Las Setas, Our Super Freak face strong cast of shippers in Black-Eyed Susan

BALTIMORE – The Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan on Friday at Pimlico will match shippers from New York, California, Kentucky, and Florida against the top 3-year-old fillies in Maryland, Las Setas and Our Super Freak.

The $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan is the 11th of 14 races at Pimlico on Friday that begin at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. The card has six other stakes, including the co-featured Pimlico Special, which drew a field of 14. The 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan is the opening leg of a two-day daily double with Saturday’s Preakness Stakes.

Las Setas and Our Super Freak have faced each other in three straight races, with Las Setas coming out on top each time. But in their last meeting, the $125,000 Weber City Miss, the outcome was decided by only the bob of a head after a furious three-furlong battle.

The Todd Pletcher-trained pair of Always Shopping and Off Topic are both leading contenders. Always Shopping, who has scored consecutive wins in the Grade 2 Gazelle and Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct, is the likely race favorite.

“We’ve always thought they were both quality fillies,” Pletcher said. “We think they are both looking for nine furlongs and two turns. That’s the key and why we thought the Black-Eyed Susan would be good for them.”

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Brill, whom trainer Jerry Hollendorfer is sending in from California, has made her two most recent starts at Oaklawn Park. She finished third last time out in the Grade 3 Fantasy behind Lady Apple, who came back to finish third in the Kentucky Oaks, and Motion Emotion, who in her prior start had finished second by a length in the Grade 3 Honeybee.

The field also includes Point of Honor, who is trained by George Weaver and was stranded on the also-eligible list for the Kentucky Oaks; the fast Florida shipper Cookie Dough, who races for Stanley Gold; and Ulele, coming off a Keeneland optional-claiming score for Brad Cox.

Cookie Dough is the likely pacesetter, with Las Setas and Brill also likely to be in the early mix. If that trio gets overly excited early, it will help the chances of Always Shopping and Off Topic, who figure to settle off the pace.

Always Shopping finished well to take the Busanda in February and the Gazelle in April, both 1 1/8-mile races.

“She’s done really well since the Gazelle and maintained her condition,” Pletcher said. “We skipped the Busher Invitational in March with her because it was a mile and we wanted to keep her going longer around two turns. We were tempted to run her back in the Oaks but decided to give her a little more time.”

Off Topic finished third, beaten two lengths, in the Gazelle. In her prior start, she finished second to Motion Emotion in an Oaklawn optional-claiming race.

“She’s been a little frustrating,” Pletcher said. “We’ve always thought there was a little more there than she’s shown in the afternoon. She’s still kind of trying to put it all together.”

It would take only minor improvement for Off Topic to be right there at the conclusion of the Black-Eyed Susan.

Las Setas has won four straight races, including three stakes, since losing her career debut Dec. 31. A Maryland homebred, her trainer, co-breeder, and co-owner, Katy Voss, realizes the waters get deeper Friday.

“I’m thinking we’re going to have to have some luck and she has to move forward and put it all together,” Voss said.

Between the March 16 Wide Country and the April 20 Weber City Miss, both at Laurel Park, Voss gave Las Setas a brief freshening and only worked her once. It’s possible she might have been a tad short for the race.

“I gave her a week off at the farm, and then an old quarter crack acted up like it was going to do something the second week, and I didn’t do too much with her,” Voss said. “I thought she was pretty ready for the race. I got the work in I needed but feel she may have regressed a little.”

Voss has worked Las Setas twice for the Black-Eyed Susan, including a six-furlong drill on May 10.

While Las Setas may have taken a baby step back in the Weber City Miss, Our Super Freak, trained by Jamie Ness, may have moved forward. The consistent filly is 2 for 9 and has finished third or better in eight of her races, the last five of which have come in stakes.

Ness’s barn has been on a tear and since May 8 is 10 for 21 at Pimlico, Parx, and Delaware Park. Maryland’s leading rider, Trevor McCarthy, who has the mount on Our Super Freak, has been aboard for many of those wins.