BALTIMORE – Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen has come through Pimlico with many of his champions, including Preakness Stakes winners Curlin (2007) and Rachel Alexandra (2009). Another of his Eclipse Award winners to win at Pimlico en route to a title was Mitole, who won the 2018 Chick Lang Stakes, one of seven career stakes wins prior to taking the 2019 outstanding male sprinter title for Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt.
It’s a family affair as Asmussen will now saddle Booth in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Maryland Sprint. The 4-year-old is a son of Mitole and races for the Heiligbrodts in partnership with Jackpot Farm and Whispering Oaks Farm. Asmussen’s son Erik will be in the irons on Booth, who Steve Asmussen said shares his sire’s laid-back demeanor.
“He’s just got an unbelievably easy demeanor to be around,” Asmussen said. “Picks it up for races when he needs to, and a very professional horse to run.”
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Booth has won three straight stakes at Oaklawn Park, taking the Commodore Overnight by 4 3/4 lengths on Feb. 24, the Grade 3 Whitmore by 2 1/4 lengths on March 15, and the Grade 3 Count Fleet by three-quarters of a length on April 12. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 105 in the Commodore and 107 in the Whitmore, both among the top 10 sprint figures of this year.
“Very, very proud of the win streak he’s put together this spring, and we’re hoping he transfers [the form] to Pimlico,” Asmussen said. “But a lot of confidence in him right now. He’s turned into a horse that’s made Dad proud.”
A pair of locals may pose the biggest challenge to the streaking Booth. Three-time stakes winner Prince of Jericho was second in the 2023 Chick Lang and was third in last year’s Maryland Sprint. Celtic Contender is a multiple stakes winner, including last fall’s Maryland Million Sprint.
The consistent Concrete Glory, who has not missed the board in more than 17 months, won a pair of allowance-level races in Florida, then finished second by three-quarters of a length after setting the pace in the Gulfstream Park Sprint. He at least figures as early company for Booth.
Skipat Stakes
Asmussen also has a strong chance with a horse with family ties in the sister race to the Maryland Sprint, the $125,000 Skipat Stakes for fillies and mares. He will saddle millionaire Zeitlos, Stonestreet Stables and Peter Leidel’s homebred daughter of Curlin. The mare won four stakes last year, highlighted by the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America at Keeneland, before finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar. She comes in fresh off a busy season but will need some pace to set up her customary late run.
“Off the layoff, I definitely think she does,” Asmussen said.
The other two graded stakes winners in this field are Apple Picker, who took the Grade 3 Barbara Fritchie Stakes at Laurel in February 2024; and One Magic Philly, who won the Grade 3 Chillingworth Stakes last October before being well-beaten in a pair of Grade 1 events. Both of these runners also would appreciate some targets. Those could be Disco Ebo, a five-time stakes winner coming off a sharp repeat score in the Primonetta Stakes; and Striker Has Dial, also coming off a win on the front end.
The Fritchie was among three stakes wins last year for Apple Picker, including last year’s Skipat. She has not been seen since finishing fifth in the Pink Ribbon Stakes last August in West Virginia.
“I was hoping to get a prep into her before this,” trainer Brittany Russell told Pimlico publicity this week. “It’s been a while, but she’s been working right along. She’s a bigger, stronger filly. She’s the kind of horse that if you have her right and she’s happy, she’s going to show up.
“She just needed a break,” Russell added. “She trains hard and she’s hard on herself. Little things were catching up with her, so we stopped on her. May comes up quick in the schedule. I didn’t get her back on the work tab as early as I’d have liked. She would have been eligible for a three-other-than, but this race was always the goal.”
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