Red Ruby looks to rebound in Black-Eyed Susan

BALTIMORE – Without the formidable presence of Monomoy Girl and Midnight Bisou, Friday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico looks like a wide-open betting race and a good opportunity for a number of 3-year-old fillies to bounce back from disappointing efforts in their most recent starts.

The Black-Eyed Susan, race 11 on a 14-race card that begins at 11:30 a.m. and includes six other stakes, drew a field of 10 with only two coming off winning efforts.

The race lost a significant player on Thursday when trainer Linda Rice said her multiple-stakes winning New York-bred Midnight Disguise, the co-second choice on the morning-line at 4-1, would scratch due to a bruised right front foot.

Red Ruby and Coach Rocks are looking to regain the form that made them stakes winners earlier in the year.

Red Ruby hasn’t run since finishing fourth as the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn on March 10. Trainer Kellyn Gorder noted that Red Ruby had gotten wound up in the post parade prior to her victory in the Mt. Washington Stakes on Feb. 10. He decided to have a pony accompany Red Ruby in the post parade for the Honeybee and Gorder says “she was worse with the pony.”

Essentially, Gorder said, Red Ruby “ran her race in the post parade.”

Gorder was still planning to run Red Ruby in the Fantasy on April 13, but about 10 days before the race she got spooked in the shed row by another horse and wheeled into a metal ladder and suffered cuts.

“She needed stitches in four different spots,” Gorder said. “That pretty much wiped out her of the Fantasy, and of course the Oaks.”

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Gorder said he’s liked how Red Ruby has trained since getting her stitches removed and he thinks the 1 1/8 miles and the potential for an off track could play in her favor. Red Ruby won the Martha Washington over a sloppy Oaklawn surface while returning off a layoff.

Trainer Dale Romans will seek his third Black-Eyed Susan victory in the last four years when he sends out Coach Rocks and C.S. Incharge. Romans won the Black-Eyed Susan in 2015 with Keen Pauline and ran 1-2 in the race in 2016 with Go Maggie Go and Ma Can Do It. Go Maggie Go won it two weeks after finishing fourth in the Kentucky Oaks.

Coach Rocks finished seventh in the Kentucky Oaks after winning the Gulfstream Park Oaks.

“It was disappointing, but fillies throw in clunkers once in a while,” Romans said.

Romans expects C.S. Incharge, who stepped on herself when finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Ashland, to be part of the early pace with Coach Rocks “not too far off.”

Luis Saez will ride Coach Rocks, while Julien Leparoux has been named on C.S. Incharge.

Goodonehoney, a Maryland-bred daughter of Great Notion, steps into graded company after winning her first two starts including the Weber City Miss Stakes at Laurel.

Trainer Jason Egan is anxious to see how his filly handles the step up in class.

“She’s earned this shot,” Egan said. “We don’t think distance will be a problem. She hasn’t done anything wrong yet. She’s sharp and is giving us all the right signs.”

Egan said he expects Goodonehoney to be prominent early under Steve Hamilton.

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Sara Street was on the lead in the Gazelle and was only defeated a half-length by My Miss Lilly whole holding off Virginia Key for second.

“She could sit if need be,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. “We ended up on the lead because the speed broke terrible and Dylan [Davis] rode her well and she was game and fighting to the end.”

Mihrab is coming off a visually impressive eight-length allowance win going 1 1/16-miles at Laurel on April 28. Indy Union, second in the Weber City Miss, Stakes On a Plane and the maiden Tell Your Mama complete the field.

The Black-Eyed Susan is the first leg of a daily double wager linked to Saturday’s Preakness Stakes. It is also the opening leg of a late pick-four with a guaranteed $300,000 pool.

The Black-Eyed Susan will be shown live on NBCSN during a two-hour broadcast beginning at 3 p.m. eastern that will include the Grade 3, $300,000 Pimlico Special and the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint.