Covfefe will need her best in tough Miss Preakness renewal

BALTIMORE – Trainer Brad Cox was heading here on Wednesday with a one-two punch for the Preakness Stakes in Owendale and Warrior’s Charge, but he’s hoping to get his Pimlico weekend off to a promising start on Friday when he sends out Covfefe in what has turned out to be a strong, competitive running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Miss Preakness.

The six-furlong Miss Preakness, which goes as race 8, drew 13 runners, with 12 in the main body of the race and one also-eligible. Cox won the Derby weekend equivalent of this race at Churchill Downs, the seven-furlong Eight Belles, with the 3-year-old female sprinter Break Even, and he looks to have another potential division star in Covfefe.

Covfefe has won twice in three starts, her lone loss coming in last year’s Frizette, in which she was defeated by eventual divisional champ Jaywalk.

“She was jammed up behind after that race,” Cox said Wednesday.

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After a layoff of nearly six months, Covfefe returned with an allowance win last month at Keeneland, overcoming an inside draw and a contested pace battle to prevail while earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 84.

“She broke a step slow and was drawn inside and maybe got a little tired late, but when you go that fast early you have a right to get tired,” Cox said. “We expected her to run big at Keeneland, and we’ve been pointing for this race ever since.”

Covfefe will have to bring her best to the battle. Her rivals include the comebacking Congrats Gal, who won three times in five starts last year and has shown she runs well fresh; Never Enough Time and Fighting Mad, both unbeaten and making their stakes debuts; and Please Flatter Me, who is cutting back in distance after finishing fourth going a mile in the Busher at Aqueduct.

“I was hoping to get some home cookin’, and all these fillies shipped in,” Mark Reid, the trainer of Please Flatter Me, said Wednesday. “I think she’s good. We’ll find out how good she is.”

Never Enough Time scored runaway wins against maidens and allowance company at Laurel, most recently earning a Beyer figure of 83. She is trained by Michael Trombetta and is ridden by Julian Pimentel, who will team on Saturday in the Preakness with Win Win Win.

Fighting Mad defeated maidens at Del Mar last summer in her debut, then returned eight months later to beat older runners in a first-level allowance at Churchill Downs on April 30 while earning a Beyer Figure of 86. No one in the Miss Preakness field has run faster.

Fighting Mad is owned by Gary and Mary West, whose Maximum Security was disqualified from victory in the Kentucky Derby.

“Appropriately named,” said Bob Baffert, who trains Fighting Mad. “Her comeback race was really good. She got away a little slow but she came around and won, and she worked well since. But it’s a tough race.”

Bye Bye J, Midnight Fantasy, Miss Imperial, and Tomlin also have figs that put them in the hunt on their best day.