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.”

LAUREL, Md. – Lights Out Leni could be outclassed at Laurel Park on Friday, but trainer Chad Summers cannot help but take a chance on the exciting second-time starter. Coming off a sharp maiden victory at Aqueduct last month, the filly is expected to seriously challenge a group of far more seasoned 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes.

“If she breaks, I would imagine that she’ll be pretty forward,” Summer said. “She broke out of the gate pretty good first time out. It looks like there’s some speed, but not a ton of speed for a six-furlong sprint.”

LAUREL, Md. – Much like its male counterpart, the Preakness, Friday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan for 3-year-old fillies is a wide-open affair, lacking the division’s top-tier talent but potentially offering bettors value.

There is not a graded stakes winner among the 10 fillies entered in the 1 1/8-mile race, which goes as race 13 on a 14-race program. That, on its own, makes this a much easier spot than the Kentucky Oaks, a race in which My Miss Mo was entered but ultimately scratched by trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

Trainer Brittany Russell arrived on the second floor of the Laurel Park grandstand minutes before the draw for the 151st Preakness Stakes on Monday evening. Flanked by her family, she couldn’t find a place to sit. Without many options, the woman of the hour reluctantly chose to take a couch right in front, as if propelled to center stage.

LAUREL, Md. – With the Preakness Stakes temporarily relocating from Pimlico to Laurel Park in 2026, much has been made of the effect the move will have on configurations for the 1 3/16-mile race. With a much shorter run to the first turn and slightly shorter stretch, some experts have said the changes could have a massive impact on the race, but local jockeys aren’t panicking.

LAUREL, Md. – Different venue, but trainer Norm Casse will hope for the same result when he brings Awesome Aaron back to Maryland for Friday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Pimlico Special to be held at Laurel Park.

Awesome Aaron won last year’s Pimlico Special – run at Pimlico – but has gone winless in five starts since. In two starts this year, Awesome Aaron finished last of seven in the Grade 3 Oaklawn Mile in March before finishing fourth, beaten 2 1/2 lengths by Stars and Stripes in the Grade 3 Ben Ali at Keeneland in April.

It seems like change has been a constant for the hallowed Triple Crown series this decade. After the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic turned the world, the racing calendar in general, and the series upside down, the last three years have seen upheaval due to massive renovations of historic racetracks in New York and now in Maryland.

The Stephen Foster rematch June 27 between Sovereignty and his Oaklawn Handicap vanquisher White Abarrio held huge appeal on its own, and now Dubai World Cup winner Magnitude appears poised to join the fray.

Magnitude, on May 9, worked a half-mile in 51.20 seconds, the easiest of breezes but meaningful as it was the colt’s first published drill since he beat Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Forever Young in the Dubai World Cup on March 28.

It has been a pattern that has worked well for trainer Chad Brown. A horse runs in the Wood Memorial, skips the Kentucky Derby, and wins the Preakness.

Cloud Computing did it in 2017. Early Voting again in 2022. Saturday, Brown will attempt the hat trick with Iron Honor, though circumstances are not necessarily similar.

Cloud Computing had a pair of two-turn races, one a runner-up finish in the Gotham which that year was run at 1 1/16 miles over the now-defunct inner track, before running third, beaten seven lengths in the Wood Memorial.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Day One Starter will be starting over Thursday when trainer Shug McGaughey cuts him back in distance for a first-level allowance race that serves as the feature on Aqueduct’s eight-race card.