LRL: Barbadian Runner, Maida score in undercard stakes
Barbadian Runner moves within one big payday of millionaire status
Frank Vespe
June 27, 2026
Opponents have decided that the way to beat Barbadian Runner is to slow it down on the front end.
Maida, on the other hand, gives her rivals no such option.
The two four-year-olds triumphed in stakes company Saturday at Laurel Park, and while the approach was different, the outcome was similar.
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Barbadian Runner, racing’s entirely unexpected feel-good story, added another chapter by inching past longtime leader Catalytic and holding off the late run of Adero to win the Deputed Testamony Stakes by a nose.
That came one race after Maida zipped to the front, threw down testing fractions, and drew away smartly to win the Alma North Stakes by a stunning 10 ½ lengths.
“She’s walking out of her stall, this is home,” said Maida’s trainer Brittany Russell. “I’m very impressed with this today, but I’d really like to see her be able to take it on the road.”
Her biggest road game to date came last October in the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland. She was away slowly that day, which left her up against it in a rugged field in which she was 25-1 to start with.
Russell and owner Harry Papaleo put her away after that; today was her first start back.
“She came out of the Keeneland race okay, but I just thought she could have been better,” said Russell, who trains Maida for Harry Papaleo’s Goodfellas LLC. “So we just took a step back with her, and I think it’s done a lot of good.”
Today in her first start of 2026 and under regular pilot Sheldon Russell, Maida had no problem getting out of the gate. In fact, she had no problem of any kind.
She broke on top to lead by 2 ½ lengths after an opener in a sharp 21.72 seconds, with the speedy but – here – outfooted Bam’s Bliss Kiss in closest attendance. The lead was seven after a half-mile in 45.76 seconds and widened from there as Maida stopped the timer in 1:18.44 for 6 ½ furlongs on a fast main track.
Multiple Grade 3 winner Grammy Girl was a clear second while no match for the winner, and the yawning margin suggests the winner may be ready to take a step up the class ladder.
“I think she’s a horse I need to be patient with in between because I think she runs hard every time she show shows up,” Russell said. “Naturally, I’d like to get a graded stakes win with her at some point.”
Barbadian Runner’s trainer Henry Walters isn’t too worried about graded black type, but then again, he’s piloting a gelding, rather than a well-bred filly, so the question of the residual value offered by graded black type is of no consequence.
What he does have is a hard-trying runner who keeps running big races and cashing checks. Today’s win in the 9-furlong Deputed Testamony was Barbadian Runner’s ninth from 23 starts and pushed his bankroll to over $930,000 – one nice payday from millionaire status.
For the third straight race, Barbadian Runner found himself up against it pacewise: a quality opponent loose on the lead and slowing it down. Regular rider Forest Boyce had Barbadian pressing the pace of the Brittany Russell-trained Catalytic through sluggish early fractions: 25.42 seconds for the opener, 50.48 for the half, and 1:15.90 for six furlongs.
“At a mile and an eighth, you know, it’s fine,” said Walters of the slow pace. “He can just slow it down himself and have something left for the end.”
By the last of those fractions, Barbadian Runner was just a half-length behind and ready to rev up a run.
Despite the slow early fractions, Barbadian Runner had Catalytic’s measure by the quarter pole and seemed homefree. Then Adero, with Mychel Sanchez up for Jamie Ness, tipped out and closed. Maybe, rider Forest Boyce said, he was waiting on horses a little.
“He doesn’t make the lead that early,” winning trainer Henry Walters explained. “He always has a target inside the eighth pole or the sixteenth pole. He’s in virgin territory.”
But Barbadian Runner dug in to hold off Adero narrowly.
NOTES Thundering, with Yedsit Hazlewood up, won the grassy Japan Racing Association Turf Cup by 1 1/2 lengths for trainer Derek Ryan and owner-breeder Dastur Racing. He is a Maryland-bred gelding by Mosler and has three wins… Brittany Russell and Sheldon Russell teamed up for three wins total. The first came in the opener when Oracle of Beaufort was put up by disqualification, and the second came with the very impressive debut runner Everyday’s a Bonus, who rallied from well back to win…
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