Still Having Fun, Diamond King to tangle in Private Terms

The five stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday feature several compelling matchups, especially in the $100,000 Private Terms, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds, and the $75,000 Not For Love, a six-furlong sprint for Maryland-breds.

Two-time stakes winner Still Having Fun, the top 3-year-old at Laurel, will stretch out around two turns for the first time in the Private Terms. Three for four in his career and only a neck shy of being undefeated for trainer Tim Keefe, Still Having Fun was flattered last Saturday when Laurel-based Old Time Revival finished second in the Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct.

In the one-mile Miracle Wood at Laurel on Feb. 17, Still Having Fun defeated Old Time Revival by a neck despite walking out of the gate and spotting him a good-sized head start.

If Still Having Fun succeeds in the Private Terms, owners Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable, and Jim Scott very well may try a more ambitious spot next.

“I don’t think the distance will be a problem,” Keefe said. “He’s had some long gallops in the morning, and it doesn’t bother him. One of the reasons we decided to keep him home for this race is to try the two turns. If we shipped him out of town and ran two turns and he didn’t run well, we’d wonder, ‘Was it the shipping or the distance?’ This way, we will find out.”

Still Having Fun will face a stiff test in the Private Terms from Diamond King, who finished third in the Grade 3 Swale at Gulfstream Park while making his first start since being transferred to trainer John Servis.

Diamond King was beaten 3 3/4 lengths in the Swale after a tricky inside trip. The winner, Strike Power, came back to finish second in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 3.

Servis had only been training Diamond King for several weeks before the Swale.

“I have a lot better handle on him now than when we ran in the Swale,” Servis said. “When we were walking him over for that race, I didn’t really know what to expect, and I thought to myself, ‘This could go really wrong.’ But I liked the way he ran that day.”

Servis shipped Diamond King up from Florida last weekend and is looking forward to stretching him out. In his lone start at Laurel, Diamond King won the seven-furlong Heft Stakes on Dec. 30.

“He’s doing fabulous,” Servis said.

The Private Terms includes three New York shippers – Bal Harbour, trained by Todd Pletcher; California Night, who races for Mike Maker; and the Kelly Breen-trained Roaming Union.

The Not For Love will rematch Struth and Lewisfield, the one-two finishers in the Howard Bender Memorial on Dec. 9. Struth moved up outside the leaders on the far turn and then poured it on in the stretch to win by 4 1/4 lengths. Lewisfield finished a clear second.

But the difference between the two might well be smaller than that result. The Bender was run in difficult, snowy conditions, and Lewisfield did not appear to run his “A” race. He returned to win an open second-level optional claimer by 6 3/4 lengths, earning a career-best 95 Beyer Speed Figure. Lewisfield is 4 for 6, all for trainer Jeff Runco.

Struth, a $20,000 claim by Kieron Magee in May, came back to finish second to Favorite Tale in the Dave’s Friend Stakes on Jan. 8 at Laurel. He has been freshened for this race.

“I was thrilled with his second last time,” Magee said. “It was a tough field, and, of course, you always want to do the best you can, but I thought he could get second, and he did.”

The other three stakes Saturday are the $100,000 Beyond the Wire, a one-mile race for 3-year-old fillies named after the Maryland horse-adoption program; the $100,000 Harrison Johnson Memorial, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up; and the $75,000 Conniver, a seven-furlong race for Maryland-bred or -sired fillies and mares.

◗ There is a $74,400 carryover in the Laurel Park Rainbow 6 on Friday.