By Alan Carasso
Laurel Park staged the Maryland Million program on Saturday, and arguably the best Maryland-bred filly in training, The Estate of the Late R. Larry Johnson's Future Is Now (Great Notion), will have every chance to surpass the $1-million mark in career earnings when she defends her title in Sunday's $400,000 GII Franklin Stakes at Keeneland.
Since she is bred outside of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the 5-year-old races for just a $300,000 pot, and she'll jump favored to win for the fourth time in five starts this season. The fresh-up winner of the GIII Giant's Causeway Stakes over this course and distance back in April, she dropped a half-length decision to pacesetting Pipsy (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) in the June 5 GII Intercontinental Stakes at Saratoga. She has since bounced back to add the GIII Caress Stakes July 19 and the Aug. 15 Smart and Fancy Stakes, both at the Spa, and her ability to sit just off the speed in a race that appears chock full of it could be telling. Irad Ortiz, Jr. takes the ride for the first time.
Pipsy never got near the front in the Caress and ran into some trouble in the stretch on top of that and she returns to sex-restricted competition off a respectable fifth in the GII Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs Aug. 30.
The fleet-footed Luna Louska (Complexity) is perfect in three tries on the grass and carries a four-race winning streak into this graded stakes debut. All-the-way winner of the July 4 Clarskville Handicap at Horseshoe Indianapolis, the 3-year-old filly was virtually unchallenged in defeating far classier competition in the Sept. 13 Floral Park Stakes at Aqueduct. The pace does seem very much on, however, with the likes of In Our Time (Not This Time) also expected to add fuel to the fire.
Time To Dazzle (Not This Time) completed the exacta for her sire underneath In Our Time in a Sept. 10 allowance at Kentucky Downs and would need to improve some to win this, but she does appear to possess the right running style and should be coming at them late.
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