Morning Matcha #1, second is stablemate Disco Ebo #7 in the Unique Bella April 24, 2023, at Parx (Nikki Sherman/EQUI-PHOTO)
Laurel Park News & Notes
LAUREL Md.— When it comes to on-track success, no one in Saturday’s $200,000 Barbara Fritchie (G3) at Laurel Park has done it better than Cash is King and LC Racing’s Disco Ebo.
The 5-year-old mare owns 10 wins from 20 starts and is the richest of nine horses in the seven-furlong Fritchie with purse earnings of $586,544. Three of her victories have come in stakes, at three different tracks – the 2021 Shamrock Rose at Penn National, Mahoning Valley’s 2022 Youngstown Oaks, and 2023 Penn’s Landing at her home track of Parx.
About the only thing missing from Disco Ebo’s resume is black type in a graded-stakes race, a blank trainer Robert E. ‘Butch’ Reid Jr. hopes to fill this weekend.
“It’s not her first attempt, but that’s the idea,” Reid said. “We’re trying to get a graded win for her and enhance her value as a broodmare.”
By Weigelia out of the Disco Rico mare Katarica Disco, Disco Ebo is a full sister to stakes winners Fore Harp, Smooth B and Fat Kat – all trained by Reid – as well as Pink Princess, who won 16 races and $572,135 in purses racing primarily in the claiming ranks.
“We’ve had about five or six racehorses out of that mare and every one of them has been a runner and made over a half-million dollars,” Reid said. “It’s been a really good family for us.”
Disco Ebo strung together three straight wins by 26 ¾ combined lengths late in her juvenile campaign. Her lone try in graded company came as a 3-year-old in the winter of 2022 at Gulfstream Park, when she encountered trouble early and was eased late finishing seventh in the seven-furlong Forward Gal (G3).
Last year Disco Ebo began with three consecutive wins and went 4-for-6 overall, and she opened 2024 with a determined head victory in an open 6 ½-furlong allowance Jan. 24 at Parx. All of her wins have seen her race on or close to the lead.
“She’s got good gas and we don’t hold her back from showing it. It’s worked well for her,” Reid said. “She’s won half the starts of her career and she’s done it either near or on the front end. We’re not going to change anything with that strategy soon.”
Parx-based regular rider Frankie Pennington gets the return call from Post 4 on Disco Ebo, who has raced at six different racetracks but will be making her Laurel debut. She is rated at 10-1 on the morning line.
“As long as the track’s good and tight, she’s good. If we get a little rain on Saturday, even better,” Reid said. “She likes a track she can get a hold of where it’s not breaking away and Laurel’s traditionally been that way in the wintertime so that’s another reason to come in and take a chance.”
