Laughing overtakes Dayatthespa in Eatontown

Laughing showed no signs of rust winning the Eatontown off an eight-month layoff (William Osborn/Equi-Photo) Returning from an eight-month layoff proved no hindrance to Richard Santulli’s five-year-old mare Laughing, who upset 2-5 favorite Dayatthespa in Saturday’s Grade 3, $99,000 Eatontown Handicap at Monmouth Park. Tracking in third as the favorite set a fast pace of :23, :46 2/5 and 1:09 1/5, Laughing moved up to engage a tiring Dayatthespa passing the eighth pole and edged clear to win by three-quarters of a length under Angel Serpa while stopping the clock in a swift 1:39 1/5 for 1 1/16 miles on the firm turf. Trained by Alan Goldberg, Laughing rewarded her backers with mutuels of $14.20, $3.80 and $2.60 as the 6-1 third choice. “Mr. Goldberg told me that there was a lot of speed in the race so I just wanted to sit off,” jockey Angel Serpa said. “I rode her last year so I was familiar with her. I placed her just behind the speed and when we turned for home she broke like the gates opened again. She’s very good.”

Dayatthespa, making her second start of the season, held second by three
parts of a length over Ruthenia. Namaskara and Peggy Joyce completed the order
of finish after the withdrawals of In the Rough, Naples Bay, Peace Preserver,
2012 Eatontown winner Silver Screamer, and the main-track-only entrant Ima
Jersey Girl.

Laughing improved her Monmouth record to two-for-two with this score, having
landed the 1 1/8-mile Matchmaker last July. It was her only stakes win of the
season, though she placed in the Gallorette Handicap, Athenia, and Lady
Baltimore.

The multiple Grade 3 winner was bred in Ireland by Floors Farming and the
Duke of Devonshire. The daughter of Dansili was purchased by her original
trainer, Charles O’Brien, for $460,411 as a Tattersalls October yearling.
Laughing first sported the silks of Mrs. John Magnier, breaking her maiden in
her third try as a three-year-old in Ireland and promptly following up in the
Nijinsky Stakes at Leopardstown. She was subsequently acquired by Santulli.

Laughing’s half-brother, Viva Pataca, reigned as Hong Kong’s Horse of the
Year and all-time leading money winner with more than HK$83 million in the bank.
A two-time hero of the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, he also won a trio of Champions &
Chater Cups, a pair of Hong Kong Gold Cups and the Hong Kong Derby, among other
titles. Viva Pataca’s lengthy list of placings includes two more runnings of the
QEII, as well as the Hong Kong Cup and Dubai Sheema Classic.

Their dam, the winning Be My Chief mare Comic, is herself a half-sister to
multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire Brave Act. Laughing’s third dam, English
co-champion juvenile filly Circus Ring, is the ancestress of Italian co-highweight
Voila Ici and Australian champion filly Serenade Rose, heroine of such major
events as the V.R.C. Oaks and A.J.C. Australian Oaks.

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