LRL: Passage East “miraculous” in winning Fritchie
Onetime claimer scores in $200k stake
Frank Vespe
February 14, 2026
Hugh McMahon has claimed a lot of horses in his time. Some work out well, and some not so much.
But none previously has done anything like Passage East.
The four-year-old Audible filly enjoyed a perfect trip, wore down favored Takethemoneyhoney in a prolonged and thrilling stretch duel, and won Saturday’s $200,000 Barbara Fritchie Stakes by a nose.
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“It feels surreal,” McMahon said. “Getting a $30,000 acquisition and winning the Barbara Fritchie? Wow. Nothing short of miraculous.”
Passage East, never worse than third in her 14 career starts, has won eight times and earned more than $470,000 for McMahon and owner Larry Rabold, who reached in to grab her for a $30,000 out of her second career start. Today’s win was her third straight.
Despite her stellar form – including a hard-fought win in a $100,000 overnight handicap here last month – the bettors didn’t pay much attention to Passage East. Most of their action went instead to the speedy Takethemoneyhoney, off at 3-10, and the Grade 1-placed Dry Powder (2-1), second a neck in last year’s Cotillion at Parx Racing.
Those two rivals hooked up quickly and slugged it out through the early stages, battling through an opener in 22.99 seconds and a half in 45.93 seconds. That worked perfectly for jockey Sheldon Russell, who had Passage East perched three wide and just behind the lead duo.
“I was like, wow, it could be us sitting third and letting them do the work,” McMahon said. “It just set up beautifully for her.”
Past the three-eighths, Takethemoneyhoney began to get the best of Dry Powder, and Russell put his mount in motion. She looped up three wide and was going best of all as the field turned for home.
But Takethemoneyhoney proved game, and she and Passage East battled noses apart for the length of the stretch. In the end, Passage East’s nose arrived first. It was 6 ¼ lengths from runner-up Takethemoneyhoney back to Dry Powder in third. Running time for seven furlongs was 1:24 flat.
It was, McMahon said, the biggest win of his career.
“You can get horses and the stars align, conditions, the races go, and, you know, the timing between the races, everything, it all kind of like comes together for certain horses,” the trainer said. “And the competitiveness just increases as they win more more and more. And I think that’s, you know, that’s kind of the ride we got to there. We had a very confident horse going into this race.”
And an even more confident one coming out.
NOTES Laurel also hosted a pair of undercard stakes. In the Nellie Morse, Atlantis Queen rallied from mid-flight to win easily by over four lengths, paying $11.80. She is trained by Gary Capuano for Pocket 3s Racing and was ridden by Yedsit Hazlewood… The inaugural Post Time Stakes started with six, scratched down to four, and finished with three after Surfside Moon lost rider Julio Hernandez leaving the starting gate. Hernandez walked off, and the horse completed the course before being caught… Woodbine shipper Jokestar and newly minted Eclipse champion apprentice Pietro Moran earned the victory for trainer Kevin Attard and owners Al and Bill Ulwelling…
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