Cutty Shark strikes in Laurel prep for General George

Cutty Shark just got there in his Laurel prep for the General George (Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club)

Cutty Shark (Old Fashioned) punched his ticket to next month’s $250,000
General George H. (G3) at Laurel Park with a victory in Friday’s featured

6TH race, a
$47,000 optional claimer/allowance test.

Owned by Leslie Ruth and Barbara
Houck, trained by Donald Barr and guided for the first time by Xavier Perez, Cutty Shark was confidently
ridden to a narrow neck victory in 1:23 2/5 on the good track for the seven-furlong distance, the same
distance as the General George on President’s Day, February 16.

It was the fifth Laurel Park score for Cutty Shark, who
also finished second in the City of Laurel S. and third in the Fire Plug
S. Today he broke sharply, contested the pace between horses and then edged
away to win by a neck. The gray gelding paid $5.40 as the 8-5 favorite and
improved his career record to 19-5-3-2, $173,486.

“We lost a lot of training days with him because of the
weather,” Barr explained. “I don’t feel like he was at his best today. It was an
ad-lib training job but he still ran a 1:23 and he should be better in the
General George.”