Pulled From Sale, Luna Belle Vies in Thirty Eight Go Go

Instead of going through the auction ring during the ongoing November Breeding Stock Sale at Keeneland, five-time stakes winner Luna Belle  is running Nov. 11 in the Thirty Eight Go Go Stakes at Laurel Park.

The 1 1/16-mile Thirty Eight Go Go for fillies and mares is the last of three $100,000 stakes on a nine-race program, following the Smart Halo Stakes for 2-year-old fillies and James F. Lewis III Stakes for 2-year-olds, both at six furlongs.

Owned by Deborah Greene and Laurel-based trainer Hamilton Smith and bred by Smith, Greene and her late father, Fred Greene Jr., 4-year-old Luna Belle has raced just once since her 3-year-old season in 2022, finishing third in the Oct. 14 Maryland Million Distaff Stakes behind fellow Thirty Eight Go Go competitor Intrepid Daydream .

Before that, Luna Belle, a daughter of Great Notion  , went to the sidelines after a distant 11th-place finish in the George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) at Pimlico Race Course in May 2022. 

Greene said she came out of the Maryland Million Distaff in good health.

Smith "sees her all the time and knew her condition, and he wasn't as gung-ho to sell her as I was," Greene said. "The day I saw her run, I said, 'I don't want her to go.'"

Paul Fowler Jr.'s Intrepid Daydream (Jess's Dream  ) is the likely favorite in Saturday's race, having won six of 12 starts, including three in a row for trainer Gary Capuano.