Laurel Park hosted two stakes Saturday: the Safely Kept Stakes for three-year-old fillies and the City of Laurel for three-year-olds. Both $100,000 races were contested at seven furlongs.

Here’s what we learned:

EVEN FALLING OFF CAN’T SLOW DOWN JG TORREALBA.

Young rider JG Torrealba has been on a scorching streak of late: three wins Thursday and four (including a stake) on Friday. But in Saturday’s fourth race, his mount, favored I Can Run, broke in the air and tossed Torrealba to the ground.

No matter. The jockey jumped up and jogged off the course while the race was running and came back three races later aboard Roanan Goddess to rally from well back to win the Safely Kept Stakes by three parts of a length. Roanan Goddess, trained by Ham Smith, won her fifth race and third in stakes company.

“He wins everything,” said David Hughes, who with wife Lori owns Roanan Goddess as Mens Grille Racing. “Maybe it’s an unfair advantage to have him on the back of your horse, so I don’t know how Ham got him but glad he did.”

Torrealba also won the nightcap, aboard Boujee Bubblez, for his third straight multi-win day.

EAST IS BEST?

One horse who certainly appears to think so is Winterfell, who rallied from last under Jevian Toledo to run down longtime dueling leaders Celtic Contender and Speedyness to win the City of Laurel Stakes going away.

The three-year-old Arrogate colt was a $400,000 yearling two falls ago but failed to break his maiden in five Southern California starts with Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. Since coming to Maryland and Brittany Russell’s barn, however, he’s 3-for-3.

“He seems to like the East Coast, right?” Russell joked afterwards, adding, “I think maybe when he broke his maiden, it just picked his head up a bit.”

THE PRICE IS (DEFINITELY) RIGHT

If you like chalk, you didn’t much care for today. If not, though, it was your kinda day at Laurel.

Favorites were 2-for-9, while longshots thrived. The day’s biggest winners included He’s Orientate ($84.40), Mavilus ($56.00), and Laddie Dance ($45.40).

He’s Orientate, a pickup mount for Darwin Rodriguez, gave owner-trainer Nancy Heil her first win of the year.

As for the two stakes, Roanan Goddess paid $13.80 to win, while Winterfell returned $14.20.

DON’T SLEEP ON…

Two runners in the City of Laurel ran big races while settling for minor shares.

Favored Celtic Contender and Speedyness hooked up early, battled heads apart while setting a grueling half-mile pace of 44.97 seconds, and stayed on willingly to the end. They finished noses apart for second and third, respectively, while two lengths behind Winterfell and a length-and-a-half ahead of the rest.

HUNCH PLAY OF THE DAY

On the coldest day of the fall in central Maryland, maybe it was inevitable that a horse named Winterfell would win. After all, winter is coming.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

The Hugheses paid $60,000 to pick up Roanan Goddess, an investment that’s paying dividends: the winner’s share from the Safely Kept has her in the shadow of $300,000 in career earnings.

“She walked really well in the sale, and my wife just fell in love with here,” David Hughes said. “You please the wife, so, that was on our list, and she’s certainly paid for herself in a big way.”

UP NEXT

The Maryland Juvenile and Maryland Juvenile Fillies, both for Maryland-bred or -sired freshmen, are December 7.

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