Suave Jazz tries to make it an even dozen

Suave Jazz hasn't won since 2007, but the 6-year-old trained by Tony Dutrow is still perhaps the most accomplished horse in Saturday's $50,000 Fire Plug Stakes at Laurel Park.

Seven older sprinters will line up in the six-furlong race for 4-year-olds and up.

Suave Jazz has 11 career victories - 10 of them at six furlongs. He was also a neck second in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Handicap at Pimlico last May. Suave Jazz's last victory came in the Vincent Moscarelli Memorial at Delaware Park in November 2007.

In his most recent race, a 6o1/2-furlong optional claimer at Aqueduct on Nov. 27, Suave Jazz earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure while finishing second to Now a Victor, a graded stakes winner at 2 who faded badly in his only 2008 start, the Grade 3 Hal's Hope at Gulfstream. Suave Jazz gets jockey Jeremy Rose on Saturday and will break from post 6, sandwiched between Taint So and Yes It's the Truth, the two others in the field who share the race-high last-out Beyer of 98.

Springs Road, the only 4-year-old in the lineup, showed steady improvement last year at 3, despite the fact that he was winless until his final start of 2008. In that race, going 6 1/2 furlongs on Oct. 25 at Charles Town, he caught a sloppy track and aired by 10 1/4 lengths under Eric Camacho, who retains the mount.

His trainer, Rodney Jenkins, wins with 33 percent of his starters coming off layoffs of 61 to 180 days, and Springs Road is 2 for 4 lifetime at Laurel. A steady string of bullet works at Laurel on Dec. 14, Dec. 30, and Jan. 9 show he's ready to roll.

Night Stand, who drew the rail and could be sent to the lead by Frank Alvarado, finished second in a pair of $75,000 stakes in his last two starts. He missed by just a neck against Whistle Pig in the Yankee Affair at Philly Park on Nov. 1, then trailed Ravalo by more than six lengths in the slop at Mountaineer in his last start of the season, the Christmas Stakes on Dec. 27.