Connections Aim to Make 'Impression' in All Along

Following a pair of optional claiming allowance races that Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey feels he has her back on track. Stuart Janney III's Grade 3-winning homebred My Impression returns to stakes company looking to give her connections a third straight victory in the $150,000 All Along, presented by Blackwell Real Estate, Saturday at Laurel Park.

The 1 1/16-mile All Along for fillies and mares 3 and older and the 56th running of the $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup, presented by Ourisman of Clarksville, for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/2 miles are among six stakes over Laurel's world-class turf course that complement the 27th running of the $250,000 Xpressbet Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) on a 13-race Fall Festival of Racing program.

All seven stakes, worth $900,000 in purses, were rescheduled from Sept. 15 due to the threat of severe weather from Hurricane Florence. First race post time Saturday is 12:30 p.m.

McGaughey has won the All Along the past two years with Janney homebreds On Leave in 2017 and Onus in 2016, when the race was run as the Lady Baltimore. My Impression, third by 1 ½ lengths going one mile Aug. 31 at Saratoga last time out, has had two bullet works since that race including a half-mile in 48.11 seconds Monday over Belmont Park's inner turf.

"She worked good. She's been doing pretty good," McGaughey said. "Her last race was a good race at Saratoga. She might have needed it a little bit and she's done really well since then. The extra week probably helps her, too. We're going to take a shot and see what happens."

A 5-year-old daughter of Sky Mesa, My Impression is winless since taking the one-mile, 70-yard One Dreamer Stakes last September at Kentucky Downs. She ended last year running second by a neck in the Athenia (G3) and third by a head in the Forever Together Stakes before getting the winter off.

My Impression finished off the board in a pair of stakes to open 2018 as well as a one-mile optional claiming allowance July 15 at Belmont Park. In her only previous trip to Laurel, she won the 2016 Commonwealth Oaks (G3)—the lone graded triumph among three career stakes wins.

"I was trying to find a spot for her and I thought it would be a good place to run her. She's run well there before and we're looking forward to bringing her down there," McGaughey said. "She's been pretty consistent. Her races have been good. Her first couple races this year weren't but now I think I've got her back on the right track so we'll go from there."

Hall of Famer Gary Stevens is named to ride My Impression at 120 pounds from Post 10 in a field of 13 including main track only entrant Ready to Confess, one of four from the barn of trainer Graham Motion.

Motion also entered The Elkstone Group's Celestial Insight, Wertheimer & Frere's Esquisse and Sam-Son Farm's Mythical Mission in an effort to win his third All Along. He won it as the Lady Baltimore in 2013 with Strathnaver and 2015 with Interrupted.

Each of the Motion trio is looking for their first graded success. Mythical Mission, placed seven times previously, finally broke through in a stakes with her gutsy nose victory in the one-mile, 70-yard West Virginia Senate President's Cup Aug. 4 at Mountaineer.

"I thought she was very game in that race. I entered her in Canada last week and the race came up very solid," Motion said. "One of the reasons I didn't want to run her last week was the race was at a mile and an eighth and I think a mile, mile and a sixteenth is more her trip. I think she's a solid, Grade 3-type filly so hopefully she runs well. She's done well."

Celestial Insight began her 5-year-old campaign running second by a neck in the Mint Julep Handicap (G3) June 9, her most recent trip at the All Along distance. She followed up off the board in the 1 3/16-mile Modesty Handicap (G3) at Arlington Park and 1 1/8-mile Violet (G3), the latter Sept. 1 at Monmouth Park.

"I really was just very puzzled by her last race. I really don't know quite what to make of it," Motion said. "She acts like a really good horse and she ran really well first time out at Churchill. I think I made a mistake of running her back too quickly in Chicago and last time I was just disappointed. It's a bit of a head-scratcher, but she came out of it well and that's why we find ourselves in this position."

Esquisse is the only one of her stablemates with experience over the Laurel turf, having run third by a neck as the favorite in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance Aug. 17, a race where she took a short lead into the stretch but could never gain separation from her rivals. 

She won a minor stakes race last summer in France before coming to the U.S. and will be racing with blinkers for the first time in the All Along with jockey Jorge Vargas Jr. up.

"She's a filly that we've always thought was this caliber. I know she got beat last time at Laurel in the allowance race, but sometimes the turf course plays funny and we just couldn't get by the leader. We put blinkers on her for this race and she's trained well for it," Motion said. "It's something Jorge recommended to me. He said it to me after he rode her that day, he thought she was shying away from the horses a little bit and thought this would help her. So we've worked her in them and he liked the way she went."

Placed four times in graded-stakes, 2018 South Beach Stakes winner Stormy Victoria is entered to make her first start for trainer Christophe Clement since finishing seventh in the Intercontinental (G3) June 9 at Belmont. The 6-year-old Stormy River mare will carry topweight of 122 pounds, two more than each of her rivals.