Field Pass after winning the 2021 BWI Turf Cup with jockey Victor Carrasco (Jerry Dzierwinski/MJC)
> $75,000 All Brandy Draws 26 Including Can the Queen, Coconut Cake
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David Joseph/Maryland Jockey Club
LAUREL, Md.— Three Diamonds Farm’s multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire Field Pass, looking for his first win since last summer, and fellow stakes winners Sky’s Not Falling and Wicked Prankster are among 24 horses nominated for the $75,000 Find to be run Saturday, Aug. 19 at Laurel Park.
The Find for 3-year-olds and up and $75,000 All Brandy for fillies and mares 3 and older are both scheduled for the turf and restricted to Maryland-bred/sired horses. They mark the final two of 16 stakes worth $1.525 million during Laurel’s 33-day summer meet, which runs through Sunday, Aug. 20.
Field Pass, trained by Mike Maker, owns nine career wins with six in stakes races, five of them graded, including the 2021 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3) at historic Pimlico Race Course. He also won the 2020 Jeff Ruby (G3), Transylvania (G3) and Ontario Derby (G3) and 2021 Seabiscuit (G2) and was placed first in last July’s Texas Turf Classic at Lone Star, his most recent victory.
Bred in Maryland by Mark Brown Grier, 6-year-old Field Pass sold for $37,000 during Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale in October 2018 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium and has gone on to bank $1,194,021 from 34 career starts. In his last start, the son of Lemon Drop Kid ran eighth in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance July 30 at Saratoga.
Field Pass has had one prior start at Laurel, running third behind Chez Pierre in last April’s 2022 Henry S. Clark. It was the first stakes win for Chez Pierre, who is 6-for-8 lifetime including a victory in the April 14 Maker’s Mark Mile (G1) at Keeneland.
Trainer Michael Trombetta nominated the pair of Sky’s Not Falling and Street Copper, both bred and owned or co-owned by R. Larry Johnson. Sky’s Not Falling, 5, won the 2022 Maryland Million Turf Sprint and most recently third behind graded and group-stakes winners Eons and Pao Alto in the 1 1/8-mile Prince George’s County July 15 at Laurel. The 8-year-old Street Copper has placed in back-to-back editions of the 1 1/8-mile Maryland Million Turf and was seventh in last year’s Find.
Wicked Prankster, owned and trained by Sam Davis, was a front-running three-quarter-length winner over Street Copper in the Maryland Million Turf last fall. All four of his lifetime wins have come at Laurel, three over its world-class turf course.
Also prominent among nominees are 2021 Maryland Million Turf Starter Handicap winner B Determined, third in last year’s Find; Circling the Drain, stakes-placed on both turf and dirt and exiting a restricted turf allowance win July 8 at Laurel; Crabs N Beer, third by a length in the 2022 Maryland Million Turf; The Addison Pour, two-for-three since moved to the turf in May; and Wish Me Home, a last out turf allowance winner first off the claim for Maryland’s leading trainer, Brittany Russell.
Multiple turf stakes winners Can the Queen and Coconut Cake top 26 horses nominated to the All Brandy. Joanne Shankle-owned and trained Can the Queen’s best races have come sprinting, winning the 2022 The Very One and Sensible Lady at Pimlico going five furlongs, but the now 7-year-old mare stretched out to be second by a half-length in last year’s All Brandy, her only other time at the distance.
NRS Stable, James Chambers and Avalon Farm’s Coconut Cake faded to six after pressing the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Big Dreyfus July 15 at Laurel, which came just 14 days after the 6-year-old mare rallied for a three-quarter-length triumph in the six-furlong Jameela. Coconut Cake was third by less than a length in last year’s All Brandy before going on to win the 1 1/8-mile Maryland Million Ladies by a head.
Silhouette’s Amplio Esquema was beaten three-quarters of a length when third in the 2022 Maryland Million Ladies, and this year has run in a pair of 1 1/16-mile allowances. She was third by less than a length to She Is Wisky against restricted company June 11 and fifth, beaten 4 ½ lengths by Naval Empire, in an open spot July 14. Both winners are also nominated to the All Brandy.
Other nominees include Downtown Katie, second by a head in the 2022 Maryland Million Turf Distaff Starter Handicap; multiple stakes winner Malibu Beauty and stakes-placed stablemate Intrepid Daydream, both yet to run on grass.
Entries will be taken, and post positions drawn for both the Find and All Brandy on Sunday, Aug. 13.
Notes
Jockey Jaime Rodriguez extended his lead atop the Laurel summer meet standings with a pair of winners Sunday, Bossyness ($8) in Race 4 and Proud Mary ($3.40) in Race 7. Rodriguez has 31 wins, eight more than apprentice Axel Concepcion …
X-Men Racing 2’s sophomore Proud Mary turned back Bossy Diva in deep stretch to graduate in the maiden special weight for fillies and mares ages 3, 4 and 5, her second career start. The winning time was 1:02.35 for 5 ½ furlongs on the Exceller turf course …
David Jacobson’s Self Isolation ($6.40) collared Beneath the Stars in mid-stretch and pulled clear despite drifting out late in Race 8, an open allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting six furlongs, completing the distance in 1:09.49 over a fast main track. It was her ninth lifetime win and second in as many starts at Laurel …
Alex Kazdan’s stakes-winning 8-year-old mare Shasta Star ($3.20) came with a five-wide run through the stretch and prevailed by 1 ½ lengths in Sunday’s opener, a 5 ½-furlong starter optional claimer for fillies and mares 3 and up on the Bowl Game turf course. She finished in 1:02.29 on the firm going for her third straight win and 12th from 35 lifetime starts …
Call Me Vivian ($3.60), beaten 1 ¼ lengths when fourth in her season opener June 23 at Laurel, was a popular winner of Race 5, a maiden claimer featuring amateur riders. Francisco Martinez was up on the 4-year-old Imagining filly, owned by Grace Merryman, bred by her Anchor & Hope Farm, Inc. along with Copper Penny Stables, and trained by her father, Ed Merryman …
Live racing returns to Laurel with a nine-race program Friday including a carryover of $752.10 in the $1 Jackpot Super High Five (Race 6). First race post time is 12:25 p.m.
