It's been a long time between sips of sparkling water, but the drought between Grade I stakes in Maryland will end today at Laurel Park with the running of the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash.
The six-furlong sprint with its $300,000 purse is only the second top-graded stakes this year in Maryland. The other, of course, is the Preakness.
This will be the second year for the De Francis Dash in its new time slot after the Breeders' Cup. Last year, Lou Raffetto Jr., chief operating officer of the Maryland Jockey Club, switched the race from summer to fall, creating the Fall Festival of Racing. The result was the strongest Dash field since the race's inception in 1990.
Four runners from the Breeders' Cup Sprint reunited in last year's Dash. Delaware Township, sixth in the Sprint, won. Laurel filly Xtra Heat, second in the Sprint, finished third as the star attraction.
Today, the Sprint runner-up is again the headliner, except it's not Xtra Heat. She'll sit out the Dash after finishing sixth in the Sprint three weeks ago at Arlington Park.
Thunderello assumes the role of Dash favorite after a sizzling performance in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. He darted to the lead from his inside post and then, at 48-1 odds in only his seventh start, held off the eventual winner, Orientate, until the final strides.
"I never knew I could be so happy and sick to my stomach at the same time," trainer Scott Lake said about the performance of Thunderello, his first Breeders' Cup starter. "I was absolutely thrilled with the way he ran. We knew he had that kind of talent."
Thunderello, 3, has rarely been able to show it because of a torn suspensory ligament that sidelined him for a year. Since his return in September, he has won two of four races. The Breeders' Cup Sprint was his first graded stakes.
A victory in the Dash would bring Lake his first Grade I stakes. He led North American trainers in wins the previous two years, and he is leading again this year, despite missing 25 days this summer serving suspensions for banned-drug positives on his horses.
Lake manages 170 horses at Pimlico Race Course, Delaware Park, Philadelphia Park and Belmont Park.
Former Maryland star Edgar Prado, the nation's second leading jockey in wins and earnings, will ride Thunderello.
Although the Dash field is not as strong as last year's, it drew eight horses, including two from California. One is Avanzado, an Argentine import who is 3-for-3 in this country.
The De Francis Dash heads a lineup of six stakes, including the Grade III, $100,000 Laurel Futurity for 2-year-olds and the $100,000 Selima Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, two of Maryland's most storied races. Neither was contested last year because of the budget crunch with purses.
Toccet could join such greats as Affirmed, Citation, Count Fleet, Secretariat and Spectacular Bid as winners of the Futurity. After winning the Grade I Champagne Stakes at Belmont, Toccet drew the outside post in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and finished ninth.
His Laurel-based trainer, John Scanlan, believes Toccet is a leading contender for next spring's Triple Crown races.
"He has to go on and beat these horses first," Scanlan said. "Then we can sit down and talk seriously about next year."