions by Smith, who turned 71 on Friday, and didn’t race in a stakes until her 14th career start last August.
Lionhearted Lady will be among the favorites Saturday. Now 5, she broke through with an October victory in the Maryland Million Distaff Handicap. She comes into the Conniver off a pair of less-than-perfect trips against open stakes company. Two starts ago, she was fanned wide when third in the Willa On the Move.
“I thought she should have been second in that race, but the boy was paying more attention to the horses around them than he was to her,” Smith said.
In her last race, the Thirty Eight Go Go, Lionhearted Lady was trapped down along the rail after breaking from the inside post and finished seventh.
“She was checked from the five-eighths pole to the head of the stretch,” Smith said. “She just had a bad trip.”
Lionhearted Lady is better drawn in post 8 on Saturday, and jockey Victor Carrasco, who takes over the mount, is likely to make good use of her speed.
In 2014, Miss Bullistic won the Selima on turf at Laurel and the Donna Freyer, a South Carolina residency stakes at Parx. Miss Bullistic was eligible for the Freyer because when she is not stabled with Smith at Laurel, she is down South at his brother Franklin’s Elloree Training Center.
Miss Bullistic exited her final start at 2, a second-place finish in the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship, with a condylar fracture and was sent to South Carolina to recover. She is winless in four starts since returning but enters off a sharp-looking work tab. This might not be the right time to discount her.
“She training great, doing great,” Smith said. “She hasn’t run as well as we’d hoped since she came back, but with a clean trip, I think she’ll be okay. The seven furlongs is right for her.”
KEY CONTENDERS
Lionhearted Lady, by Lion Hearted (Last 3 Beyers: 69-83-79)
◗ She could end up chasing expected front-runner Brenda’s Way in this field, which does not have much other early speed.
E Dubai’s Humor, by E Dubai (Last 3 Beyers: 74-76-73)
◗ She had dead aim at the leaders in upper stretch of the open What a Summer Stakes on Jan. 2 but lacked the needed closing kick while making her third start off a one-year layoff.
◗ A winner of 3 of 6 starts for trainer Donald Barr, this will be her first time facing statebreds and her first race at more than six furlongs.
Candida H., by Lemon Drop Kid (Last 3 Beyers: 72-74-74)
◗ She has been knocking on the door against open second-level optional-claiming company for trainer Mike Trombetta and fits well with this group.