Laurel Park stakes draw 65 noms
Phlash Phelps. Photo by Laurie Asseo.
From a Maryland Jockey Club release
A total of 65 horses were nominated to a pair of upcoming stakes at Laurel Park, the $75,000 Dahlia for fillies and mares 3 and up on April 16 and the $75,000 Henry S. Clark for 3-year-olds and up April 23.
Grade 2 winner Miss Ella, trained by Fair Hill-based Graham Motion, leads the 34 nominees to the Dahilia, run at one mile on the grass. The 4-year-old Exchange Rate filly won the Beaumont (G2) and Christicat Stakes last fall and has not raced since finishing off the board in the Raven Run (G2) Oct. 17 at Keeneland. Motion also nominated German Group 3 winner La Saldana and Irish Group 3 winner Nakuti.
Also nominated are Carla Bianca, a multiple group stakes winner in Ireland looking to make her U.S. debut for trainer Christophe Clement; multiple New York-bred stakes winner Freudie Anne; Grade 3-placed Hope Cross; four-time Laurel stakes winner Monster Sleeping; and stakes winners Notte d’Oro and Sea Shadow.
Phlash Phelps, Maryland’s champion turf horse after going four for four in 2015 including the Find Stakes and Maryland Millions Turf; and multiple stakes-winning millionaire Page McKenney top the 31 horses nominated to the one-mile Henry S. Clark on the turf. Phlash Phelps, 5, and Page McKenney, 6, will each take a four-race win streak into their next start.
Among the other nominees are 2015 Laurel Turf Cup winner St. Albans Boy; multiple graded stakes winner Reporting Star; Grade 3 winners Golden Sabre, Legendary, Lubash and Middleburg; 2013 With Anticipation (G3) runner-up River Dancer; Grade 3-placed Cage Fighter, Shatak, Special Envoy and Under Control; and Chamois, second in the 2014 Dixie (G2) at Pimlico.
