LaRose Brings Three to Labor Day Weekend Stake Races

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  Midnight Still at Saratoga

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  Stress Relief at Saratoga G3 Win in The Adirondack

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  Oscar's Hope

Trainer Kinnon LaRose has a loaded weekend ahead with three graded stake entries spread across three days of racing at Saratoga and Kentucky Downs.

LaRose kicks off the weekend with Stress Relief in The Grade 1 Spinaway ($300,000) for 2yo fillies going 7F on Saturday, September 5th. The Not This Time filly out of a Ghostzapper dam is a homebred for owner Joel Politi. She’s two for two to start her promising career, winning on debut in a Maiden Special Weight at Churchill Downs on June 20th before winning the Grade 3 Adirondack at Saratoga on August 2nd. If Stress Relief can make it back to the winner’s circle, she’ll earn an automatic 'Win, and you're In' to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Division.

Sunday brings the Grade 1 Spendthrift Farm Hopeful ($300,000) for 2yo colt Midnight Still going 7F. He ran 3rd on debut in a Maiden Special Weight at Churchill Downs on June 12th before winning next out in a Maiden Special Weight by over six lengths at Saratoga on July 11th under Flavien Prat. The 2yo Curlin colt out of a Malibu Moon mare was purchased for $350,000 at the Keeneland September ‘25 yearling sale by Double Down Racing. 

The penultimate Labor Day weekend prize belongs to Oscar’s Hope in the Grade 2 Franklin-Simpson Stakes ($1,500,000) at Kentucky Downs going 6 1/2F on the turf on Labor Day. This 3-year-old colt was a $150,000 yearling purchase at the ‘24 Keeneland September sale by Twirling Candy out of a Not This Time mare. He ran 2nd in the Grade 3 Mahoney at Saratoga last out on August 16th and is a winner of black-type stakes at both Oaklawn Park and Delta Downs.