Ain’t Da Beer Cold was promoted to winner over Market Maven in the Maryland Million Classic. (Maryland Jockey Club Photo)
David Joseph/ Maryland Jockey Club
LAUREL, Md. – Market Maven and Ain’t Da Beer Cold, who crossed the wire first and second in the Maryland Million Classic five weeks ago before a disqualification reversed the finish, are entered to line up again in the 23rd renewal of the $100,000 Richard W. Small.
Gregory Gordon’s Market Maven pressed the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Classic, taking a short lead at the top of the stretch and holding it through the lane to edge Ain’t Da Beer Cold by a neck. Stewards ruled there was enough contact between the two horses to promote Ain’t Da Beer Cold, winless in his previous 11 starts, to the victory.
Matt Spencer, Kelly Jo Cox and Bonuccelli Racing’s Ain’t Da Beer Cold, also entered in Friday’s $75,000 Howard and Sondra Bender Memorial for Maryland-bred/sired horses sprinting seven furlongs, drew Post 7 in a field of eight, two spots outside Market Maven, making his fourth start since joining fall meet leading trainer Jamie Ness.
Repole Stable homebred Be Better put together a three-race win streak over the spring and summer capped by his first stakes victory in the 1 1/8-mile Deputed Testamony July 29 at Laurel, beating such accomplished horses as Nimitz Class and Ournationonparade. Third as the favorite behind Grade 3 winner Double Crown in the Sept. 10 Polynesian at historic Pimlico Race Course, he most recently ran fourth – a half-length behind third-place finisher Nimitz Class – in the M.P. Ballezzi Appreciation Mile Oct. 17 at Parx.
Outlier and millionaire Forewarned have combined for 22 wins from 128 lifetime starts. Built Wright Stable’s Outlier, fifth in last year’s Cigar Mile (G1), has a win and a third in his last two tries at Laurel while Trin-Brook Stables Inc.’s Forewarned is a seven-time stakes winner that has placed in a pair of graded-stakes but is 0-for-13 lifetime at Laurel.
Movisitor, winner of the 1 1/16-mile Crowd Pleaser June 23 and coming off a front-running optional claiming score over elders going a mile and 70 yards Oct. 30, both at Parx; Sept. 23 Alphabet Soup Handicap winner King Kumbalay, runner-up in the Ballezzi; and Hay Chief complete the field.
Formerly run as the Broad Brush, the multi-millionaire and four-time Grade 1 winner he trained, the Richard W. Small was renamed following the beloved horseman’s death from cancer in 2014. Baltimore-born ‘Dickie’ Small served two tours of duty during the Vietnam War as a Green Beret before becoming a trainer, also campaigning Broad Brush’s son, 1994 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Concern. He won at least one stakes race in Maryland every year but one between 1974 and 2014 and is also known for helping launch the riding careers of female jockeys such as Andrea Seefeldt, Jerilyn Brown, Rosie Napravnik and Forest Boyce.
