Gierkink: Pimlico late pick four for the 2019 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes card

The late pick four starts on the 11th race, the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan. There’s no shortage of speed in the field, and it could set up for one of the closing favorites, Always Shopping (6) or Point of Honor (8).

Even-money morning-line favorite Bound for Nowhere (3) is no cinch in the 12th, the Jim McKay Turf Sprint. Other front-runners who should be used are eight-time stakes winner Pure Sensation (8) and Completed Pass (9). A pace meltdown might set the table for the improving 4-year-old Tricks to Doo (2), who could run the race of his life in the second start of his form cycle.

The 13th, the Grade 3 Allaire du Pont Distaff, can probably be pared down to Gio Game (3), Another Broad (5), and Golden Award (6). Gio Game won a key second-level optional claimer when returning from an extended layoff in April at Keeneland.

The nightcap, a $25,000 maiden claimer going a mile on the grass, is wide open, but there are a host of entrants who may never win. Leroy’s Sweetypie (3), by the good 16 percent turf sire Twirling Candy, could wake up at a price in her first non-dirt start. The runners with some positive grass form are She’slikethewind (2), Nevisian Sunset (11), Miss Jackie G (12), and That’sthewaytodoit (15).

Pick four: 6,8 / 2,3,8,9 / 3,5,6 / 2,3,11,12,15