5-Year-Old Mare Earns Eighth Career Stakes Victory, 12th Overall

BALTIMORE – Daniel Lopez and George Chestnut’s speedball Chub Wagon, content to sit off the pace in the early going, came rolling to the front around the far turn and had plenty left to repel fellow multiple stakes winner Kaylasaurus down the stretch to win Saturday’s $100,000 Alma North at Laurel Park.

The fifth running of the 6 ½-furlong Alma North for fillies and mares 3 and older was the second of four stakes worth $450,000 in purses on an 11-race program highlighted by the $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs.

All four stakes, including the $100,000 Prince George’s County and $100,000 Big Dreyfus on the grass, were part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series.

It was the fourth straight win and eighth in stakes company for the 5-year-old Chub Wagon ($3.80), whose victory came by three lengths in 1:16.03 over a main track turned sloppy by a heavy mid-afternoon thunderstorm. She is now 12-for-13 lifetime, including victories in the 2021 Skipat and Shine Again at historic Pimlico Race Course.

“You’re never overconfident going into a race especially when the track gets wet like today. You never know,” winning trainer Guadalupe Preciado said. “All these horses today looked like speed. When you run with all these speed horses you see who has the speed. She’s coming around very nice. Hopefully she gets a little stronger.”

Chub Wagon, who has shown more of a willingness to settle in behind horses in her recent races, broke sharply from Post 3 and quickly established command but was content to let Chilean Group 2 winner Cheetara come through from her rail post and take the lead after a quarter-mile in 22.41 seconds. Silvestre Gonzalez, aboard for the second straight race, kept Chub Wagon in the clear two wide and eased to the front on the turf following a half in 45.63.

“She was very handy. She responded well to the horse on the lead. She was very relaxed and wasn’t keen on the bit, just settled in nicely and I had a lot of horse to finish,” Gonzalez said. “She does everything right. She’s got a lot of class and she loves to run. She showed her grit today on a sloppy track. She overcame that and she ran well.”

Having dispatched Cheetara, Chub Wagon straightened for home comfortably in front but had to be wary of a looming challenge from Kaylasaurus, late-running winner of the 2021 Willa On the Move and April 23 Primonetta at Laurel.

“The last time I rode her she broke a step slow and today, coming off her first race back, she was a lot sharper. She had some speed on the inside. She didn’t hesitate at all and kind of liked having that company a little bit,” Gonzalez said. “When she put her away I was just letting herself get into stride and once they started coming I asked her and she responded very well down the stretch.”

Kaylasaurus held second, 1 ¾ lengths ahead of Cheetara. It was two lengths back to Buy the Best while multiple stakes winner Fille d’Esprit completed the field after being fractious in the starting gate.

The Alma North is named for the Maryland-bred champion 3-year-old filly and Horse of the Year in 1971 and Maryland-bred champion older filly of 1972. Owned by the late Eugene Mori’s East Acres Stable, Alma North won 23 of 78 career starts with $513,597 in purse earnings from 1970-74. Her victories included graded-stakes scores in the Matchmaker (G1) and Vineland (G2), Margate (G3) and Betsy Ross (G3) handicaps in 1973.