Saturday’s (Sept. 24) Commonwealth Day at Laurel featured 8 turf stakes races — 3 graded stakes that used to be held at Colonial Downs (Derby, Turf Cup & Oaks) and five $60,000 Virginia-bred stakes. Here is the report on handle growth from 2015:
LAUREL, MD – Total handle Saturday on Laurel Park’s Commonwealth Day was up 72.5 percent from last year.
Commonwealth Day, featuring victories by Deeply Undervalued in the Commonwealth Derby (G2) and Blacktype in the Commonwealth Turf Cup (G2), generated a total handle of $4.2 million compared to $2.4 million in 2015. Saturday’s card had two additional graded stakes than last year.
“We’re extremely pleased with Commonwealth Day at Laurel Park,” said Sal Sinatra, President and General Manager of the Maryland Jockey Club. “We want to thank the Virginia Equine Alliance for their great help and support. It has been a wonderful partnership. We also want to thank the horsemen for putting on a great show as well as all the tremendous performances by our equine athletes. We want to thank all our fans for coming out to Laurel and betting at our great off-track facilities.”
Jockey McCarthy Notches Four-Win Day Including Stakes Triple
Jockey Trevor McCarthy added to his fall meet-leading totals with four wins including Blacktype (FR) ($9.40) in the $200,000 Commonwealth Turf Cup (G2), Rapid Rhythm ($3) in the $60,000 Oakley and Rose Brier ($2.20) for the third consecutive year in the $60,000 Bert Allen. He was also first with Jumpin Frac Flash ($4.60) in the first race.
Rapid Rhythm was one of two victories on the day for owner David Ross’ DARRS, Inc., who also won the $60,000 Punch Line with Moon River ($8.20).
New York-based jockey Jose Ortiz captured a pair of stakes in the $200,000 Commonwealth Oaks (G3) with My Impression ($11.60) and $60,000 Brookmeade with Skipalute ($5).
Blacktype(FR) won the $200,000 Commonwealth Turf Cup (G2) in 1:33.43, breaking the one-mile All Along Turf Course record of 1:34.23 set by Cozy Gain on April 2, 2006.
There was no unique winner of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 on Saturday, creating a jackpot carryover of $7,674.04 for Sunday’s 10-race program. Multiple tickets were sold with all six winners, returning $504.48.
