Copper Tax looks to place an exclamation point on a successful 2024 season when he goes favored in Saturday’s $100,000 Robert T. Manfuso for 3-year-olds and up racing 1 1/16 miles at Laurel.
Copper Tax is the deserving 125-pound highweight in the Manfuso, one of four stakes on the program. Unbeaten from four previous Laurel starts, the 3-year-old bested elders in last month’s Richard W. Small over muddy going. That win was Copper Tax’s fourth stakes score this year.
“He ran a great race,” trainer Gary Capuano said. “He was getting boxed around the turn but could ease back, get outside, and make his usual grinding run.”
Trainer Linda Rice sends Film Star down from New York after a sixth-place finish in the Grade 3 Forty Niner at a one-turn mile on Oct. 26. The Grade 2-placed performer won Saratoga’s off-the-turf Lure on Aug. 3.
“He always lays close,” Rice said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean the lead, but second, third, or he could be on the lead. He seems to be better around two turns.”
Like Film Star, Speedyness is quick from the stalls and should be a forward presence stretching back to two turns after a strong third-place effort in the City of Laurel. In that race, the gelding battled through swift fractions with runner-up Celtic Contender before they were inhaled by late-running Winterfell, a candidate for next week’s Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita.
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Late-running Cataleya Strike would benefit from quick fractions. Before the gelding’s solid third-place finish in the Small, trainer Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon outlined several factors contributing to recent improvement.
“Ever since I took the blinkers off, it’s been working out,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “I gelded him a few months ago. He was having breathing problems, and I did” throat surgery.
Wild Vine received a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure when finishing a close second in his stakes debut in last month’s restricted Chocolate Town at Penn National.
Lieutenant Brown and Hittheroadjak also entered.
Carousel Stakes
Saddle Up Jessie looks to go back to back in the $100,000 Carousel for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles. Trained by Brittany Russell in last year’s Carousel, the defending champ was purchased for $500,000 last month by owner Robert Evans and transferred to Graham Motion’s stable.
“We gave her a couple of weeks at the farm right after the sale just to get her over everything. She’s very professional. She’s had two breezes, which I hope is enough,” said Motion, who will remove blinkers for Saturday.
“Funny enough, my exercise rider was in California for the Breeders’ Cup and helped breeze this filly, which is a complete coincidence. He felt that she might settle better without” blinkers.
Motion expects Saddle Up Jessie to be bred in 2025.
Stakes-placed on four occasions this year, Movie Moxy ran a close third two weeks ago in Aqueduct’s Grade 3 Go for Wand.
“I think if she had gotten outside earlier, she could have gotten there,” Rice said. “It’s back on short rest, but opportunities for mares like her, the races don’t go all the time. Based on how it looks, I think we’ll plan to run.”
Rice claimed Movie Moxy for $25,000 out of a runner-up effort in her first start of 2023.
“She looked like she had a gate problem,” Rice said. “I spent a lot of time with gate works, so I thought maybe we could work her through that.”
Evidencias bested Movie Moxie in Aqueduct’s Turnback the Alarm at 1 1/8 miles on Nov. 3 for trainer Christophe Clement. It was the Brazilian Group 1 winner’s second consecutive stakes victory, and her grinding style plays very well at these longer distances.
Malibu Beauty wired the 2022 Carousel, and Capuano expects the 12-time winner to utilize a similar running style.
Miss New York captured the Twixt on Sept. 22 at Laurel. Trainer Jorge Delgado entered the filly in the Breeder’s Cup Distaff, but she was scratched by the veterinarians following a gallop two days before the race.
Sea Dancer, a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Mile runner-up Johannes, moves to Russell’s barn and races on dirt for the first time. Grade 3-placed Regaled, restricted stakes winner Too Many Kisses, and stakes winner Call Another Play complete the field.
◗ Multiple stakes winner Witty will be among the more popular horses competing Saturday at Laurel. He’ll try to parlay his patented late kick into a 10th trip to the winner’s circle in the $75,000 Howard and Sondra Bender for statebred or state-sired sprinters at seven furlongs. Witty will face stern competition from Maryland Million Sprint winner Celtic Contender, Maryland Million Classic hero Brilliant Ice, and Play Like a Raven.
◗ Sheilahs Warcloud and Bourbon Bon Bay exit stakes placings against open company and seem well-entered in the $75,000 Politely for statebred or state-sired fillies and mares at seven furlons. Spencerian and Bella Bettina both can contend at higher prices.
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