Onyx Ten enjoyed a perfect pace-tracking, ground-saving trip to take Laurel’s Xtra Heat Stakes at six furlongs on Jan. 25.

Saturday she’ll stretch out to seven furlongs in the $100,000 Wide Country Stakes at Laurel Park. The test, for three-year-old fillies, joins the one-mile Miracle Wood, for three-year-olds, atop Laurel’s Saturday card.

Trained by Gary Capuano for breeder-owner Frank Sample, Onyx Ten cut back in distance after finishing second as the odds-on chalk in a two-turn allowance on Dec. 27. In that race, she was rank in the opening furlongs, made an early bid to the lead, and understandably faltered late. 

“She’s a little nervous filly,” assistant trainer Tori Capuano said after the Xtra Heat. “I think that was the reasoning [why she was pulling in the allowance]. She just needed to settle down. She finished great [today]. She didn’t stop. She just kept going and galloped out good.”

Onyx Ten has just two wins from her nine starts to date – tied with Shkhara Fire for the most starts of any horse in the field. But she’s been second or third five additional times, including a second in the $50,000 Blue Hen Stakes at Delaware Park and a third in the Maryland Juvenile Filly.

“She’s been consistent,” Gary Capuano said. “She tries, and [in the Xtra Heat] she got a great trip.”

A Maryland-bred daughter of Street Magician, Onyx Ten is out of the winning Rock Hard Ten mare Chattolanee. She is a half-sister to recent Laurel allowance winner Secret Zipper.

JG Torrealba has the return mount aboard Onyx Ten.

She will have to contend with the place and show horses from the Xtra Heat in Shkhara Fire, for trainer Jose Corrales, and the Uriah St. Lewis-trained Not Too Late.

But favoritism could well run through Icona Mama. Trained by Flint Stites for DeSales 85 LLC, the Pennsylvania-bred Maximus Mischief filly makes her season bow in the Wide Country.

A winner at first asking, Icona Mama concluded her 2024 campaign with a 9 ¾-length romp in the state-restricted Shamrock Rose at Penn National. Her most noteworthy result came a couple of starts prior to that, when she was third, beaten less than a length, in the Grade 3 Pocahontas at Churchill Downs.

“She filled out really well physically,” Stites said. “Emotionally, she was already fairly mature. Very precocious. Loved to train. Wanted to be competitive with other horses. She didn’t do many silly things.”

Ricardo Chiappe, aboard in the Shamrock Rose, has the return mount.

Others in the field include last-out maiden winner New Boots, Ruthless Stakes runner-up Ourdaydreaminggirl, multiple stakes-placed Safe Trust, and two-for-two Field of Roses.

The Wide Country is the seventh race on a nine-race program. Post time for the card is 12:10 p.m.