Laurel Park will be off the turf all weekend, the track announced Friday morning in a message to horsemen. Rains in the region drove races off the turf at both Laurel and Delaware Friday, as well.

Races coming off the turf will wreak havoc to the track’s Saturday and Sunday cards. In total, Laurel had scheduled 11 of its 20 weekend races for the grass.

The Saturday card, which had six of 10 races slated for the lawn, will be particularly hard hit. Beyond the sheer number, Laurel has three stakes scheduled for turf on Saturday: the Laurel Futurity, Selima, and Japan Turf Cup.

The first two of those are for juveniles, and trainer Graham Motion had already indicated he hoped to use the Selima as a path to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf for his runner Correto. A winner at first asking on the turf at Kentucky Downs, she had been installed as the 3-1 morning line favorite. Motion had followed the Selima-to-Breeders’ Cup trail successfully in 2019 with Sharing.

One likely effect of the moving of the races to the main track will be to make Studlydoright a strong favorite in the Futurity. The Nyquist colt is a stakes winner on the dirt and was Grade 3-placed when a fast-closing second in the Sanford at Saratoga. Installed at 5-1 on the turf – his breeding suggests he’ll take to it – he’ll be much shorter odds in a race on the main track.

Studlydoright’s trainer, John Robb, will be a guest on Off to the Races Radio Saturday morning. The show airs at 10:00 a.m.

Laurel’s Saturday card kicks off at 12:25 p.m. with the first of the day’s stakes, the Selima, carded as the sixth race with an estimated post time of 2:54.

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