Switzerland, Always Sunshine top De Francis field

Always Sunshine and Switzerland are a cut above the rest in the Grade 3, $250,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash on Saturday at Laurel Park, and barring bad luck or below-par performances, one of them should win the featured race.

The De Francis is the richest race and the only graded stakes among seven stakes on a marathon 13-race card that kicks off at 12:30 Eastern. The De Francis had been set for Sept. 15, but was moved to Sept. 22 when it still was feared that Hurricane Florence would significantly impact Laurel.

The De Francis (race 10, post time 5 p.m.) is the only dirt stakes on the card and has a shallower field than the six turf stakes, most of which feature deep, playable fields. There’s a 30 percent chance of showers Saturday, but no rain in the Thursday and Friday forecasts, and at worst the turf course should be “good.”

What’s not good is Switzerland’s draw in the De Francis, in which he breaks from post 1 for the second race in a row. Trained by Steve Asmussen for Woodford Racing, Switzerland, always talented but a seven-race maiden at one point in his career, made steady progress through the first part of 2018, his peak performance coming at nearby Pimlico when he comfortably won the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint on the Preakness Stakes undercard in May.

Switzerland then was geared up for a Grade 1 try in the Vanderbilt Stakes at Saratoga, but that plan went awry when he drew the rail against a tough group. Switzerland slightly missed the break, rushed into a scorching pace, and was done at the three-sixteenths pole in a closer-dominated race.

While the bad news is that he has the rail again, the good news is the horses stacked outside him and jockey Feargal Lynch are not as fast nor as talented as those in the Vanderbilt. With a clean start Saturday, Switzerland may make the front. His best race probably already is superior to what Always Sunshine can produce, and Always Sunshine at age 6 clearly has more limited upside than Switzerland.

What Always Sunshine does have is a better draw in post 5 and a win over the Laurel track. Bothered by quarter cracks for much of his career, according to trainer Ned Allard, Always Sunshine hasn’t been troubled by his feet this year and has responded with a successful campaign. He comes into the De Francis off a win in the restricted Tale of the Cat Stakes at Saratoga, though the competition in that race was nothing like what Switzerland met in the Vanderbilt.

You can throw a blanket over the other seven entered in the De Francis (Colonel Sharp was cross-entered in the Laurel Dash). Sweetontheladies was a surprise third in the Vanderbilt, a performance that seemed to have nearly everything to do with race shape. Mr. Crow started his campaign with two encouraging tries, but has not progressed at all in three subsequent starts. The Man and Lewisfield look like Switzerland’s chief pace rivals – but probably not his equal.