It’s not at its namesake of “Old Hilltop” on the Pimlico turf course this year, but the $125,000 Hilltop Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, to be run at a mile on the Laurel Park turf on Friday, has drawn its usual contingent of locals. Five of the six expected starters are based either at Laurel or at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., still close enough to consider this a home game. “This is where we are every single day,” said trainer Brittany Russell, who saddles last-out Laurel allowance winner Coach Mazzula in the Hilltop. “It makes it a little easier on us.” The morning-line favorite for the Hilltop is Ultimate Love, based at Fair Hill with Michael Trombetta and making her first start since finishing fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Oct. 31 at Del Mar. “She got a little rest after the Breeders’ Cup, but she’s been doing very well, and I think we’re certainly ready to get started,” Trombetta said. :: Get ready for Preakness with DRF past performances, picks, and betting strategies! The Live Oak Stud homebred won her first three starts, following a debut at Colonial Downs with back-to-back wins on the Laurel turf, including a four-length score in the Selima Stakes. Favored at the Breeders’ Cup, she was beaten a total of three lengths after taking bumps at the beginning and at the five-sixteenths pole. “She had a little trouble. I don’t think it was horrendous by any means,” Trombetta said. “I think it was more a dynamic of a speed-favoring type of surface, where it was a little harder for her to make up any ground on the speed that was carrying itself up in front of her. I think [the Laurel] course is a bit more fair for horses like her, and obviously, being she’s run on it a couple times, I’m glad to be able to run her on that one.” The quality stakes experience for Ultimate Love, who will be ridden by John Velazquez, makes her a huge standout in this field. Only she and Coach Mazzula, whose local allowance win came against older foes and who has never missed the board in six starts, have won at a level beyond maiden company. Brat Pack, one of two in here for Fair Hill-based trainer Graham Motion, owns her only win in a maiden special weight but does have two stakes starts this year, including a third in the Sweetest Chant Stakes in January at Gulfstream. Motion also saddles Siouxse, last seen winning a November maiden race at Aqueduct. Use Me is coming off a maiden win at the Keeneland spring meet. Unmiztaken’s only win came in an off-the-turf maiden sprint against New York-breds. Maiden winner I Love Giraffes scratched, and is expected to run in a Saturday allowance at Laurel in which she was cross-entered. The Very One Later on the card, older fillies and mares take to the turf to sprint 5 1/2 furlongs in the $100,000 The Very One Stakes. The race also features plenty of locals. Russell will saddle Lost and Found for the first time, with the filly coming to her barn after a late-March purchase. Lost and Found comes off back-to-back sprint wins on the Turfway Park Tapeta for trainer Will Walden, with Beyer Speed Figures of 82 and 87, respectively, stacking up well in this field. The second of those victories came March 26. On March 24, the filly was purchased for $140,000 in a Fasig-Tipton March digital sale by Golden Lion Racing, which subsequently sent her to Russell. :: Get Preakness Betting Strategies for exclusive wagering insights, contender analysis, and more “She was great with Will,” Russell said. “Since she’s come to us, she’s been straightforward. She’s trained very well, and the next step would be to get some black type on her page. I think she’s very capable.” The top last-out Beyer among the eight expected starters belongs to Leverett Miller’s homebred Sunna, who has taken a leap forward switching to turf this year. She won her first try on the surface in a February claiming sprint at Gulfstream Park. She then took a jump up in class and finished seventh in the Captiva Island Stakes, but she was drawn toward the inside in a large field and wound up being pushed to chase fruitlessly in a race that was taken off the turf. Eighth-place Moon Spun emerged from the race to win the Grade 2 Unbridled Sidney Stakes two weeks ago at Churchill Downs. Able to get back on turf for her next outing, Sunna won an allowance April 12 at Gulfstream, earning a career-best 89 Beyer. She is drawn much more comfortably here in post 8 under Luis Saez. “She kind of fits in the race, and we thought we’d take a shot,” trainer Kent Sweezey said. “She runs good numbers against lesser company.” Saturday Flirt won all three of her 2025 starts for Wesley Ward, including the Soaring Softly Stakes at Saratoga. She was a non-factor while eighth in the Grade 2 Giant’s Causeway Stakes last month at Keeneland, a race she may have needed as her season debut. Les Reys, a stakes winner on turf in 2024, won the Grade 3 Ontario Fashion on synthetic last year. Sporting Lady, stakes-placed over the winter at Fair Grounds, is cross-entered in Saturday’s Skipat Stakes on dirt. Completing the field are allowance winner Somnium; and Malibu Hooch and Strutherstuff, both returning from long layoffs. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.