Whiteley, Marshua stakes kick off 3-year-old series

The Laurel Park 3-year-old series begins Saturday with the seven-furlong Frank Whiteley Jr. and the six-furlong Marshua for fillies. The distances will increase by a furlong for each division on the Feb. 17 undercard of the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie.

The $100,000 Whiteley has drawn a deep field of eight, and the betting and outcome can go a number of different ways.

Whirlin Curlin came into the Dec. 30 Heft Stakes off two longshot stakes victories for trainer Gary Capuano but didn’t fire his best shot at 3-1 and finished fifth. His odds will rise Saturday.

Still Having Fun, who finished second, beaten a neck by Whirlin Curlin, in the Maryland Juvenile Futurity, figures to be well-backed in the Whiteley, as does Parx Racing maiden winner Wentz.

Prior to the Juvenile Futurity, Still Having Fun had won his debut by 3 1/4 lengths for trainer Tim Keefe. Wentz, second in his first start for John Servis, left the field strung out far behind him in his late November maiden win.

It also is hard to ignore William and Mary, the best West Virginia-bred 2-year-old male of last year, who has won 4 of his 5 starts for owner-trainer-breeder James W. Casey.

V.I.P. Code closed strongly to finish second in the Awad Stakes on turf at Belmont Park in late October for trainer Phil Schoenthal. He has since finished ninth in the Grade 2 Remsen. He could be an overlay in the Whiteley.

Not to be overlooked is Old Time Revival, who returned from a five-month layoff to win a Laurel maiden race in December. His trainer, Kenneth Decker, has won with 3 of his last 4 Laurel starters, including Awesome Banner, who won the $100,000 Fire Plug a week ago.

The $100,000 Marshua matches Enrage and Limited View, who both come out of the Dec. 30 Gin Talking Stakes.

Enrage finished well in that race to be second-best to the Rudy Rodriguez-trained Strategic Dreams, winner of 3 of her 4 starts.

Limited View, a winner of 4 of 6 races for trainer John Salzman Jr., gave way to finish ninth after racing down along the inside from post 1. She has since come back to work a bullet five furlongs.

It should be noted Limited View missed four days of training from Jan. 20-23 because she is stabled in Barn 20 at Laurel, which was under a equine herpesvirus quarantine.

Enrage, who has been shipped from Keeneland by trainer Ben Colebrook, is the likely favorite. She won a $40,000 maiden-claiming race at Keeneland in October, then was second-best to Mia Mischief in a November optional-claiming race at Churchill Downs.

Mia Mischief, who has not finished worse than second in five starts, was narrowly beaten by the promising Amy’s Challenge in the Dixie Belle Stakes at Oaklawn Park last weekend.

“She ran great and galloped out in front in the Gin Talking,” Colebrook said of Enrage. “She came back with some speedy cuts, like she may have been hitting herself a little or gotten stepped on, but she’s fine. On the turn, it looked like she might have been fighting the track a little, but she leveled off nice in the stretch.”