We had quite the afternoon on the turf at Laurel Park today! On a stakes-laden card, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gainesway Stables’ SHARING got the ball rolling with her victory in the historic Selima Stakes, an 8.5 furlong test on the grass for 2-year-old fillies. First run in 1926, the Selima helped launch the successful careers of Busher, Bed O’Roses, Moccasin, Shuvee and La Prevoyante, to name a few. Bred in Maryland by Sagamore Farm, Sharing is by Speightstown out of one of our very favorite mares – Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf champion Shared Account. Now a stakes winner in just her third start, Sharing has two wins and one third with earnings of $180,300.
Good fortune smiled on us again just two races later, when it was a Herringswell exacta in the Laurel Futurity. Breeder/owner Isabelle de Tomaso’s IRISH MIAS and Manuel Franco got to the wire just a head in front of Weston Hamilton on TORRES DEL PAINE, owned by Flaxman Holdings Ltd. New Jersey-bred Irish Mias was also making just his third start in another fabled Maryland race. Originally run at Pimlico as the Pimlico Futurity in 1921, it was briefly known as the Pimlico-Laurel Futurity. Past winners include Triple Crown champions Count Fleet, Citation, Secretariat and Affirmed. Irish Mias is by Sky Mesa from Irish War Cry’s half-sister Irish Score (by Even The Score). Torres Del Paine is a son of Flaxman Holdings Ltd.’s Karanontie (JPN), winner of the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Mile. Bred in New York by Gainesway Thoroughbreds Ltd., Torres Del Paine is out of the multiple stakes winning Curlin mare Miss Frost.
In the Bald Eagle Derby going 1 1/2 miles, Alex G. Campbell, Jr.’s HE’S NO LEMON was put up for the win upon the disqualification of Jais’s Solitude, who was taken down for interference in the stretch. Trevor McCarthy was aboard Mr. Campbell’s homebred son of Lemon Drop Kid – It’s Tea Time by Dynaformer.
Sincere congratulations to all of these connections on a wonderful day of Maryland racing! (Photo of Sharing by Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club)