Carrying the mantle for one of Maryland’s best known and respected racing families, trainer Lacey Gaudet has been proud to continue the tradition her late father, Eddie, began in the 1950s.
Saturday, the 33-year-old Gaudet is hoping to add another chapter to the family’s legacy and join her father as a graded-stakes winner.
Gaudet will send out Five Hellions Farm’s Dontletsweetfoolya in the $250,000 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (Grade 3) at Laurel Park, co-headliner with the $250,000 General George (G3) on a nine-race Winter Sprintfest program featuring six stakes worth $900,000 in purses. Post time is 12:25 p.m.
One of Eddie Gaudet’s three career graded victories came with Star Touch in the 1991 General George, the first year it carried graded status, then Grade 2. He also won the 1985 Anne Arundel Handicap (G3) with Classy Cut and 1994 Garden State (G3) with Alleged Impression.
Overall, Eddie Gaudet won more than 1,700 races before retiring at the end of 2011, passing away at age 87 in January 2018. Two years earlier Gaudet and her mother, Linda, herself a noted horseman, owner and trainer, combined their stables into Team Gaudet with great success.
They turned John Jones, a $25,000 claim in the summer of 2018, into a multiple stakes winner and track record holder at Colonial Downs before he was retired. They broke Double Crown’s maiden at Laurel in 2019 before the horse was sold and became a multiple stakes winner and twice graded-stakes placed including runner-up in the 2020 Chick Lang (G3) at Pimlico Race Course.
The new stable star is Dontletsweetfoolya, a winner of five consecutive races by 28 ¼ combined lengths, the last two wins coming in stakes — the Nov. 28 Primonetta and Dec. 26 Willa On the Move. By multiple Grade 1 winner Stay Thirsty, she will be making her season debut in the Fritchie for Gaudet, four wins shy of 200 for her young career.
“We’re going into the race confident and we know that we have a nice filly, and I think that it’s just going to be fun from here on out,” she said. “If she wins, great. It’s not going to take anything away from her if she gets beat, but to go for six in a row and get a graded stakes under her belt? That would be fantastic.”
Dontletsweetfoolya drew Post 3 in a field of eight and was made the 7-2 third choice on the morning line for the Fritchie behind 8-5 favorite Hello Beautiful and Grade 3 winner Sharp Starr. Hello Beautiful, a five-time stakes winner including each of her last three starts, will break from the far outside.
Gaudet and Five Hellions will have another stakes starter Saturday, Fraudulent Charge, in the $100,000 Wide Country for 3-year-old fillies.
Women’s college lacrosse: Blair Pearre (McDonogh) scored four goals and assisted one as Towson (2-0) debuted at Tiger Field with a 12-5 victory over UMBC (0-1). Lindsey Marshall (Catonsville) added three goals for Towson, while Lily Kennedy (Marriotts Ridge) led the Retrieves with a pair of goals.
>>Washington College named senior midfielder Anna Bennett (Garrison Forest) and senior defenders Meghan Dean (South River) and Catherine Keirn (Notre Dame Prep) as team captains for the 2021 season.
Men’s College lacrosse: UMBC’s season opener at St. Joseph’s, scheduled for Saturday at noon, has been canceled due to COVID-19 testing protocols within the Hawks’ program.
Canadian Football League: Former Towson University linebacker Malik Tyne signed with the EE Football Team after being drafted in April. Tyne, a native of Ontario and the first Towson player to be picked in the CFL draft, was taken 24th overall in the 2020 CFL Draft by Edmonton.
With Towson from 2015-19, Tyne racked up 75 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks. He earned multiple sacks and at least three tackles for loss in each season in his final three years, being tied for third in FCS in 2019 with three fumble recoveries.
Three players, Tyne, Tom Flacco and Shane Leatherbury, signed contracts to play in the CFL for the 2021 season.
Salisbury football: The Sea Gulls are scheduled to play three games this spring with a scrimmage to begin the season on March 7. Salisbury’s regular season begins March 13 with the final Route 13 Rivalry game with Wesley in Dover. The home schedule starts on March 21 with a divisional matchup with CNY under the lights at Sea Gull Stadium. The season concludes with a cross-divisional contest with Kean on March 28.
Maryland women’s basketball: The Big Ten Conference announced a schedule updated, which includes a rescheduled Maryland matchup with Iowa. The ninth-ranked Terrapins (15-2, 11-1 B1G) will host the Hawkeyes (11-6, 7-6) Tuesday, Feb. 23, at 1 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network. It was scheduled as a makeup for the Jan. 21 game.
Next, Maryland will host Minnesota (7-10, 6-9) on Saturday at noon at the XFINITY Center. The Terps-Gophers game will be streamed online through BTN Plus.