Phlash Phelps should appreciate added ground in Find

His last race was just long enough to make Phlash Phelps a winner in his seasonal debut, but he’ll have much more ground to work with when he returns to action in Saturday’s $75,000 Find at Laurel Park.

 

The 1 1/8-mile Find for 3-year-olds and up over the Dahlia Turf Course layout is one of three stakes highlighting the final weekend of Laurel’s 33-day summer meet, which wraps up Sunday, Aug. 20.

 

Sharing Saturday’s 12-race card are the $75,000 All Brandy for fillies and mares 3 and older, also over the Dahlia layout, and the $75,000 Miss Disco for 3-year-old fillies going six furlongs on the main track. First race post time is 1:10 p.m.

 

Now 6, multiple stakes-winning Phlash Phelps was third in last year’s Find after bobbling at the gate and into the first turn, having to steady on the backstretch and mount a rally inside horses down the lane, beaten just a half-length.

 

Unraced since mid-November, he came back in the six-furlong Mister Diz over Laurel’s world-class turf course June 24, powering down the stretch on the outside to edge English Minister by a neck.

 

“He’s doing good. I’d like to have had another race for him going a little further heading into this race, being a mile and an eighth, but you’ve got to go by what’s coming up,” trainer Rodney Jenkins said. “One thing’s for sure, he’ll try. He always tries. He’s a good horse.”

 

Phlash Phelps is a four-time stakes winner including the 2015 and 2016 Maryland Million Turf. He hadn’t sprinted since graduating in his turf debut going five furlongs in April 2015. He has finished in the top three in nine of 11 career grass tries, six of them wins.

 

“I really didn’t want to sprint him but I had no choice. We got a race under him and he actually surprised me by getting up and winning. He hadn’t sprinted since he broke his maiden in his 4-year-old year,” Jenkins said. “He’ll probably be a little closer after sprinting. He’ll probably be a little anxious, he’s that kind of horse. But I think he’ll be just fine. He had some bad luck in this race last year and he still almost won it.”

 

Meet-leading rider Victor Carrasco will be aboard from Post 4 of 10 at 118 pounds, two fewer than co-highweights Talk Show Man and Ghost Bay.

 

Dr. Michael J. Harrison’s homebred Talk Show Man got a confidence-building one-mile allowance win over the Laurel turf in his last start July 22, where he was swung to the far outside for the stretch run after racing near the back of the pack early and got up by a head.

 

“I was watching the races earlier that day and the week prior and not too many horses were making a big run. You had to up fairly close in order to get there,” trainer Hamilton Smith said. “I was a little concerned the first part of the race, he was a little farther back than I thought he should have been but he dug in and came and got them. It was a pretty good effort on his part, especially the last quarter of a mile. He really dug in to get up.

 

“He came out of his last race real good and he’s worked real good since. He has no excuses going in at all,” he added “It’s going to be a tough race and be competitive, and that’s what you want. I think he’ll make a good showing. He’s coming into the race fine.”

 

Prior to his last start Talk Show Man had not reached the winner’s circle since taking the 2015 Henry S. Clark that April. He missed all of 2016 and has made four starts this year, three of them in stakes, improving each time. He was third by a neck in the Mister Diz.

 

“We have him some time. A lot of things didn’t go right when he was out on the farm. We brought him back here once and he just wasn’t right so we sent him back out,” Smith said. “We were a little concerned when he came back whether he would be up to the task of running against these kinds of horses but he proved that he could and he’s doing good. He looks as well and trains as well as he did before he had all that time off.

 

“I don’t think the distance will be a problem for him. The farther they go the slower they’re going anyway so I think he’ll run good. I’m not concerned about it,” he added. “He should run his race. He’ll be in mid-pack or so I would imagine and hopefully he’ll give us the same run he gave us the last time.”

 

Toledo returns to ride from Post 6.

 

Skeedattle Associates’ Just Howard goes for his third straight win in the Find. The son of grass champion English Channel broke his maiden on his sixth try May 29 at Pimlico, and dueled with stakes winner Bonus Points through the stretch after being rank early to take the 1 1/16-mile Caveat July 15 at Laurel in his stakes debut. Alex Cintron, up for both wins, rides for trainer Graham Motion from Post 3.