LRL: Doc’s Miracle, Balboa takes youth stakes * The Racing Biz

“I don’t know,” coach Gary Capuano said Saturday afternoon with a laugh and a shrug. “I keep saying they put me ahead. We just had a really good group of two-year-olds this year.”

No one on the Laurel Park grounds these days is hotter than Capuano with two-year-olds, and no one does better with pole horses than Brittany Russell. So it stands to reason that they would take the top two places in a pair of youth stakes on Saturday in Laurel.

Capuano entered this weekend’s race with 17 wins from 40 starts with two-year-olds this year. And on Saturday one of his youngsters, who had not quite kept his end of the bargain – with just one win from seven starts – became a stakes winner.

The Capuano-trained, Maryland-bred Doc’s Miracle rode what Capuano called a “perfect trip” under jockey Yedsit Hazlewood to victory in the $100,000 Smart Halo Stakes for her second career victory and first stakes.

The winning margin was three-quarters of a length, with Brittany Russell trainee Prosecco Rita finishing second. It was another three parts of a length back to even-money favorite Just Philtored in third.

Doc’s Miracle paid $11.80 to win and topped an exacta that paid $13.50 on a one dollar bet. The win boosted Doc’s Miracle’s career bankroll to over $140,000.

The running time for the six furlongs on a muddy, closed main track was 1:12.14.

In last month’s Maryland Million Lassie, Doc’s Miracle, starting from within, found herself dueling throughout and just failed to hang on as she finished second in a valiant effort. Today she had the advantage of being pulled to the outside of the field.

“She broke well [in the Lassie]Capuano said. “She broke good, and he kind of had to use her up because she had the inside post. Her running was great: she fought every step of the way, and she put in all the hard work and still almost pulled it off.

Today’s race was very different. Hazlewood was able to drop his pace, while Prosecco Rita established the front, with an opening quarter mile of 22.21 seconds and a half of 45.77 seconds. Doc’s Miracle was 3 ½ lengths back at the time and accelerated her run while three wide.

Doc’s Miracle held Prosecco Rita with about a sixteenth of a mile to go, pulling away late to the final margin.

One race later, in the James F. Lewis, III Stakes, Russell gave her answer, with Balboa, a newcomer in her barn, taking a dominant 5 ¼ length victory over Capuano’s last maiden winner Hollywood Import. The running time for the six furlongs was 1:11.87.

“I mean, he’s a nice horse,” Russell said. “He is healthy and I think there is room for improvement. I think he is a big, immature horse at the moment.”

Maybe, but he was certainly too much for his rivals today. Under jockey Sheldon Russell, Balboa pushed Max Capacity’s early pace, took over at quarter pole and pulled away smartly to win.

Owned by a significant partnership led by SF Racing LLC, Balboa began his career in Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s barn in Southern California, where he broke his maid on the second ask at Del Mar in August. Two consecutive forays into Class 1 holdings yielded a pair of fifth-place finishes, followed by a new barn and the addition of blinders.

Whether the son of Not This Time will live up to his auction price of $875,000 is certainly an open question, but he appears to be a horse that can thrive on these components.

“If they come from Bob and we try them here, obviously it’s easier than what he’s up against,” Russell said. “But still, today he had to put on his running shoes and put in the work. So the way he did it, that’s what you have to see.”

There wasn’t as flashy a purchase price, and expectations were certainly more measured, for Doc’s Miracle. She is sire Long River’s first stakes winner and is out of the stakes-winning Archarcharch mare Hailey’s Flip. She is a private breeder of Daniel Crowley and Non Stop Stable.

“Since she broke her virgin in Timonium [in August]“She really turned it around,” Capuano said. “She’s just a professional. She did everything right. She’s only going to get better.”