Resolute Racing’s stakes winner Lucky Jeremy, Grade 3-placed while on the early Triple Crown trail, returns to the dirt for his first start in nearly three months in Saturday’s $100,000 City of Laurel at Laurel Park.

The 14^th running of the City of Laurel for 3-year-olds and 34^th renewal of the $100,000 Safely Kept for 3-year-old fillies, both sprinting seven furlongs, co-headline a nine-race Thanksgiving weekend program that begins at 12:25 p.m.

Lucky Jeremy, a gelded bay son of two-time champion Lookin At Lucky, will be racing for the fourth time since joining trainer Mike Maker in late spring. He ran sixth in the 1 1/16-mile Texas Derby May 27 at Lone Star, then was a front-running winner of the one-mile Caesars Handicap July 13 at Horseshoe Indianapolis in his turf debut.

Maker kept Lucky Jeremy on the grass for the Sept. 8 Gun Runner at Kentucky Downs, also going one mile, where he pressed the pace and got within a neck of the lead after six furlongs but tired to sixth behind subsequent Grade 3 winner Brilliant Berti.

“His first race for us we tried to run him further than he wants to go and it didn’t pan out. We got him to a mile the next time and he ran a good race to win the stake,” Maker said. “Last time I think the waters were a little too deep.”

Lucky Jeremy won the Riley Allison Derby and was third in the Sunland Derby (G3) at Sunland Park over the winter for previous trainer William Morey, then was off the board in the Jeff Ruby (G3) on Tapeta and Lexington (G3) at Keeneland before changing barns. Laurel will be his eighth track in 10 starts.

“He’s versatile. He can be on the lead if it’s there or sit back if it’s not,” Maker said. “Obviously it’s a big advantage when you can have a horse that can travel the way he has. We’re looking forward to it.”

Horacio Karamanos has the call on Lucky Jeremy, rated at 10-1 on the morning line in a field of 10, from the rail.

“There wasn’t anything really ideal out there for him. He handles both surfaces,” Maker said. “He’s a first-time gelding and I don’t think he can go more than a mile so we thought the distance suited him well, also.”

The narrow 5-2 program favorite is Linda Merritt homebred Love Me Tender, a winner of his first two starts sprinting at Colonial Downs for trainer Michael Trombetta that exits a fifth-place finish, beaten less than three lengths, in the Keeneland’s seven-furlong Perryville (G3) Oct. 19 at odds of 55-1. Speedyness, who returned from a six-month break with an allowance win, is 3-1.

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