Valued Notion Leads All the Way in $75,000 Ben’s Cat
    
BALTIMORE – The silks jockey Xavier Perez wore said it all – Lucky 7.

Despite an awkward start while breaking from the outside post, Street Lute won her seventh stakes race when she gamely drove around the field to win Sunday’s $100,000 Stormy Blues at historic Pimlico Race Course.

Trained by Jerry Robb and ridden by Xavier Perez, Street Lute covered five furlongs on the main track in :58 for her seventh stakes win and eighth career win in 11 starts.

The 13th running of the Stormy Blues for 3-year-old fillies capped a 10-race program featuring five stakes worth $475,000 in purses. Both the Stormy Blues and $75,000 Ben’s Cat for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-olds and up were moved from the grass to the main track and kept at five furlongs. Horses scratched from the Stormy Blues included two from the barn of Wesley Ward, Wink and Amanzi Yimpilo.

After Street Lute broke awkwardly at the start, Proper Attire, beaten on the turf in the Hilltop last out, went to the front with Malibu Beauty in pursuit. But as those two entered the turn, Perez began moving Street Lute. Past Beautiful Grace, past Prodigy Doll…Street Lute drove down the center of the stretch gamely passing Malibu beauty then Proper Attire for lucky seven.

“To be honest I thought it was kind of over,” said Lucky 7 owner Joey Lloyd. “But when I saw her coming down the final homestretch I knew she has the heart, bigger than this world. My heart was in my throat, but as soon as I saw her coming down the stretch right outside [Proper Attire], I knew she was going to catch her.”
    
Stormy Blues was one of the top 2-year-old fillies of 1994 whose four wins in six starts that year included the Matron (G1), Sorority (G3) and Selima (G3), the latter at Laurel Park. Trained by late Hall of Famer Scotty Schulhofer, she finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

Valued Notion Leads All the Way in Ben’s Cat
    
Valued Notion made his stakes debut a memorable one for owner Hillwood Stable LLC and trainer Rodney Jenkins when he led gate-to-wire under jockey Xavier Perez to win the $75,000 Ben’s Cat by two lengths over Air Token. Oldies But Goodies checked in third while favored Hemp, who broke slowly, finished fourth.
    
Valued Notion, a lightly raced 4-year-old gelded son of Great Notion, covered the 5 furlongs in :58.19 over the main track after the races was taken off the turf.

Breaking from post 10, Valued Notion broke out of the gate quickly and was chased from the outside by longshot Xmasinthecity past an opening quarter in :22.22 and a half in :45.47. But entering the stretch, Perez put away Xmasinthecity and held off the remainder of his opponents.

“He was in contention right away. I was just trying to let the 12 [Xmasinthecity] go ahead of me,” Perez said. “I watched a couple of his races and he kind of slowed down at the end. As soon as I put my horse against the bit, he took me to the front and I just cruised. He was doing it so comfortable and I just let him do it himself until we got to the top of the lane.”

Valued Notion, who broke his maiden at third asking in February, followed up that victory with an allowance victory before finishing a tired fourth in his last start April 9.

Bred, owned and trained by Hall of Fame horseman King Leatherbury, Ben’s Cat won 32 of 63 career races, 26 stakes and more than $2.6 million in purses from 2010 to 2017. A four-time Maryland-bred Horse of the Year, Ben’s Cat died July 18, 2017 from complications following colic surgery.