Maryland Million news and notes

by | Oct 21, 2017 | Breaking, Maryland, MD Racing, Racing

Crabcakes

Crabcakes was a popular winner of the Maryland Million Distaff. Photo by Laurie Asseo.

Some news and notes from the other races on the Maryland Million card today…

  • Blu Moon Ace (Malibu Moon), who’s gotten very good of late, was a dominant winner of the $100,000 Maryland Million Sprint for owner Robert Cole and trainer Kevin Patterson — and a short-priced one, paying just $2.80 as the 2-5 favorite. Rockinn on Bye, winless in 21 starts in 2016-2017, rallied into second, marking the 15th time in those 21 starts he has finished in the money. The Sprint, with a dearth of Maryland-sired entrants, was opened up to Maryland-breds, who swept the top three spots…
  • Crabcakes (Great Notion) went off even shorter than Blu Moon Ace, and with the same result. The sophomore Great Notion filly bested her elders to win the $100,000 Distaff by a half-length at 1-5 odds, withstanding a spirited rally by My Magician…
  • Spartianos (Not for Love) gave jockey Nik Juarez one of his three wins on the card, taking the $125,000 Turf under a judicious ride. Juarez steered the speedster to the front early and carefully parceled out his speed through an opening half-mile in 49.91 seconds. The second half of the one-mile contest went by in a zippy 46.93 seconds, and Spartianos had just enough in the tank to hold off Somekindofmagician and Talk Show Man. The entire field of seven finished within 2 1/4 lengths of each other…
  • Starter contests on the card went to Participate (Include),, trained by Ann Merryman; Helloitsme (Jump Start), trained by Carlos Milian; Willy d’Rocket (Rock Slide), trained by Kelly Colgan; and Miss Nosy (Louis Quatorze), trained by Claudio Gonzalez.
  • In addition to three wins for Juarez, Julian Pimentel and Forest Boyce won two each. Pimentel won the Sprint aboard Blu Moon Ace and the Ladies aboard My Sistersledge. Boyce scored with Willy d’Rocket in a starter and Crabackes in the Distaff.
  • Crabcakes, at 1-5, was the day’s shortest-priced winner and one of four favorites to score. Clever Mind, first out winner of the Nursery, was the longest shot to win; he went off at 7.40-1.
  • Handle dropped 2.2 percent versus last year, to a still robust $4,377,950. The Maryland Jockey Club announced that in-state handle rose 2.8 percent, to 566,086.
  • The track announced attendance of 22,682, an increase of 4.4 percent from a year ago.