Focus on Beautiful Gift, Baffert in Black-Eyed Susan

BALTIMORE – Tradition carries on unabated at Pimlico, even as controversy envelops the ancient track fondly known as Old Hilltop. The Black-Eyed Susan Stakes will be run for the 97th time here Friday, anchoring a terrific 14-race card, although the presence of a Bob Baffert runner as favorite could make all the talk about dermatitis and betamethasone difficult to forget.

Beautiful Gift, the Baffert trainee, is the 9-5 morning-line choice in the Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan, and it sure looks like the race runs through her. The Medaglia d’Oro filly won the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel in early March at Santa Anita before finishing a close second at odds-on in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks in her most recent start, with Baffert electing to withhold her from the Kentucky Oaks on April 30 in favor of what usually shapes up as a lighter spot.

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Baffert is absent from the Preakness scene this week because of the raging brouhaha surrounding Medina Spirit involving a positive test for the anti-inflammatory betamethasone, which is an ingredient in an anti-fungal ointment given to Medina Spirit to treat a skin condition. So longtime assistant Jimmy Barnes will saddle Beautiful Gift as the stable’s only starter on the Friday program. John Velazquez, who rode the Baoma Corporation filly in her last two races, has the return call.

Even with the top two Beyer Speed Figures in the field (86 and 87), it’s worth noting that Beautiful Gift faced just three opponents in each of her last two starts. Combined with the fact she was assigned the outside post in a field of 10 3-year-old fillies in the 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan, she seems somewhat vulnerable in a fairly deep cast.

Adventuring (post 9, Florent Geroux) is one of those capable of a mild upset, especially if the Godolphin homebred takes another step forward off back-to-back triumphs in a February maiden route at Fair Grounds and the March 27 Bourbonette Stakes over Tapeta at Turfway Park.

“She’s trained really, really well over the dirt, and she acts like she’s ready for a spot like this,” trainer Brad Cox said. “The mile and an eighth should be right up her alley.”

Cox is well aware that Adventuring, by the late Pioneerof the Nile, was produced by Questing, a romping winner of the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks and the Grade 1 Alabama in 2012, both over dirt.

“Hopefully that kind of ability will come out in her,” he said.

Other considerations include The Grass Is Blue and Iced Latte, both from powerhouse outfits.

The Grass Is Blue (post 8, Irad Ortiz Jr.) will race without blinkers after wearing them in her three prior starts this year, all at Aqueduct. The Chad Brown-trained filly won the Busanda before twice finishing behind her stablemate Search Results, in the Busher and Grade 3 Gazelle. Search Results was beaten just a neck by Malathaat in the Kentucky Oaks.

Iced Latte (post 6, Luis Saez), trained by Todd Pletcher, will be making her stakes debut following a March maiden win at Gulfstream Park and a runner-up finish in a Belmont Park allowance last month. Pletcher is a three-time winner of the Black-Eyed Susan with Spun Sugar (2005), Panty Raid (2007), and In Lingerie (2012).

Rounding out the lineup are Army Wife, Willful Woman, Spritz, Forever Boss, Lady Traveler, and Miss Leslie. Several can reasonably be labeled live longshots, including Spritz (post 3, Flavien Prat), the 39-1 runner-up to Adventuring in the Bourbonette.

“I’m actually looking forward to running her on the dirt,” trainer Rudy Brisset said. “She might have moved too early in her last race, so a better trip would help.”

As with all graded stakes at 1/ST tracks, treatment with the bleeder medication Lasix is not permitted within 48 hours of the race. Three fillies are off Lasix for this – Iced Latte, Forever Boss, and Miss Leslie.

The Black-Eyed Susan goes as the 13th of 14 Friday races and the last of six straight stakes. First post is 11:30 a.m. Eastern, with the Black-Eyed Susan going at 5:44 as the final leg in numerous multi-race wagers. It also leads off the traditional two-day double wager ending with the Preakness on Saturday.

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The Black-Eyed Susan, long the Maryland counterpart to the Kentucky Oaks, once was considered part of the filly Triple Crown, along with the Oaks and the Acorn, before that concept faded into obsolescence. Its winners in the last quarter-century include such notables as Silverbulletday (1999), Royal Delta (2011), and Stopchargingmaria (2014), all of them Breeders’ Cup winners. The winner of the 2020 renewal held last October was Miss Marissa, trained by Jim Ryerson.

The Friday forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and a high of 70.