Laurel Turf Cup: Eyeplayeveryday, plus odds and analysis

Eyeplayeveryday (in between). Photo by Laurie Asseo.

From a Maryland Jockey Club release

M & D Stable homebred stakes winner Eyeplayeveryday, third as the favorite in an off-the-turf allowance last time out, looks to bounce back in the $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup for 3-year-olds and up at 1 ½ miles on the All Along Turf Course.

Owner-breeder Mike Horning believes the distance will be a plus for Eyeplayeveryday, a 5-year-old son of Jazil out of the Touch Gold mare Gimme the Gold. Both Jazil (2006) and Touch Gold (1997) won the 1 ½-mile Belmont Stakes (G1), the third leg of racing’s Triple Crown.

1. Renown (2-1) — Angel Cruz/Elizabeth Voss — Enters off two good efforts in lengthy turf stakes, upsetting the Cape Henlopen and finishing third in the John’s Call; improvement coincides with putting Angel Cruz up
2. Cul Baire (30-1) — Kevin Gomez/James Day — Hasn’t show this type of ability since coming over from Britain three years ago; no particular reason to see it happening today
3. Verger — scratched
4. Generous Kitten (9-5) — Horacio Karamanos/Mike Maker — Should appreciate drop from G3 company; owns a win at the trip
5. Moss Code — scratched
6. Motivational (6-1) — Sheldon Russell/Charles LoPresti — Career-best Beyer came when running at this distance three back; will need to find that type of effort here
7. Whitman’s Poetry (12-1) — Alex Cintron/Tim Woolley — First try in Woolley barn after a pair of wins from trainer Michael Dickinson; stiff class test here
8. Eyeplayeveryday (8-1) — Edgar Prado/Bill Komlo — Intriguing entrant never worse than third in three turf tries and won 9-furlong Find two back; sire and damsire both won 12-furlong Belmont
9. Forest Rim (15-1) — Clinton Potts/Clyde Martin — Still eligible for N1X

“When you watch his races and you watch him gallop out he never lets horses get by him. The outriders have to pull him up because he won’t stop running by himself,” Horning said. “The jockeys have a hard time pulling him up, so I have felt that the longer he goes the better he’s going to be. I’m looking for him to run a big race regardless of the competition. I just think this is right up his alley, being by a Belmont Stakes winner out of a dam by a Belmont Stakes winner. He has so much energy and he just keeps rolling. He can gallop all day long and not get tired.”

Trained by Horning’s father-in-law, Bill Komlo, Eyeplayeveryday was a neck winner of the 1 1/8-mile Find Stakes June 25 at Pimlico before finishing a distant third to Noteworthy Peach in a one-mile optional claiming allowance rained off the grass July 30. He is winless in nine starts at Laurel but was second by a half-length to multiple stakes winner Phlash Phelps in the 2015 Find in his only previous attempt over its world-class turf course.

“I’ve been wanting to run this horse this distance and, other than New York, you don’t really get races like this,” Horning said. “We just said, ‘It’s 40 days between his last race and this one, let’s just shoot for the Turf Cup.’ It’s right here at home, he ran well over that turf course and it’s a mile and a half, so we’re giving it a shot.”

Eyeplayeveryday will break from post 8 of nine under Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado. All horses will carry 118 pounds.

Also entered are Cul Baire, making his second start of the year after three attempts over jumps in 2015; recent Penn National allowance winner Forest Rim; Generous Kitten, fourth by 1 ¼ lengths in the 1 ½-mile Singspiel (G3) July 3 at Woodbine; Renown, winner of Delaware’s Cape Henlopen Stakes at 12 furlongs; Moss Code, Motivational, Verger and Whitman’s Poetry