Rose Brier goes after fifth stakes triumph at Laurel in Edward Evans

At some point trainer Jane Cibelli knows Panic Stable’s multiple stakes-winning 8-year-old Rose Brier will have had enough of racing. Through 39 races and more than a half-million dollars in career earnings, she’s not convinced the time has come.

 

Rose Brier will go after career victory No. 15 and his fifth stakes triumph at Laurel Park in Saturday’s $75,000 Edward Evans. The one-mile Edward Evans for 3-year-olds and up is one of four stakes restricted to Virginia-bred/sired horses on the 11-race ‘Class on the Grass’ program, along with the $75,000 Nellie Mae Cox at one mile and the $75,0000 White Oak Farm and $75,000 M. Tyson Gilpin, each at 5 ½ furlongs.

 

Also to be run over Laurel’s world-class turf course are the $75,000 Mister Diz for 3-year-olds and up featuring popular multi-millionaire Ben’s Cat and the $75,000 Jameela for fillies and mares 3 and older, both at six furlongs for Maryland-bred/sired horses.

 

Bred by the late Bill Backer, Rose Brier had his streak of four consecutive stakes wins at Laurel snapped when seventh by just three lengths in the Henry S. Clark April 22 over a turf course softened by an afternoon rainstorm. The Mizzen Mast gelding is the defending Edward Evans champion, having won by a length last June at historic Pimlico Race Course.

 

The Clark, where Rose Brier set the Kelso Turf Course one-mile track record of 1:33.11 in last year’s victory, came over a yielding Dahlia Turf Course. He followed up running third, beaten 4 ½ lengths, in the Red Bank (G3) May 27 at Cibelli’s summer base of Monnouth Park, also on an off turf.

 

“[In the Clark] we had that downpour and he really just does not like a soft turf. I was really disappointed,” Cibelli said. “Unfortunately, every time he’s run the last couple of months have been on a soft turf. We probably should have not even run him that day, not that he was going to get hurt but that he simply just doesn’t like it. That’s all it is. We’re coming in prepped for it.”

 

Rose Brier bounced out of the Red Bank with a pair of sharp breezes of Monmouth’s main track, most recently going five furlongs in 59.40 seconds, the fastest of 11 horses that day,  much to the delight of the trainer and her owner.

 

“He breezed very, very well the other day,” Cibelli said. “Funny enough, I was talking to the owner before he breezed and he asked how he’s done and I said he’s doing ok but he’s a year older and it takes a little bit longer to get going in the mornings. Nothing serious, just age. He’s 8 years old now. I took him out that morning and breezed him and he breezed in 59 and 2. I guess he must have overheard me and said, ‘I’ll show you.’”

 

Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado replaces the injured Trevor McCarthy from Post 3 of seven on Rose Brier, whose five career stakes wins include the past three runnings of the Bert Allen, also against fellow Virginia-breds at Laurel.

 

“He certainly likes it there,” Cibellli said. “Unfortunately we lost Trevor but we’ve got Edgar Prado to ride him and he’s ridden him before. He’s a pretty straightforward horse to ride anyway. Edgar’s been riding well. He rode one for me the other day and finished second and then beat me in a later race and set a course record. I guess he’s not so long in the tooth, is he?”

 

Mr. & Mrs. Bertram Firestone’s Special Envoy is entered to improve on his runner-up finish in last year’s Evans. Runner-up in the 2015 Cliff Hanger (G3), the 6-year-old Stroll gelding, trained by Arnaud Delacour, has raced just twice since the Evans, finishing fourth in a conditional allowance March 24 at Tampa Bay Downs prior to a fifth-place effort in the Red Bank.

 

After running fifth in the 2016 Evans, Bruce Smart Jr.’s Officer’s Oath made back-to-back starts over jumps including a victory in the 2 1/8-mile Gladstone Stakes last fall at Far Hills, N.J. In his lone effort this year he was third, beaten three lengths as the favorite, in a state-bred allowance May 6 at Virginia’s Great Meadow.

 

Jump Ship, second to Rose Brier at 23-1 in the 2016 Bert Allen, Galaxy Express, Irsaal and Speed Gracer are also entered.