Here is my middle pick four play for races 6-9 on Preakness Day at Pimlico, a sequence that begins Saturday with the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint and concludes with the The Very One. Listed below are the horses I prefer, their program numbers, and whether primary “A” runners or secondary “B” horses, utilizing DRF’s TicketMaker wager tool for emphasizing wagers. Race 6 Lofty Beyer Speed Figures posted by Lewisfield will likely result in him starting as a clear favorite in the Maryland Sprint, though this seems a competitive race in my view. Three horses are preferred as “A” runners – Lewisfield (4), Proforma (7), and New York Central (1) – and another, Always Sunshine (5), gets play as a backup “B” runner. :: Preakness one-stop shop: Get PPs, picks, handicapping guides, and more Race 7 Ickymasho (5), first or second in her last three races, seems a class standout in the seventh. After close runner-up finishes in graded stakes company this winter in Florida, she likely gained confidence with a graded victory in the Bewitch at Keeneland. After handling seemingly a better group in that race, she rates a single and an “A.” Race 8 Articulator (1) is the speed and Overdeliver (9) the class of this first-level allowance. I’ll use both, emphasizing Overdeliver as an “A” and leaving Articulator as a “B.” Overdeliver lost all chance in the first turn of a rough Wood Memorial and may not have wanted to route, anyway. Previously, he had been second to Win Win Win in the Pasco at Tampa, a race that came sprinting, as did his initial maiden victory. Articulator, meanwhile, brings solid first-level allowance form into the race and could prove dangerous if able to open up some daylight by sprinting clear early. Race 9 Back to the grass for the The Very One, a five-eighths dash in which spreading is the strategy. Jo Jo Air (6), Misericordia (8), and Souper Echo (4) are the choices in order, all “A’s,” and first-time-turfer Angel At War (7) is tossed in the mix as “B” on the chance she might elevate her performance on a cutback in distance from longer dirt sprints. TicketMaker ticket Plug these runners into TicketMaker with a budget of $32 generates an all “A” ticket that is played three times, a ticket with three “A’s” and one “B” played twice, and a 50-cent ticket of combinations involving two “A’s” and two “B’s.”