Pimlico: Booth follows Mitole's footsteps in Maryland Sprint

Booth, following a similar path that later led his sire Mitole to a year-end championship, chases a fourth straight win third consecutive graded score in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Maryland Sprint at Pimlico.

Booth is trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen for William Heiligbrodt, Corinne Heiligbrodt, Jackpot Farm and Whispering Oaks Farm. Asmussen previously won the Maryland Sprint with Switzerland (2018), New York Central (2019) and Jaxon Traveler (2022). He has also won six editions of Pimlico’s Chick Lang, another race on the Preakness undercard, most notably with Mitole in 2018.

Mitole registered three wins over the winter and spring at Oaklawn before his Chick Lang triumph, and would go on to win four Grade 1 stakes including the Met Mile and Breeders’ Cup Sprint and earn the 2019 Eclipse Award as male sprint champion. Booth has proven to be one of his most successful progeny.

Booth made four starts at Oaklawn between late January and mid-April and his wins have come in the Commodore, Whitmore (G3) and Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3), all in front-running fashion, each going six furlongs, by 7 3/4 combined lengths. Mitole also won the Count Fleet during his championship season.

“Booth is out of my stallion, Mitole, who also ran (at Pimlico) pretty darn well. He won the race at Oaklawn and then came there. Booth is on the same route,” Bill Heiligbrodt said. “Booth is a cool horse. He’s a very fast horse, he’s very pretty and he has a good pedigree.

“We chose to come there because the race fits in the middle of his long-term plan. He needs a good race, and that’s a good one. We’ve won a lot of races there,” he added. “He’s a pretty exciting horse. The numbers he’s been running have been really, really good.”

The Heiligbrodts partnered with Jackpot Farm to purchase Booth for $225,000 at the OBS March 2023 sale of 2-year-olds in training. He captured his unveiling that fall by 5 1/4 lengths at Keeneland and won two of four starts at age 3 but has turned a corner since turning 4.

“No one knows for sure how good one will be. My wife and I buy most of our own horses and he’s the kind of horse that we typically buy. He had worked great at that training sale and he’s an attractive horse, and he was just one of our top picks,” Heiligbrodt said.

“He started off really well and then kind of just tapered off for some reason, we don’t know. He didn’t run bad or anything, but if you look at his record he’s 6-for-10 with no seconds or thirds,” he added. “He’s a nice horse that can go somewhere. Hopefully we’ll be able to move on from here and keep building.”

Asmussen’s 22-year-old son Erik, the champion apprentice jockey of 2024 and younger brother of fellow jockey Keith, has been up during the win streak and for four of Booth’s six wins. He is named to ride again.

“He knows the horse. Steve and I have been together a long time, back to the ‘70s, and I was around when the boys were born so they’re kind of special to me,” Heiligbrodt said. “I think Erik’s an especially good, aggressive rider. For his age and what he’s done he’s very, very good. This horse runs for him.

“It’s really pretty special. He’s got two Grade 3s in a row, this horse, so hopefully we can make it a third,” he added. “You’ll like him when you see him. He looks a lot like Mitole. He looks like a fast horse. I like to say he flies. He barely touches the ground.”

Lewis Family Racing Stable’s 4-year-old Maryland homebred Celtic Contender, based at Laurel Park with 80-year-old trainer Hamilton Smith, seeks his first win of 2025 after putting together a record of 12: 5-1-3 last year. Among his victories was the six-furlong Maryland Million Sprint in October and seven-furlong Howard and Sondra Bender Memorial against Maryland-bred or sired horses in December.

“We messed up with him in the early part of his career when we ran him long before he was ready for it, and those are the only bad races he shows on his chart. Since then he’s been awfully consistent,” Smith said. “I don’t see any problems with six furlongs. He’s as fast as you want him to be, and he’ll be fine. I’m not worried about the distance. It’s nice to have horses that are worthy of running on a day like that. We’re looking forward to it. I hope we have some luck.”

Celtic Contender opened his season running second to Quint’s Brew in the Feb. 15 General George; Quint’s Brew went on to be second in the Carter (G2) and Winchester (G3) at Aqueduct. Most recently Celtic Contender was third, beaten three lengths after setting the pace, behind millionaire graded-stakes winners Book’em Danno and Repo Rocks in the Boston Handicap March 14 at Colonial Downs.

“He hasn’t won but he’s run well this year and he’s faced some pretty darn good horses, too,” Smith said. “He came out of the races all right and everything and so far he’s been training well leading up to this, so we plan to head over there Saturday.”

Michael Dubb and Morris Bailey’s multiple stakes winner Prince of Jericho will be running on the Preakness Day program for a third straight year, after finishing second in the 2023 Chick Lang (G3) and third in the 2024 Maryland Sprint for Brittany Russell, Maryland’s leading trainer each of the past two years.

Prince of Jericho has been a consistent performer for Russell with seven wins, seven seconds and a third from 20 starts. The 5-year-old son of Munnings has raced twice this year, winning the 6 1/2-furlong Fire Plug on Jan. 18 and finishing third in the General George.

“He’s a really cool horse,” Russell said. “He’s been really good to us. He’s been around a while and he’s doing just as good as he ever has. It’s fun to bring a horse like him over on a day like that.”

Another multiple stakes winner is LC Racing’s Ninetyprcentmaddie, who made his 5-year-old debut running third in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance May 5 at his home track of Parx. Though winless in nine starts last year, he placed six times, all in stakes, including the John A. Nerud (G2), True North (G2) and Runhappy (G3) in New York.

Welch Racing’s Epic Ride was on the Triple Crown trail last year, winning the Leonatus and running second in the John Battaglia Memorial over Turfway Park’s synthetic surface and finishing third in the Blue Grass (G1) prior to a 14th in the Kentucky Derby (G1). He came back in mid-October and has won two allowances from six starts, both at Turfway, and exits a fourth in the seven-furlong Commonwealth (G3) on April 8 at Keeneland.

Big Frank Stable’s Concrete Glory is a 6-year-old Pennsylvania-bred gelding by Grade 1 winner and 2012 Derby and Preakness (G1) runner-up Bodemeister that has been third or better in 23 of 35 career starts including 15 wins. He is seeking his first stakes success, having run second to multiple graded-stakes winner Super Chow in the six-furlong Gulfstream Park Sprint Feb. 22.

Completing the field is 3 Reasons Racing’s Maryland-bred S S Sinatra. The 5-year-old gelding has won two of three starts this year and his only loss came by a nose in the six-furlong Not For Love March 8 at Laurel.