Friday at Pimlico

Greetings from Pimlico on a gorgeous Blacked Eyed Susan/Pimlico Special Friday.

The Lady Legends for the Cure III (a.k.a. the fourth race featuring retired female jockeys) was just run, and the race seemed over from the start. At least Jennifer Rowland-Small seemed to think so. Small and Class Rules bounded right to the front in this entry level allowance dash and almost immediately, and at many points thereafter, she looked around to her left and right for competition. It never came. Class Rules - $8.80. I wonder what the percentage of front-running winners is in special events such as this. I bet it’s pretty robust.

I’ll check back later with some thoughts on the important stakes.

3:46 - Agave Kiss is a runnin' fool. She extended her undefeated streak to six with an easy score in the Miss Preakness for 3-year-old fillies, getting the six furlongs in 1:10.40, considerably faster than the 1:11.71 the talented older filly Bold Affair took to win the Skipat Stakes two races earlier. This year's 3-year-old filly division is a good, deep group. But I doubt that there are many, if any, better right now than Agave Kiss at a sprint distance.

5:01 - The main track is fast here, but it is not producing fast times. I say that for two reasons: One, perhaps Mamma Kimbo went too fast early when she set the pace in the Black Eyed Susan. Two, maybe it's a good idea not to get too hung up on In Lingerie's otherwise uninspiring winning Black Eyed Susan time of 1:52.07.

But even if Mamma Kimbo went too fast early, I'm not comfortable making excuses for this performance. You could see she had enough by the top of the stretch, and more was expected from this 4-5 shot.

As for In Lingerie, who topped a Todd Pletcher trained Black Eyed Susan exacta (Disposablepleasure finished second), this was a good, off-the-pace win for her, time notwithstanding. In Lingerie proved that she is more than a synthetic track performer, and for the first time, she showed she can win when not on the early lead.

5:56 - I question how good the group of handicap horses who contested the Pimlico Special really are are, but one thing you can say for them, they are an entertaining bunch. Alternation proved in his narrow score that he is more than an Oaklawn horse (he was beforehand, anyway, but he proved it), and he is the rare horse who can truly win from anywhere on the track. Runner up Nehro just has to have a big race out there with his name on it. And Endorsement ran an industrious race setting the pace and finishing third. The only disappointment was Hymn Book, who got his pace, and just didn't fire.

See you tomorrow.