LRL: Carrasco returns with Weber City Miss shocker
Ivy Girl earns Black-Eyed Susan berth
Frank Vespe
April 18, 2026
Victor Carrasco is back.
The longtime Maryland rider spent the winter at Kentucky’s Turfway Park, winning a dozen races while generating nearly $1 million in purse earnings.
Back home today, the veteran registered his first victory in Maryland since Nov. 30, 2025, when he piloted Ivy Girl to a come-from-behind shocker in Saturday’s $150,000 Weber City Miss Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Laurel Park.
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“This is like home for me,” said Carrasco, a native of Puerto Rico. “I’ve been here for 13 years, and this past winter I decided to give myself a chance somewhere else. You know, it’s nice to see all of you guys back here, and even better, when I get a chance to ride a winner.”
Ivy Girl, a daughter of Maxfield, lagged far behind the field in the early running, while maiden Wiretapped set the tempo, reeling off a 23.40-second opener and a half-mile in 48.10 seconds. In fact, Carrasco had his mount under a ride from the very first jumps.
“The plan of the race was very simple,” Carrasco said. “You have to ride her every step of the way. If you quit, she’ll quit, too.
“She’s never took a jockey into the race,” said Amelia Green, who trains Ivy Girl for Lucky Hat Racing LLC. “She’s always watching. ‘Keep pedaling,’ that’s what I said. ‘Keep pedaling.’”
Ivy Girl began to make her move on the far turn, shifting out to the two path to go around a rival, and entered the stretch on the rail and with plenty of run. Up front, meanwhile, post time favorite Jumping the Gun, making her first start since December and hung out wide every step, took the lead entering the stretch.
Ivy Girl reached contention inside before Carrasco swung her outside her rivals in mid-stretch, and she surged past second choice A. P.’s Girl, who’d taken the lead, and a tiring Jumping the Gun.
“When he pulled her outside [in midstretch], I was like, ‘Okay, you still have plenty of horse,’ which we said we were going to have,” said Lucky Hat’s Joe Veasey, a retired schoolteacher.
“I managed to drop in to cut the corner a little bit and save a little bit of ground, and once I give her daylight, and I hit her with the left hand, she just took off,” Carrasco said.
Ivy Girl won by a half-length over A. P.’s Girl, with Jumping the Gun another 4 ½ lengths farther back in third. Wiretapped faded to sixth.
Running time for 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track was 1:48.22.
Ivy Girl paid $55.40 to win, and the exacta returned $123.00 for a one-dollar wager.
“I’m confident in my horses when they run,” Green said. “I knew she’d turn up today. Did I think we’d win? I knew she had to run the race of her life to win. I think she did that today.”
Lucky Hat paid $100,000 to obtain Ivy Girl when she was a yearling, but she made her first two starts for a $40,000 tag. She won the second of those before finishing a distant sixth in the Grade 2 Demoiselle.
Since turning three, however, she has done nothing but run good races: a second to next-out Beyond the Wire winner Miss Fulton Gal, a win in Parx Racing’s Main Line Stakes, and this contest.
The waters get deeper, though: “As long as she stays healthy and sound,” the plan is to take advantage of the free berth in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes May 15, Green said.
Veasey said he was excited about that prospect, and presumably, he’ll be wearing the same hat he had on today.
Asked if today’s white hat was the titular lucky hat, he laughed.
“It is now,” he said, adding, “There have been many [lucky hats] because we don’t win all the time.”
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