Sparkle Blue. (Jim McCue/MJC)
Laurel Summer Meet Resumes with Eight-Race Program Friday
David Joseph/Maryland Jockey Club
LAUREL, Md. – Augustin Stable and Catherine Parke’s Sparkle Blue, exiting four consecutive graded-stakes, put her class on display by powering through the stretch and turning back stubborn longshot Cut From Class to win Sunday’s $100,000 Big Dreyfus at Laurel Park for the second consecutive year.
The fifth running of the 1 1/8-mile Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and up on the Dahlia turf course headlined a 10-race program that included the $75,000 Miss Disco for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-old fillies sprinting seven furlongs.
Favored at 1-5 in a field of seven, Sparkle Blue ($2.60) covered firm ground in 1:47.82 with regular rider Jorge Ruiz for her seventh career win and fifth in a stakes. Two of those wins have come against graded company in the 2022 Valley View (G3) at Keeneland and March 9 Hillsborough (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs.
Both Sparkle Blue and Cut From Class had to survive a claim of foul from jockey Forest Boyce, rider of fifth-place finisher Charmed Way, alleging interference in mid-stretch. After a stewards’ review, the claim was dismissed.
“It looked like she had a pretty clear trip until the last sixteenth [of a mile],” winning trainer Graham Motion said. “But she’s very professional and Jorge rides her with a lot of confidence. I thought he was in a great spot.”
Cut From Class, off at 12-1 while taking a three-race win streak into her stakes debut, broke alertly from Post 2 and found herself in a familiar spot on the lead, going the opening quarter mile in 23.46 seconds with seven-time stakes-placed Tic Tic Tic Boom applying pressure on her outside. Sparkle Blue raced three wide in third as Cats Inthe Timber, a dirt stakes winner trying turf for the first time, settled on the rail in fourth.
The top two runners remained unchanged after a half in 48.29 as an eager Charmed Way worked her way up to third between horses, with Sparkle Blue still in the clear in fourth. Cut From Class dug in determinedly once straightened for home as Cats Inthe Timber and Tic Tic Tic Boom dropped back and Sparkle Blue launched her bid. Ruiz and Sparkle Blue came with a steady run as the field crowded together near the sixteenth pole and got up to win by a half-length.
Cut From Class held second, a neck ahead of Sparkle Blue’s Motion-trained stablemate, Sun Bee, who trailed in the early going. It was three-quarters of a length back to late-running Glittering Lights in fourth followed by Charmed Way, Tic Tic Tic Boom and Cats Inthe Timber.
Sparkle Blue won last year’s Big Dreyfus by 2 ¼ lengths, also as the favorite with Ruiz aboard. The 5-year-old mare, bred by Parke and partnered in ownership by Augustin’s George Strawbridge Jr., had placed in each of her first three races this year before running ninth in the New York (G1) June 7 at Saratoga.
“We kind of threw her to the wolves a little bit last time in Saratoga in what was almost like a Breeders’ Cup prep. The ground was very soft that day and she struggled a little bit,” Motion said. “Catherine and I got together [with] Mr. Strawbridge and we decided to come back to where she won last year. It seemed like a nice place to get her confidence back.”
Sparkle Blue earned $60,000 for the win to push her career bankroll to $957,988. She may make her first bid to become a millionaire in Kentucky, where she ran second in the Ladies Turf (G3) last fall out of her Big Dreyfus win.
“She ran really well at Kentucky Downs last year, so that’s something we’ll definitely think about,” Motion said.
