Jim McCue/MJC
David Joseph/Maryland Jockey Club
LAUREL, Md. – N R S Stable, James Chambers and Avalon Farm’s Coconut Cake, making her second start of the year, got a ground-saving trip under jockey Sheldon Russell and surged up the rail through the stretch to capture Saturday’s $75,000 Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares.
Coconut Cake ($13.40) covered six furlongs in 1:12.28 over a Fort Marcy turf course rated good to earn her second career stakes victory and give both Russell and trainer and co-owner Tim Keefe their first wins in the Jameela.
Russell and Coconut Cake were unhurried in the early going as three-time turf stakes winner Can the Queen broke sharply and carried the field through a quarter-mile in 23.71 seconds and a half in 47.67 pressed to her outside by Gift of Gab with Whiteknuckeflyer on the rail in third and Money’s Worth outside in fourth.
Can the Queen was still in front turning for home while Russell patiently held his ground inside waiting for room, which didn’t come until midway down the stretch. Once finding daylight, Coconut Cake showed a quick turn of foot to pass her rivals and win by three-quarters of a length.
Spun Glass, the 6-5 favorite, finished second in a bid to defend her title and make trainer Mike Trombetta the first three-time Jameela winner. It was 1 ½ lengths back to Money’s Worth in third, followed by Whiteknuckleflyer, Hollywood Walk, Next Episode, Can the Queen, My Thoughts, Dulce Kiara and Gift of Gab. Brzina (main track only), Summer Odds and Sweet Gracie were scratched.
Coconut Cake won the 1 1/8-mile Maryland Million Ladies last fall on the Laurel turf, opening her 6-year-old season running fifth behind Can the Queen in a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance May 28 at historic Pimlico Race Course.
“We thought she fit in here. It’s better than the 5 ½ [last time], the extra half-furlong. I think the softer turf maybe helped us a little bit as well. It was a little bit tiring for horses that were running on the front,” Keefe said. “Sheldon, as usual, gave her a great ride, saved all the ground and came running. At the eighth pole I was hoping to get a piece of it, but he came through and got it all.
“You hope for the win, but you never expect to win. She’s been training well. She’s doing super. I know she loves walking out of her stall and running right here at home, she loves the grass, and she loves Sheldon,” he added. “Everybody in the barn has done a great job with her. She was coming intothe race well and I was looking for a good effort.”
Keefe said he expects to bring Coconut Cake back in the $100,000 Big Dreyfus scheduled for 1 1/8 miles July 15 at Laurel, a race where she closed to be fourth by two lengths at odds of 21-1 last summer.
“We’re pointing her toward the Big Dreyfus,” he said. “She ran a big number last year. She likes the two turns I think a little bit better.”
Meaning ‘beautiful’ in Arabic, Jameela won 16 stakes including the Maskette (G1), Ladies (G1) and Delaware (G1) handicaps before being retired following the 1982 season as the first Maryland-bred to surpass $1 million in lifetime earnings. She had two foals, the first being 1988 champion sprinter Gulch, before passing away from colic in 1985. She was elected to the Maryland-bred Hall of Fame in 2013.
