Laurel Park hosts one of Maryland’s best race days of year Saturday, June 27, highlighted by the track’s premier summer sprint race, the $175,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes. The De Francis Dash going six furlongs on the main track headlines an 11-race card featuring four stakes races at Laurel that also includes the $125,000 Japan Racing Association Turf Cup, the $125,000 Deputed Testamony Stakes, and the $125,000 Alma North Stakes.

Aside from the terrific stakes action on Saturday’s 11-race card at Laurel, bettors can also take advantage of a wagering menu that includes the Early Value Pick 5 and the Late Value Pick 5. Offered on the day’s first five and last five races on the card, Laurel’s Value Pick 5 bets notably offer handicappers an industry-low 12% takeout.

Horseplayers can also enter Laurel’s De Francis Dash Day Handicapping Challenge to compete for cash prizes as well as qualifying berths into the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and the National Horseplayers Championship. The Handicapping Challenge has a $500 buy-in that includes a $250 entry fee and $250 that serves as a player’s live contest bankroll. You can enter and play the tournament on track at Laurel Park or online at Xpressbet, TVG/4NJ Bets, or HPI. Go to www.laurelpark.com/defrancisdaychallenge for all the details.

America’s Best Racing will host a “De Francis Day Live” streaming program on Saturday covering the stakes races at Laurel Park. The livestream is sponsored by Maryland Jockey Club and begins at 2:45 p.m. ET. You can find the livestream across ABR’s social media channels.

This year’s De Francis Dash drew a wide-open field of 10 quality entrants, and it looks like a tremendous betting race. Let’s take a closer look at the contenders:

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1. Slam Notion 

Jockey: TBA

Trainer: Robert Bailes

Owner: Eric A. Rizer

Career record: 15 starts – 7 wins – 2 seconds – 1 third

Career earnings: $374,710

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 106

Age: 4

Pedigree: Great Notion– Balestra, by Grand Slam

Color: Bay

Running style: Stalker

Notable achievements and interesting facts: A five-time winner at Laurel, he ended 2025 on a three-race winning streak with back-to-back stakes wins, including the Maryland Million Sprint Stakes, but he has yet to find the winner’s circle in three starts so far to start 2026. Slam Notion finished fourth in the local $200,000 General George Stakes in a respectable performance this February behind next-out repeat winner Point Dume. Trainer Robert Bailes sits near the top of the Laurel trainer’s standings and owns a potent 26% win percentage at the current Laurel meet. Slam Notion must turn the tables on Faust, Haileysfirstnotion, and Celtic Contender, who all finished ahead of him in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Stakes on Preakness day.

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2. Wickeddivine

Jockey: Jeiron Barbosa

Trainer: Kenneth Cox

Owner: Bonuccelli Racing

Career record: 12 starts – 4 wins – 2 seconds – 2 thirds

Career earnings: $160,815

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 102

Age: 4

Pedigree: Divining Rod – E Dubai’s Humor, by E Dubai

Color: Bay

Running style: Press the pace

Notable achievements and interesting facts: He enters this race in career-best form on a three-race winning streak with all of the victories coming at Laurel at this distance. Wickeddivine  should assume his usual pace-pressing position and is dangerous from there based on his most recent past performances. He steps up in class against stakes company looking for his first lifetime stakes win but has the speed figures to compete against this field and can’t be counted out.

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3. Haileysfirstnotion

Jockey: Yedsit Hazlewood

Trainer: Gary Capuano

Owners: Daniel C. Crowley and Non Stop Stable

Career record: 14 starts – 6 wins – 4 seconds – 3 thirds

Career earnings: $298,860

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 108

Age: 5

Pedigree: Great Notion – Hailey’s Flip, by Archarcharch

Color: Dark bay or brown

Running style: Pacesetter

Notable achievements and interesting facts: In a race filled with stalkers, Haileysfirstnotion has the speed to lead and looms a threat to go all the way with Maryland jockey sensation Yedsit Hazlewood aboard. Hazelwood was leading rider at both of Laurel’s winter and spring meets, and he also tops Laurel’s current meet’s jockey standings. Haileysfirstnotion exits a close second in a $100,000 Delaware Park stakes race last time and just missed when third in a tight three-horse finish two races ago in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Stakes. He must turn the tables on Slam Notion, who beat him by 1 ½ lengths in last fall’s Maryland Million Sprint, but there doesn’t appear to be anyone in this race willing to challenge him for the lead and that means Haileysfirstnotion could be tough to catch as he attempts to lead from start to finish.

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4. Pentathlon

Jockey: Sheldon Russell

Trainer: Shug McGaughey

Owners: Phipps Stable, St. Elias Stable, and Woodford Racing

Career record: 18 starts – 5 wins – 1 second – 4 thirds

Career earnings: $391,732

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 107

Age: 5

Pedigree: Speightstown – Parade, by Tapit

Color: Chestnut

Running style: Stalker

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Pentathlon is a New York-based invader from trainer Shug McGaughey, whose barn has already won with two of three shippers this meet at Laurel. Sheldon Russell will be aboard, and he currently sits in his usual position near the top of the Maryland jockey leaderboard. Pentathlon comes in off a third-place finish in a very tough edition of the Grade 3 Westchester Stakes at Aqueduct behind hard-hitters the likes of Antiquarian and Bishops Bay, and this assignment certainly looks a lot easier on paper. Pentathlon already owns a stakes win this year going seven furlongs in Gulfstream’s $150,000 Army Mule Stakes atop a quality nine-horse field, so the question here definitely won’t be class or ability. Rather, it will be the distance. All five of his five career wins have come at either seven furlongs or one mile, and he has failed to hit the board in either of his two lifetime attempts at this six-furlong distance.

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5. Full Moon Madness

Jockey: Angel Cruz

Trainer: Michelle Nevin

Owner: Jay Em Ess Stable

Career record: 22 starts – 5 wins – 4 seconds – 5 thirds

Career earnings: $557,550

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 119

Age: 6

Pedigree: Into Mischief – By the Moon, by Indian Charlie

Color: Bay

Running style: Stalker

Notable achievements and interesting facts: The winner of the 2025 Tom Fool Stakes at Aqueduct in spectacular fashion, Full Moon Madness just missed scoring a repeat in that Grade 3 race this February when nipped by a nose and forced to settle for second. The two most recent races since then for Full Moon Madness, however, haven’t been as good, and he will need an uptick in his current form after finishing behind Haileysfirstnotion last time out at Delaware Park. Normally a stalker, Full Moon Madness chose to hustle up into a speed duel with the red-hot Point Dume in a $100,000 handicap race at 6 ½ furlongs and paid the price in his most recent trip to Laurel this January. Will new jockey Angel Cruz employ similar tactics Saturday and challenge Haileysfirstnotion for the lead, or will he sit back in his usual stalking position? Unfortunately for Cruz, he might be damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

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6. Fire Pit 

Jockey: Mario Gutierrez

Trainer: Guadalupe Preciado

Owner: Travin Stables

Career record: 18 starts – 4 wins – 3 seconds – 2 thirds

Career earnings: $220,638

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 100

Age: 4

Pedigree: Cairo Prince – True Martha, by Creative Cause

Color: Gray or roan

Running style: Pacesetter/press the pace

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Fire Pit exits a solid allowance-optional claiming win going 6 ½ furlongs at Parx Racing after losing a series of races before that win while facing tougher competition or in spots comparable with this one. He now goes back up in class against stakes company and will have a tough assignment against this group. He finished second in two previous visits to Laurel Park earlier in his career, but his best career races so far have all come at Parx. In a De Francis Dash field loaded with legitimate contenders, other betting options look more appealing.

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7. Petingas Twin

Jockey: TBA

Trainer: Anthony Farrior

Owner: James C. Wolf

Career record: 24 starts – 7 wins – 8 seconds – 2 thirds

Career earnings: $340,026

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 111

Age: 5

Pedigree: Take Charge Indy – Summer Punch, by Candy Ride

Color: Bay

Running style: Stalker/press the pace

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Petingas Twin scored a win last time out against lesser competition at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races, and his form overall has been good dating back to last fall, including a $100,000 stakes win at Laurel on a muddy track in November. He was soundly defeated by Celtic Contender in a six-furlong Laurel allowance race two starts ago and could only muster a fifth-place finish, beaten by 12 lengths by Point Dume when last entered against stakes company in February’s General George Stakes at Laurel. He posted a front-running victory last time out at seven furlongs but is much more likely to stalk the pace in this spot against a slew of faster horses with the same running style. A victory here looks like a tall order.

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8. Faust

Jockey: Mychel Sanchez

Trainer: Steve Asmussen

Owners: Corinne Heiligbrodt and William L. Heiligbrodt

Career record: 18 starts – 3 wins – 1 second – 7 thirds

Career earnings: $363,782

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 106

Age: 4

Pedigree: Volatile – Whistling Straits, by Scat Daddy

Color: Gray or roan

Running style: Stalker

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Faust delivered two dynamite allowance wins at Oaklawn Park this spring and parlayed that sharp form into a close second-place finish at Laurel last month in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Stakes, where he finished ahead of some of these same rivals. Now, back against a similar field in this race, there’s no reason to think he can’t beat the same horses again. Forgive Faust for his loss last time when he faced the country’s best sprinters Book’em Danno and Bentornato in Saratoga’s Grade 3 True North Stakes, because that caliber of competition will not be present at Laurel on Saturday. Trainer Steve Asmussen has enjoyed prior success in the De Francis Dash with a win in 2021 with Jalen Journey and in 2018 with Switzerland.

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9. Celtic Contender

Jockey: Forest Boyce

Trainer: Hamilton Smith

Owner: Lewis Family Racing Stable

Career record: 19 starts – 6 wins – 3 seconds – 6 thirds

Career earnings: $398,275

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 107

Age: 5

Pedigree: Irish War Cry – Celtic Katie, by Posse

Color: Chestnut

Running style: Pacesetter/press the pace

Notable achievements and interesting facts: A winner of six career races, all at Laurel Park, Celtic Contender ran a lifetime-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure and 107 Equibase Speed Figure two starts back when trouncing a local allowance field in his return outing off an eight-month layoff. He could not replicate that effort last time in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Stakes when settling for fourth behind a pair of these rivals, but he could bounce back in this spot. He finished second by a length in last year’s running of the De Francis Dash and he’s been competitive in several similar Laurel stakes assignments throughout his career, so there’s certainly reason for optimism. It doesn’t look like any of these opponents can match Celtic Contender’s recent triple-digit speed figure, so he’ll definitely contend for the top spot if he shows up with his best effort.

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10. Hymn

Jockey: Rafael Bejarano

Trainer: Ron Moquett

Owners: Fleur De Lis Stables, William S. Sparks, and Bret Jones

Career record: 12 starts – 3 wins – 2 seconds – 0 thirds

Career earnings: $303,639

Top Equibase Speed Figure: 108

Age: 4

Pedigree: McKinzie – Salt Bae, by Paynter

Color: Dark bay or brown

Running style: Stalker

Notable achievements and interesting facts: Hymn is humming right along now with two straight wins following a six-furlong score at Oaklawn Park and a seven-furlong win last time at Churchill Downs. On the negative side, he lost in a head-to-head match-up against Faust when fourth at Oaklawn three races ago and he will need to turn the tables on that dangerous opponent today while also facing some other toughies in this race. On the plus side, he is undoubtedly sporting excellent current form and has speed figures that stack up with the other leading contenders in the field. Trainer Ron Moquett won the De Francis Dash in 2015 with Gentlemen’s Bet and Hymn gives him a realistic shot at a second victory this year.