Midnight Disguise runs next in Black-Eyed Susan

The multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old filly Midnight Disguise worked five furlongs in 1:00.84 Wednesday morning over the Belmont Park training track and will make her next start in the Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico on May 18.

Midnight Disguise won the Busanda and Busher stakes at Aqueduct during the winter and earned enough qualifying points to make it into the Kentucky Oaks field. But after she finished fourth in the Grade 2 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct on April 7, trainer Linda Rice decided to skip the Oaks.

For the Black-Eyed Susan, Midnight Disguise will be equipped with blinkers for the first time. Midnight Disguise has had a tendency to drop far off the pace early in her races.

“I’m putting blinkers on her to make her focus,” Rice said. “She gets a little lost back there. She looks around. She’s a little green-acting.”

In Wednesday’s work, Midnight Disguise started a length behind Sweet Vengeance, got her last quarter in 23.42 seconds, and galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.83.

Irad Ortiz Jr., aboard Midnight Disguise for wins in the filly’s first two starts, will be reunited with Midnight Disguise in the Black-Eyed Susan, Rice said.

Rice said she is also considering running Startwithsilver, winner of the Broadway Stakes for New York-breds in February, in the $100,000 Skipat Stakes on May 18.