Surprisingly faces Motion duo in Dahlia on five-stakes card
?q=100)
Surprisingly heads a strong field of fillies and mares in Saturday’s Dahlia Stakes on the Laurel Park turf.
The one-mile Dahlia is one of five $100,000 stakes on the card for 3-year-olds and up along with the Native Dancer at 1 1/8 miles, the King T. Leatherbury at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, the Primonetta for fillies and mares at six furlongs, and the Henry S. Clark at one mile on turf.
A Phipps Stable homebred by Mastery, Surprisingly is from the family of Grade 1 winners Point of Entry, Pine Island, and Pleasant Home, and she’s lived up to her pedigree this year.
Surprisingly captured the Grade 3 Endeavour on Feb. 4 at Tampa Bay Downs for trainer Shug McGaughey, then earned a career-best 90 Beyer when third in the Grade 2 Hillsborough on March 11.
Trainer Graham Motion counters with two horses making their seasonal debuts with first-time Lasix.
Sopran Basilea, a Group 2 winner in Italy, was purchased for $315,000 at auction in December. In her final overseas start, she was second, beaten a neck, in the Group 2 Premio Lydia Tesio.
Motion believes the mile is sharp for Sopran Basilea, who earned her five wins in Italy at distances between nine and 11 furlongs.
“We felt like it was a local race to get her started,” Motion said. “In the mornings, she shows enough turn of foot that you’d think she could handle it. She is a little aggressive in training, and that was another reason I was anxious about running 1 1/2 miles the first time.”
Miss Carol Ann finished sixth in her North American debut last fall in the Grade 3 Pebbles during the Belmont at Aqueduct meet.
“I thought it was a decent effort,” Motion said. “She shipped over that week for the race.”
Motion feels the filly benefited from the winter off.
“She’s filled out,” he said. “I think she looks like a different horse.”
Deciding Vote won last year’s Dahlia off a layoff, a pattern trainer Edward Graham repeats in 2023. Deciding Vote is a stakes-winner on dirt and turf and has performed well on wet grass. As of Thursday morning, there is a good chance of Saturday afternoon thundershowers.
In My Opinion, Tic Tic Tic Boom, Regal Realm, Double Fireball, Misty Mauve, and Takntothecleaners also are entered.
Primonetta
Trainer John Robb entered stakes winners Princess Kokachin and Street Lute along with razor-sharp Fuhgeddaboudit in the Primonetta, but he realizes the six-horse field’s depth.
“They’re all training good,” Robb said. “Handicapping the race, I think I’m going to be fourth, fifth, and sixth. It’s a tough race.”
Princess Kokachin finished second in both prior starts this year, both at 5 1/2 furlongs.
“I think she’ll run her best race, but I think it’s a little too tough for her at three-quarters against that quality of horse,” Robb said.
Street Lute, a stakes winner every year between 2020 and 2022, earned a stakes-placing against restricted competition in the Conniver on March 18. She’ll also be making her third start of the year.
“She was just a dominant 2- and 3-year-old around here. Now she’s running against the real older horses, and that always catches up with them. On the other hand, she did need a couple of races,” Robb said.
Jockey Xavier Perez chose Street Lute over Princess Kokachin.
Fuhgeddaboudit steps up after three straight victories.
“Her last two or three races have been good,” Robb said. “The bad news is she’s run herself out of conditions, and now she must step up and do it again.”
Oxana captured the Roamin Rachel at Parx Racing last fall, then placed in two more stakes before being put away for the winter by trainer Tim Hills.
“When you stop on them just because they need to be freshened rather than an injury, it’s a lot better way to do it,” Hills said. “I’d be very surprised if she needed a race.”
Hills also is very comfortable with Oxana’s outside post.
“You’re in the driver’s seat sitting out there watching what everyone is doing inside,” he said.
Conversely, trainer Phil Schoenthal is disappointed that Prodigy Doll drew post 2.
“We’ve always felt and known that she does her best running on the outside of horses,” he said.
Prodigy Doll enters in good form after finishing second in the Correction on March 11 at Aqueduct.
Recent winner Moody Woman completes the field.
King T. Leatherbury
Multiple stakes winner Carotari appears the one to beat in the King T. Leatherbury.
Trained by Brian Lynch, Carotari captured two stakes at Pimlico last year. This winter at Gulfstream Park, he finished second in the Grade 3 Turf Sprint on Feb. 11 and was third in the Silks Run on March 18.
“He’s run into a couple of buzz saws,” Lynch said. “He’s right there with them and always gives his all. This might be a little softer spot.”
Carotari has speed, but might not be as quick as That’s Right, who wired the field in Parx’s Grade 3 Turf Monster on Sept. 24. That’s Right finished fifth in his final start of 2022, the Carle Place at the Belmont at Aqueduct session.
“He knows one way to run,” trainer Michael Moore said. “He’s going.”
If the pace is hot, Determined Kingdom can threaten. This will be his first start since a sixth-place effort in Colonial’s Meadow Stable on Sept. 7.
:: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures
“He was entered at Meadowlands,” Schoenthal said. “Something must have happened on the van ride up or in the stall because when we jogged him for the state vet, he was not sound. We couldn’t find anything wrong. He was fine in a couple of weeks, and we turned him out.”
Determined Kingdom was entered on April 13 at Laurel, but Schoenthal noted “he was playing around, nicked a hind leg, and it blew up on him. I’m not worried about that at all now. He’s fine.”
Breezy Gust, Kadri, Grateful Bred, Our Shot, and E J’s Revenge are expected.
◗ Motion’s English Bee and McGaughey’s Smokin’ T are prime contenders shipping from Gulfstream for the Henry S. Clark.
Ocala Dream, You Must Chill, and Sky’s Not Falling deserve respect in the deep field. Double Crown, a Grade 2 winner on dirt last year, returns to turf for the first time since a sixth-place finish sprinting last summer in the restricted Ben’s Cat.
◗ Nimitz Class has established himself as one of the top handicap horses in the region, and he will be a short-priced favorite in the Native Dancer.
Trained by Bruce Kravets, Nimitz Class has earned triple-digit Beyers in his last two starts, both facile stakes victories at Laurel.
Twelve-time winner Forewarned is closing in on $1 million in lifetime earnings.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.