Belle of Rights in purple about to break maiden at Tampa Bay Downs in February. (SV Photography)
First of Three $100,000 Stakes on Laurel’s Sunday Program
David Joseph/Maryland Jockey Club
LAUREL, Md. – Emory Hamilton’s homebred Belle of Rights, alternating wins and seconds through four starts since graduating on debut in mid-February, can continue that pattern and become a stakes winner in the process in Sunday’s $100,000 Searching at Laurel Park.
The 14th running of the 1 1/16-mile Searching for 3-year-old fillies is the first of three $100,000 stakes on a nine-race program followed by the 1 1/8-mile Bald Eagle Derby for 3-year-olds, also scheduled for the grass, and 1 1/16-mile Caesar’s Wish for fillies and mares 3 and up on the main track.
First race post time is 12:25 p.m.
Belle of Rights, trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, cuts back off a runner-up finish in the 1 1/8-mile Christiana July 8 at Delaware Park, where she made an outside rally but came up 2 ¾ lengths short of Whiskey Decision, who extended her win streak to three races. Belle of Rights is part of McGaughey’s string at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md.
“I thought she ran awfully well when she was second in the stake the last time,” McGaughey said. “She’s been training well, and I think that she deserves to be in a race like this.”
Unraced at 2, Belle of Rights dead-heated for first with subsequent stakes winner and July 20 Lake George (G3) runner-up Oversubscribed in her unveiling Feb. 10 at Tampa Bay Downs going 1 1/16 miles on the grass. Her next two starts came at Delaware, finishing second by less than a length in her first try against winners going a mile and 70 yards May 22 before capturing a similar spot June 12 that made her 2-0 at 1 1/16 miles.
“We thought two turns or long [on the] grass was what she wanted, and it was kind of what was there at Tampa. She left there running, and she ran a great race against a pretty nice filly,” McGaughey said. “She came back and was second and then she won and then was second in the stake. All is good.”
Belle of Rights drew Post 6 in a field of seven and for the fourth straight race will have the services of Maryland-based jockey Forest Boyce, McGaughey’s go-to rider in the Mid-Atlantic.
“Forest fits her good. She just lets her settle wherever she wants to be and see if she’ll finish,” he said. “We’ll hope for the best.”
Over the years McGaughey has trained such horses as Grade 1 winner Serra Lake, Grade 2 winners Hungry Island and Pleasant Passage and Grade 3 winner La Reina for Hamilton, and he believes Belle of Rights, a bay daughter of Constitution, is headed in a similar direction.
“Keeping our fingers crossed, I think she is,” he said. “With racing she’s going to even get better.”
MKW Racing and Breeding’s Distorted d’Oro is unbeaten in her only two starts, both at Delaware, for trainer Michael Stidham. She beat older horses by a nose in debut, a one-mile maiden special weight on the grass June 5, then came back with a front-running three-quarter-length triumph July 8 going a mile and 70 yards, also on turf.
“She hasn’t done anything wrong,” Stidham said. “We’re certainly raising the bar for her here and she’s got to take another step forward to be competitive in this race, but the filly has been very willing and done everything that we’ve asked her to do so far, so we’re hoping that she’ll be able to take that step forward.”
Regular Delaware-based rider Julio Hernandez will be aboard from Post 3.
“She’s very versatile. She’s easy to work with however the race sets up,” Stidham said. “If they’re going fast up front, she can sit just off, and if they’re slowing it down she’s fine to be on the pace, too. That’s always a good thing to have and we’re hoping that she can step up a notch.”
R. Larry Johnson’s Maryland homebred Call Another Play will be trying turf for the first time since finishing second in her career debut last August at Colonial Downs. The chestnut Audible filly has run in three consecutive stakes, winning Laurel’s Weber City Miss April 20 to earn an automatic berth in the Black-Eyed Susan (G2), where she ran third. Last time out she was fourth, beaten 2 ½ lengths, in the 1 1/16-mile Delaware Oaks (G3) July 8.
Mens Grille Racing’s Roanan Goddess, winner of the six-furlong Xtra Heat Jan. 27 and third in the seven-furlong Wide Country Feb. 24 on Laurel’s main track, will make her third straight start on grass in the Searching. She set the pace for a half-mile before finishing sixth in the one-mile Hilltop May 17 at historic Pimlico Race Course, then was compromised early and never in contention in the 5 ½-furlong Stormy Blues June 16 at Laurel.
Rounding out the field are Madame Mischief, runner-up in the 1 1/16-mile Boiling Springs July 13 at Monmouth Park; and Bonita Farm’s Maryland homebred Juniper Juice, less than a length shy of being unbeaten in three turf starts. Play Good Pay Good is entered for main track only.
Searching, a 1978 Hall of Fame inductee, was a bay daughter of 1937 Triple Crown champion War Admiral bred by Odgen Phipps that won the Gallorette Stakes at Pimlico in 1955 and 1957 for trainer Hirsch Jacobs, retiring with a record of 25-14-16 with $327,381 in purse earnings from 89 starts. As a broodmare, Searching also enjoyed great success with offspring such as Affectionately, an 18-time stakes winner and dam of 1970 Preakness winner Personality, and Admiring, the grand-dam of 1993 Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero.
