Luminance gets chance to shine in Black-Eyed Susan
The Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan shares center stage with the Pimlico Special on a seven-stakes Preakness Eve card at Pimlico on Friday.
Jim DunleavyMay 13, 2015
The Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan shares center stage with the Pimlico Special on a seven-stakes Preakness Eve card at Pimlico on Friday.
Commissioner and Top Billing loom major players in Friday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Pimlico Special, the final race on a 14-race Pimlico card which begins at noon Eastern.
Pretend, for a moment, that Dortmund beats American Pharoah by a nose in the Preakness. And then American Pharoah goes on to dominate the Belmont Stakes. Wouldn’t that be the equivalent of a Triple Crown suicide?
Neil Howard, here at Pimlico for Friday’s Black-Eyed Susan Stakes with a filly named Ahh Chocolate, needs no reminder that it has been 25 years since he saddled Summer Squall to win the Preakness.
Trainer Robin Graham cross-entered her promising 3-year-old filly Gypsy Judy in both the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan and the $100,000 Hilltop Stakes on turf at Pimlico on Friday. On Tuesday, Graham said Gypsy Judy would run in the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan at 1 1/8 miles.
Do not be impressed with the circulating stat that nine of the last 18 Kentucky Derby winners have come right back to take the Preakness. Or be impressed, but prepare to be disappointed.
Trainer Todd Pletcher announced Tuesday that Materiality, the Florida Derby winner who finished sixth after early trouble in the Kentucky Derby, would not run in Saturday’s $1.5 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico and instead be pointed to the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes
All horses entered in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes will be required to be on the grounds of Pimlico Race Course by noon Thursday to comply with security procedures put in place for the race, Pimlico announced on Tuesday.
He ran so big in the Kentucky Derby that you just can’t help but think that, with a little more luck or a little more oomph, the runner-up might well have won the Derby – and he surely rates an excellent chance in the Preakness on the merits of that huge effort. Be careful in your thinking.
Preakness Day is going to be like Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day all rolled into one for jockey Trevor McCarthy, who will not only ride in his first Triple Crown race but also celebrate his 21st birthday.