Corvus, Lexington Street Win Maryland Million Juvenile

LAUREL, MD - The 30th Jim McKay Maryland Million Day was one of many upsets, but maybe none was more unexpected than Corvus’ wire-to-wire victory in the $100,000 Nursery for 2-year-old colts.

Corvus wasn’t on the radar of many Saturday. He hadn’t won a race. He hadn’t even run a race. But owner/trainer Katharine Voss had seen how he went against other horses during his morning training sessions and decided to take a chance.

“You have so many horses but there’s only a few that have his kind of talent,” Voss said, after the son of Dance With Ravens won by 1 ¾ lengths over the 8-furlong course. “He worked against a couple of the others in here and I saw the spot and thought, ‘We might as well try it.’ The maiden race we wanted wasn’t going to go for a couple weeks, so here we are.”

Corvus’ jockey Jevian Toledo said he didn’t know exactly what to expect from the youthful, first-time starter bred by Robert T. Manfuso and Voss, but the results couldn’t have been better.

“He broke really nice on top and relaxed,” Toledo said. “He just waited for some other horses to run alongside him like in the morning. I was really surprised that he was running so easily. I looked back at the eighth-pole and he was clear and had it in hand.”

Flash McCaul finished a neck in front of Captain Alex for second.

Voss said there are “three really good stakes coming up in Maryland” in which she is looking to run her new winner.

Lexington Street in Lassie

Lexington Street, owned by Peter Angelos’ Marathon Farms, Inc., wasn’t among the betting favorites for the $100,000 Maryland Million Lassie and she drew a worrisome inside post. But the 2-year-old filly sired by Street Sense out of Lexington Girl, came home the winner by 5 3/4ths lengths. Fly Girl finished second by a head over Table Jumper.

“She’s a big, strong, quiet filly with a lot of class,” said Lexington Street’s trainer Gary Capuano. “Her experience off her last two races helped today. We’re going to give her a little break now and look to run her in a stakes race here in about six weeks.”

Winning jockey Jevian Toledo, who also rode Corvus to victory in the Nursery, said he noted the speed in the race and held Lexington Street back a bit, not wanting to be involved in the early pace.

“Once she starts running, she doesn’t want to stop,” Toledo said. “And once we got the lead, she felt it. I was waiting for some other horses to get after her, but we won.”