Phil Capuano hopes to add to family Md. Million wins
Seeks first Million win to add to uncle and father’s combined 22
Frank Vespe
October 23, 2026
Trainer Phil Capuano will have two strong chances Saturday to accomplish something his father and uncle have done a combined 22 times: win a Maryland Million race.
Dale Capuano, Phil’s uncle, retired as the all-time leading Maryland Million trainer with 15 wins, while Gary Capuano has seven. Phil is slated to send out a pair of morning line favorites Saturday in search of his first Million victory.
Mopo will tackle the $125,000 Maryland Million Ladies, a 1 1/16-mile turf test carded as Laurel Park’s fourth race. Five races later, Walt’s Notion will seek his second consecutive stakes victory in the $100,000 Nursery for two-year-olds at six furlongs. Paco Lopez is named on both Great Notion offspring.
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Getting there, Capuano knows, is part of the challenge. Mopo was poised for a leading role in last year’s Ladies before a foot abscess knocked her out.
“It’s so hard to line up everything for one day of the year,” he said in an interview.
This time, Mopo arrives with three wins, two seconds and a third from six starts this season, good for $165,570 in earnings for Mopo Racing. Her victories include the six-furlong Jameela Stakes at Laurel in June, and she most recently finished third, beaten 1 1/4 lengths, in Delaware Park’s George Rosenberger Memorial.
That follows a three-year-old campaign in which she won once and finished second six times in nine outings. The near-misses were frustrating, Capuano acknowledged, but hardly discouraging.
“She was a three-year-old filly running against older, more experienced horses by and large,” he said. “I mean she ran with some pretty nice horses.”
With maturity has come a more relaxed approach. Where Mopo once wanted to press the pace in two-turn races, she now settles comfortably behind horses. Capuano credits jockey Forest Boyce with helping her learn to conserve her energy.
In the Rosenberger, though, he thought his instructions to let her relax might have worked against her. The first two finishers got the jump on Mopo, who finished willingly inside and galloped out strongly.
“She doesn’t get tired so she acts like she’ll run all day,” he said. Mopo is 9-5 on the morning line.
By contrast, Walt’s Notion has needed little time to establish himself. The two-year-old colt has won twice in three starts and earned $109,000, most recently leading throughout the Oct. 3 James F. Lewis III at Laurel to beat Prince of Peace by 1 1/4 lengths.
His only defeat came by a nose to Strong Suspicion in Delaware’s First State Dash. Walt’s Notion had beaten that rival in his August debut.
Capuano has kept the colt at Delaware, where he believes the deeper, heavier training surface helps horses build fitness. The smaller fields also offered an opportunity to educate a young runner.
But Walt’s Notion brought a useful disposition to the process.
“He’s always acted like a pretty smart horse,” Capuano said. “For a colt, he’s very nonchalant, very mellow, very quiet. He just seems to do everything right.”
The colt also represents a family connection through his pedigree. Walt’s Notion is a half-brother to Pont Aven, a Blofed colt who is entered in the Maryland Million Turf. Phil Capuano had Pont Aven early in his career before losing him via the claimbox, and he’s since gone on to become a stakes winner.
Gary Capuano had purchased Walt’s Notion for $48,000 last fall but had not found an owner when Phil asked about him a few days after the sale. Walter Vieser II expressed interest, and partners Lou Ulman and Michael Scheffres joined him.
Now the colt could help Phil add his own name to the family’s Maryland Million record.
Capuano’s closest finishes have come with Great Idea, second in the Turf Sprint two years ago and third last year. A breakthrough would be welcome, but his priorities extend beyond a particular date.
“You just want to make sure, like anything, you have the horses in the right spots,” he said.
Still, he added, “To win a race on Maryland Million Day, it’d be great.”
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