A year after enduring a troubled passage in the same race, Striker Has Dial made certain there would be no such complications this time, producing a polished front-running display to win Saturday’s $125,000 Skipat Stakes at Laurel Park by 1¾ lengths.
The victory came on one of American racing’s biggest afternoons, with Laurel Park staging a packed 14-race programme headlined by the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes.
Laurel Park Skipat Stakes results.
Trained by Horacio De Paz and ridden with confidence by Ricardo Santana Jr., the five-year-old mare broke sharply from the inside gate and immediately took command of the six-furlong contest for fillies and mares aged three and upward.
Santana allowed Striker Has Dial to settle into an efficient rhythm through an opening quarter-mile in 22.47 seconds while the well-backed favourite Modo applied pressure to her outside. The pair remained locked together through a half-mile in 45.76, but the race began to tilt decisively approaching the home turn.
Straightening for the stretch, Striker Has Dial kicked clear with authority, leaving her rivals struggling to match her acceleration on the fast main track. Benedetta closed into second, while Passage East finished third. Grade 2 winner Kappa Kappa checked in fourth ahead of Modo.
The winning time was 1:10.44.
For Santana, it marked a second career success in the Skipat after previously winning the race aboard Vertical Oak in 2018. Saturday’s triumph also extended Striker Has Dial’s impressive career record to five wins, five seconds and two thirds from 14 starts.
Her performance carried extra significance considering her misfortune in last year’s edition. On that occasion, she bobbled leaving the gate, was bumped early and raced wide before still managing to challenge in the stretch, ultimately finishing second behind Zeitlos.
This time, with a clean break and uninterrupted run, she delivered the kind of performance her connections always believed was possible.
“She’s always a forward-running filly,” De Paz said afterwards. “It was just a matter of whether we had enough fitness. She’d been training so well. Ricardo fit her perfectly.
“There’s not a better rider than Ricardo riding a speed horse on the front end. Now we’ll see how she comes out of the race and decide the next target. Saratoga could definitely be an option.”
Santana was equally impressed by the mare’s composure throughout the contest.
“She was going so easy today,” the jockey said. “She had been training good and today it paid off. The pressure never got to her. She stayed relaxed the whole way and when I asked her to go, she responded immediately. She was much the best today.”
The Skipat Stakes itself honours the durable Connecticut-bred mare Skipat, who won 26 races and earned more than $614,000 during a distinguished career between 1977 and 1981. Among her notable achievements were two victories in the Barbara Fritchie Stakes.
Saturday’s Laurel Park Skipat Stakes results added another memorable chapter to the race’s long history, and for Striker Has Dial, it was a deserved redemption story after last year’s near miss.
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