Before a sun-drenched crowd of 4,489, jockey Jennifer Stisted won her first stakes aboard the 19-1 Graycious Dancer yesterday in the $35,000 Park Height Stakes at Laurel Park.

On the day thoroughbred racing returned to Maryland after a 6 1/2 -week hiatus, Stisted won the six-furlong stakes on turf with a 3-year-old filly who had excelled on dirt but had never raced on turf.

The nation's winningest jockey, Edgar Prado, added five more tallies to his total. But in the Park Heights, aboard favorite Belle de Soleil, he lost to Stisted by a head.

Pub Date: 10/15/98