Streaking Cruise the Nile up in class, out in distance for Dinner Party

LAUREL, Md. – Cruise the Nile has passed every test so far for trainer Graham Motion and will take a much deserved step up in the Grade 3, $250,000 Dinner Party Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park. Unbeaten since switching to turf in December, the 4-year-old gelding will surge into his graded stakes debut with momentum to spare.

A front-running winner in three starts at Gulfstream Park over the winter, Cruise the Nile tried his first stakes last time out and switched up styles in the $100,000 Henry S. Clark at Laurel. Jockey Jorge Ruiz found the ideal path from sixth and he responded well to win by a neck with a 95 Beyer Figure.

“That’s what’s so nice about using Jorge,” Motion said. “He reminds me a bit of Ramon [Dominguez] like that. He can get horses to settle.”

After the Clark, Motion said he would likely skip the Dinner Party and avoid the testing the horse at 1 1/8 miles. He could not find another suitably timed race, however, and Ruiz told him not to worry about the distance.

“[Ruiz] said he settled really nicely, and when I looked at the schedule, I didn’t really see anything else that made sense for him,” Motion said. “I think this is a good test for him and it will help us decide what to do with him the rest of the year.”

Cruise the Nile will step up to face graded stakes winners Dresden Row and Fort Washington, who have collectively run 42 more races than the 4-year-old upstart.

Dresden Row, a three-time Grade 3 winner on synthetic, has never finished out of the money in 16 races. Based at Woodbine with trainer Lorne Richards most of his career, he made his first start for new trainer Todd Pletcher last month, switching back to turf and easily taking a $150,000 allowance at Keeneland.

“I think he’d actually run on the dirt as well,” Pletcher said. “He trains very well on the dirt. There are a lot of options for him.”

Fort Washington, a 7-year-old trained by Shug McGaughey, ran the race of his life last August to win the Grade 1 Arlington Million at Colonial Downs. In each of his three starts since, he has drawn the far outside post and struggled to contend, most notably from the 12 post in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf at Gulfstream.

“He ran a really good race from out there, finished good,” McGaughey said. “It’s just hard from out there to be able to win. Then coming back in the [Grade 3 Canadian Turf], he did a couple things wrong in the race that probably cost him from being a little bit closer.“

Trainers Derek Ryan and Horacio De Paz said they are trying the Dinner Party because they couldn’t find allowance conditions for Thundering and What Say Thee. Both have won stakes and will run as seasoned longshots in the field of seven on Saturday.

Harrow, winner of the Group 1 Barbados Gold Cup in March 2025, will try to get back on track after a pair of poor allowance performances to begin his 8-year-old campaign. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. cross-entered him as an also-eligible in a Churchill Downs allowance on Thursday, but he intends to run him at Laurel.