With her win in Saturday’s $100,000 Gin Talking Stakes at Laurel Park, Caprice will conclude 2024 with six wins – tied for the most of any two-year-old in North America.

Her owners are hoping 2025 is even better.

“Our homebred program is to be at tracks like Laurel,” said Greg Bentley, who with wife Caroline bred and owns Caprice. “We know firsthand that there are a great progression of races here at Laurel for two-year-olds becoming three and three-year-olds as they progress.”

That path begins in earnest February 22 with the seven-furlong, $100,000 Wide Country Stakes for three-year-old fillies. It is followed in March by the one-mile Beyond the Wire and in April by the 1 1/16-mile Weber City Miss.

Finally, in May is the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan.

“I think that would make sense for us” as a target, Bentley said. “She is, course, Maryland-sired and would be well liked here on such a day.”

The Bentleys would know: they traveled the boys’ version of that same path in 2019 with their gelding Alwaysmining, who swept the series but ran 11^th in the Preakness.

For the most part, Caprice has made shortish work of her rivals in local stakes company, winning six of seven starts this year, including five stakes wins. Her lone defeat came in her lone two-turn try, in Delaware Park’s one-mile White Clay Creek, in which she got away poorly and was wide throughout.

Today, at 1-5 odds, she encountered no such problems, breaking alertly under jockey Jaime Rodriguez. But for the first half-mile, she was in the middle of a three-horse speed duel, while second choice My Charm lurked back in fourth.

But Caroline Bentley said she wasn’t worried about the company up front.

“I believe that she does what she needs to do when she needs to do it,” she said. “She’s a smart horse, and she’s very aware of what’s around her. I think she takes her cues from the jockey very well, and so I think she knows when she needs to move.”

In the Gin Talking, that moment of truth came as the field turned for home. Inside horse Atlantis Queen was first to fold nearing the quarter pole, and in upper stretch, Caprice kicked away from outside horse Not Too Late. That left only My Charm as a threat, but while that runner made up some ground, she could get no closer than 1 ¾ lengths.

Running time for the seven furlongs on a sloppy sealed track was 1:27.88.

Trained by Cal Lynch, Caprice is likely to get some down time before making her next start. She’ll have some questions to answer as a three-year-old, specifically whether she can get a route of ground and whether she is a graded stakes type.

For now, though, the Pennsylvania-bred Golden Lad filly has plenty of laurels to rest on.

One race later, in the Heft Stakes for two-year-olds, the Brittany Russell-trained One Man Team flashed serious talent in laying waste to the field by 4 ¼ lengths in a sharp time of 1:25.22.

Under jockey Sheldon Russell, One Man Team quickly found the front, set a measured pace, and was easily best. Stakes winner Sacred Thunder, off as the 7-5 favorite, rallied into second but was never a threat.

A $285,000 yearling purchase, the son of Nyquist, owned by Robert La Penta and Madaket Stables, is now two-for-two and hasn’t broken a sweat in either outing.

Brittany Russell, while acknowledging that One Man Team has “loads of talent,” was reticent about what might come next.

“It just feels good to get the win today,” she said. “We’ll see how he comes back. We’ll give him plenty of time. And I would think we’re going to keep everything in play.”

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