De Francis Dash Highlight Race of Laurel Summer Meet

The Maryland Jockey Club will offer a total of 14 stakes worth $1.3 million in purses, highlighted by the 31st running of the $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash July 16, during Laurel Park's 37-day summer meet which opens June 3 and runs through Aug. 21.

Racing will be conducted Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays during the summer meet, with a post time of 12:40 p.m. ET. There will be a special Independence Day holiday program Monday, July 4.

Stakes action begins at Laurel with a June 19 Father's Day lineup of three races scheduled for its world-class turf course—the $100,000 Stormy Blues Stakes for 3-year-old fillies sprinting five furlongs, $75,000 Find Stakes for 3-year-olds and up, and $75,000 All Brandy Stakes for fillies and mares 3 and older, both restricted to Maryland-bred/sired horses and going 1 1/16 miles.

Every other Saturday in July will feature stakes races, starting July 2 with the $100,000 Caesar's Wish Stakes for fillies and mares 3 and up at one mile and $100,000 Concern Stakes for 3-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs.

The six-furlong De Francis for 3-year-olds and up was moved from its traditional spot on Laurel's fall calendar to mid-July. Named for the late president and chairman of both Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course, the De Francis' illustrious roster of winners includes Hall of Famer Housebuster, fellow sprint champions Cherokee Run, Smoke Glacken, Thor's Echo, Benny the Bull, and Lite the Fuse, the race's only two-time winner (1995-96).

Joining the De Francis on the July 16 program are the $100,000 Alma North Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs and $100,000 Big Dreyfus Stakes, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the turf, both for fillies and mares 3 and up; and the $100,000 Prince George's County Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on grass for 3-year-olds and up. All four races are part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship Series.

Laurel wraps up its summer stakes schedule July 30 with five races worth $400,000 led by the $100,000 Deputed Testamony Stakes for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles. It is joined by four $75,000 races restricted to Maryland-bred/sired horses—the Star de Naskra for 3-year-olds and Miss Disco Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, each sprinting seven furlongs on dirt, and a pair of 5 1/2-furlong turf dashes, the Ben's Cat Stakes for 3-year-olds and up and Jameela Stakes for fillies and mares 3 and older.

Friday's nine-race opening day card includes four races scheduled for turf that drew 48 entries, an average of 12 starters per race.

Four races are scheduled for the turf on Friday drawing a total of 48 entries, an average of 12 starters per race.

Jevian Toledo, the state's three-time leading rider, including 2021, has won two of the three meets in Maryland this year, taking Laurel's winter stand as well as the recently concluded Preakness Meet at Pimlico. 

Trainer Brittany Russell followed the Laurel spring meet, her first career title, by sharing the Preakness Meet crown with Richard Sillaman and becoming the first female to win more than one meet title in Maryland.