Laurel

Harper's Corner became the first winner for her freshman stallion (by Street Sense) with an eye-catching debut victory Friday afternoon at Laurel Park. Crunched into 17-5 from an 8-1 morning line off a sound-enough worktab at Fair Hill, the $30,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling and $70,000 OBS April breezer dipped at the break, but quickly recovered and soon opened a few lengths on her rivals. With Paco Lopez back at the site of his recent victory aboard Napoleon Solo (Liam's Map) in the GI Preakness Stakes and looking for the competition...

LAUREL, MD -- Two weeks ago, Saffie Joseph Jr. found himself in an eerily similar situation when one of his horses was forced to scratch from a Grade I event right before the big dance. The latest casualty was My Miss Mo (Uncle Mo) who was scratched on Apr. 29, only two days before the running of the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. No doubt, the 11th-hour defection had to sting a bit, however, the filly came right back to validate her connections' unwavering faith in her, winning...

TDN's Chief Correspondent Bill Finley is joined by Senior Contributing Editor Alan Carasso and Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack to handicap Saturday's GI Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park. FINLEY: Honestly, it's hard to like anyone in a race that looks like it will be a mad scramble and is made up of so many horses who really aren't Triple Crown caliber. The right move is probably to go for a longshot and just hope to get lucky. The pick here will be Pretty Boy Miah (Beau Liam), who is 15-1...

Childs Walker, who has covered Thoroughbred racing in Maryland and nationally for nearly 20 years, has been named recipient of the Old Hilltop Award for covering the sport with excellence and distinction, the Stronach Group announced Tuesday. Walker will be presented with the Old Hilltop Award Thursday, May 14 at the Alibi Breakfast at Laurel Park. The Alibi Breakfast, which began in the 1930s on the porch of the historic Pimlico Race Course, features a gathering of owners, trainers, jockeys, media and fans to celebrate the Preakness and gain interesting...

1st-AQU, $86k, Alw/Opt. Clm., 4yo/up, f/m, 1mT, 1:10 p.m. ET MATILDA (GER) (Soldier Hollow {GB}) belied odds of 25-1 to defeat the boys in last year's G2 German 2000 Guineas at Cologne in May for owner/breeder Volker Kaufling and was purchased privately thereafter by Peter Brant. Subsequently turned over to Francis-Henri Graffard, the bay filly was as short as 6-1 facing older females in the G1 Prix Rothschild at Deauville in August, but finished well down the field in 10th behind the very talented Fallen Angel (GB) (Too Darn Hot...

10th-KEE, $110k, Msw, 3yo, f, 5 1/2fT, 5:48 p.m. ET A $300,000 Keeneland September yearling acquisition, FOOL'S ADVENTURE (Wootton Bassett {GB}) debuts in the colors of Mrs. Fitri Hay for trainer Wesley Ward. The Apr. 9 foal is the first to make the races out of Happy Like a Fool (Distorted Humor), who graduated on her career debut locally for Ward and the Coolmore connections and followed up with a runner-up effort in the G2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot. Victorious in the GIII Matron Stakes back on the...

Back in 1988, attendance for the GI Preakness Stakes at Laurel Race Course was 7,372. By 2002, the Preakness crowd at the renamed Laurel Park had more than doubled, to 15,917. Of course, those figures from decades ago weren't for the in-person, live running of the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Those head counts represent only people who turned out for Laurel's simulcast of the Preakness. The race itself was conducted 28 miles north at the Preakness's traditional Baltimore home, Pimlico Race Course. In that era, the Preakness throng...

In an abrupt switch of plans that had seemed cemented for the past year as part of the $400-million "Pimlico Plus" rebuild of Maryland's Thoroughbred racing infrastructure, the Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA) is abandoning plans to convert its recently purchased Shamrock Farm in Carroll County into an 800-horse training center, and will instead buy Laurel Park from The Stronach Group (TSG) with the intention of turning it into an 1,100-horse training facility. With Pimlico Race Course now demolished and projected to be rebuilt in time for the 2027 GI Preakness...

5. LONESOME ROAD, LRL, 12/26-7th, 6 furlongs (video) Beyer Speed Figure- 93 (g, 3, by Maclean's Music-Walk of Stars, by Street Sense) O-Estate of R Larry Johnson. B-R Larry Johnson (Va). T-Michael Trombetta. J-Mychel Sanchez. The now-4-year-old gelding took a massive leap forward when Trombetta shifted him from grass to dirt, scoring by a widening 8 1/2 lengths as the latest success from the breeding program of late Maryland-based owner/breeder Larry Johnson. Lonesome Road traces back four generations to Johnson's foundation mare Ran's Chick through her daughter Special Kell--the same...

Michael Trombetta, the long-time trainer for the late Larry Johnson, visited the owner's farm in 2022 to inspect the new crop of yearlings and was struck by one in particular. The yearling was Mindframe (Constitution). "The first time I saw Mindframe, he just stood out like a sore thumb," Trombetta said. But Trombetta knew then that he would not get the chance to train the horse who went on to win the GI Stephen Foster Stakes, the GI Churchill Downs Stakes and finish second in the GI Belmont Stakes. According...

For 2026, Maryland's racing calendar will look more or less like this year's schedule after the Maryland Racing Commission on Wednesday approved a slate of 120 dates for Laurel Park. That's the same number of racing days that the non-profit Maryland Jockey Club had been awarded for this season, with the only difference being that in 2025, six programs were run at Pimlico Race Course as part of the GI Preakness Stakes meet. Pimlico has since been demolished and is being rebuilt with the goal of all commercial-track Thoroughbred racing...

5. DYNAMITE TONIGHT, DED, 11/7, 5 furlongs (VIDEO). Beyer Speed Figure-82 (g, 2, by Independence Hall--Shop for Gold, by Speightstown) O-Roger Smith and Keiber Rengifo. B-DocAtty Stables (La). T-Sam Breaux. J-Elio Barrera. $127,000 OBSOPN; Consigned by Golden Rock Thoroughbreds. Having brought $127,000 in June at OBS--a decent price for a Louisiana-bred--he debuted by demolishing state-bred maidens by 8 3/4 lengths in solid time. His pedigree traces to Jack Dreyfus' old Hobeau Farm breeding operation, and New Iberia-based veteran Breaux, 71, has won 2,063 races and more than five dozen stakes....