Among Six Stakes, Four Graded, Worth $1 Million in Purses
BALTIMORE – Lucky 7 Stables’ Street Lute, already a six-time stakes winner from just nine starts, will make the jump to graded-stakes competition for the first time in the $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) Friday, May 14 at Pimlico Race Course.
The 36th running of the six-furlong Miss Preakness for 3-year-old fillies is one of six stakes, four graded, worth $1 million in purses during a spectacular 14-race card on the eve of the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1), headlined by the 97th running of the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) for 3-year-old fillies.
Other graded stakes on the program are the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) for 3-year-olds and up at the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles and $150,000 Allaire du Pont (G3) for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/8 miles. Rounding out the stakes action are a pair of turf events, the $100,000 Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies at one mile, and $100,000 The Very One, a five-furlong dash for females 3 and older.
First race post time is 11:30 a.m.
Street Lute had won five consecutive stakes from mid-November to late February at six or seven furlongs before having her streak snapped when running third as the favorite in the one-mile Beyond the Wire March 13 at Laurel Park. She cuts back to a distance where she has won twice in three attempts – the 2020 Smart Halo and Jan. 16 Xtra Heat.
Street Lute has made her last seven starts in Maryland, all at Laurel. Despite never having raced at Pimlico, the Street Magician’s last three works have come over the main track including five furlongs in 59.40 seconds April 28 and a half-mile in 46.80 May 7, both bullets.
“I’ve always felt she was a better sprinter. We tried her long just because there was nowhere else to run and you’ve got to find out sooner or later,” trainer John ‘Jerry’ Robb said. “There’s a lot of really nice fillies in here. This will be her biggest test, yet I’m sure. You couldn’t work any better, you couldn’t go into it any better, and we’ve got home field advantage.”
Street Lute was a neck away from being undefeated through eight starts, her margin of defeat when second to Miss Nondescript in the six-furlong Maryland Million Lassie last October. She won the Smart Halo and Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship to cap her 2-year-old season, then opened 2021 with wins in the Gin Talking, Xtra Heat and Wide Country.
“I believe you’ll see horses win and then their next race is better. I believe the more they win the better they get. [It’s about] finding easy spots and building them up,” Robb said. “We kept her mostly in restricted [races]. She did win a couple open ones. This week is a big test for her. We’ll find out where she is this week. We can always go back to Maryland-breds and Delaware-certified, and Virginia-certified … but, hopefully, we can go further with her.”
Regular rider Xavier Perez, up for each of her last six races, gets the return call from Post 5 in the field of nine.
Alex and JoAnn Lieblong won the 2020 Miss Preakness with Wicked Whisper, and they return this year with Outwork filly Abrogate, half-length winner of the six-furlong Purple Martin April 3 at Oaklawn Park. Last time out, she ran fifth by 2 ½ lengths in the seven-furlong Eight Belles (G2) April 30.
“She chased a pretty fast pace in her last race. They went 1:09 for the three-quarters,” Alex Lieblong said. “She was there most of the time right up with the leaders, and it was a quick one. She might be just a six-furlong horse.”
Abrogate is three-four-four at six furlongs. Ricardo Santana Jr., up for all five of her starts, rides back from Post 1 as the 122-pound topweight carrying two pounds more than each of her rivals.
“It’s a little quick back,” Asmussen’s assistant, Scott Blasi, said, “but she’ll appreciate shortening up.”
Cash is King and LC Racing’s Juror Number Four will be making her second start of the year in the Miss Preakness, having closed to be second as the favorite behind Proper Attire in an open six-furlong allowance April 23 at Pimlico. It was the first start for the bay Into Mischief filly since running second to Street Lute in the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship.
“It will be a step up in class, but she’s doing good. I think she’s a nice filly. Even if she runs third in a spot like that, it would do a lot for her value,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “She’s just been training so forwardly since she ran that we’re thinking maybe we take a shot now.”
Also entered are Euphoric, 10th in the Eight Belles; recent Keeneland allowance winners Red Ghost and Inject, the latter for reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox; Purple Martin runner-up Joyful Cadence; Paradise Song, two-for-three this year for Maryland-based trainer Mike Trombetta and making her stakes debut; and Prodigy Doll, winner of the Cheryl S. White Memorial April 10 at Mahoning Valley.