Laurel Park: No one is faster than Shaft’s Bullet in Johnson

Shaft’s Bullet, unhurried in the early going, made a bold move on the far turn under jockey Carlos Lopez and opened up once straightened for home to register a four-length triumph over a trio of seasoned stakes winners in Saturday’s $100,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial at Laurel Park.

The one-mile Johnson for 4-year-olds was the second stakes win of the day for trainer Gary Capuano, who also captured the Not For Love with Take a Hint.

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Shaft’s Bullet ($7.20), owned by Paul Fowler Jr., crossed the wire at 1:37.14 over a fast main track to run his record to 9: 5-2-1, all at Laurel.

Grade 3 winner Magic Michael, 2023 Lite the Fuse winner Dollarization and Adero were scratched, reducing the field to four led by multiple stakes winners Nimitz Class (3-5), Grade 2 winner and Maryland’s 2023 champion older male Double Crown and It’s Sizzling Time, winner of the Feb. 17 John B. Campbell at Laurel last time out.

“(It became a) rider’s race then. Small field. That’s usually the case,” Fowler said. “That’s what we told Carlos, too. It turned out right.”

Nimitz Class, a four-time stakes winner at Laurel including last year’s Harrison Johnson and racing for the third time after being privately purchased last fall, took the early initiative and went a quarter-mile in 24.67 seconds tracked by Double Crown to his outside while Shaft’s Bullet settled in the clear in third.

The half-mile went in 47.98 seconds when Lopez gave Shaft’s Bullet his cue, and the 5-year-old gelding by 2003 horse of the year Mineshaft responded to move within even terms of the top two midway around the turn.

Lopez shook the reins at the top of the stretch, and Shaft’s Bullet pulled clear of Nimitz Class as It’s Sizzling Time continued his rally from last on the far outside to get up for second, five lengths ahead of Double Crown.

Shaft’s Bullet did not race at 2 and won his lone start as a 3-year-old, a 1 1/6-mile maiden special weight in February 2022. He went unraced until the following January, returning with a open allowance win going one mile. He ended 2023 with a record of 6: 2-2-1, his lone off-the-board finish coming in his season finale Dec. 8.

In his 2024 debut, Shaft’s Bullet was a determined neck winner of a one-length, optional-claiming allowance Feb. 25, earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure, according to Daily Racing Form, also with Lopez aboard.

The Harrison E. Johnson honors the Bowie-based trainer who died at age 45 in the crash of a plane he was piloting from Saratoga to Virginia. A native of Adelphi, Md., his best horse was 1973 Hopeful (G1) winner Gusty O’Shay, named that year’s Maryland-bred 2-year-old champion.