Among Six Stakes, Four Graded, Worth $1 Million in Purses
BALTIMORE – Five-time stakes winner Horologist will go after her fourth career graded triumph and third in six starts when she makes her Pimlico Race Course debut in Friday’s $150,000 Allaire du Pont (G3).
The 28th running of the 1 1/8-mile du Pont for fillies and mares 3 and up 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 $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs, 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.
The du Pont returns to its traditional spot on Preakness weekend after being moved to late December amid the coronavirus pandemic and run as the last graded-stakes on the East Coast. Horologist can give Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott his second du Pont victory, following Ajinia – 1997’s champion 3-year-old filly – in 1998.
Horologist has raced once this year, winning the Top Flight Invitational April 10 at Aqueduct. It was the 5-year-old Gemologist mare’s third straight trip at 1 1/8 miles, after winning the Beldame (G2) and finishing off the board in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) to cap 2020. Other graded wins have come in last summer’s Molly Pitcher (G3) and 2019 Monmouth Oaks (G3), both at Monmouth Park, the latter for original trainer John Mazza.
This will be the 14th consecutive stakes start for Horologist – the name for a maker of clocks or watches – and 12th overall against graded competition. She has raced once previously in Maryland, finishing second by a nose to Arrifana in the one-mile Nellie Morse at Laurel Park in March 2020.
Robert and Lawana Low’s Spice Is Nice is seeking her first career stakes win in the du Pont, a race her trainer – newly elected Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher – won with Pool Land (2006), Super Espresso (2011) and Stopchargingmaria (2015).
Second in the 2020 Davona Dale (G2) off a 12-length debut triumph, both last winter at Gulfstream Park, Spice Is Nice won an optional claiming allowance at Belmont Park before running sixth in the 1 ¼-mile Alabama (G1) in what would be her season finale. She returned to win a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance April 9 at Keeneland, her first start in nearly eight months.
“She had a nice allowance win at Keeneland. The timing is good for this,” Pletcher said. “She’s a nice filly that had a good break and came back well from it. So, we’re making the step back into the graded stakes ranks and feel good about the way she is doing.”
One of Pletcher’s former horses now trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Another Broad has been off the board in both her starts this year after capping 2020 running third by a length behind Eres Tu and Wicked Awesome in the du Pont. Winner of the 2019 Top Flight Invitational, she has placed four times in graded-stakes.
Reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox entered the pair of Dreamalildreamofu and Getridofwhatailesu. The Elkstone Group’s Getridofwhatailesu won the Jan. 23 Pippin at Oaklawn Park before taking third in the Azeri (G2) won by 2020 Kentucky Oaks (G1)-winning stablemate Shedaresthedevil. Last out she was fourth in the April 17 Apple Blossom (G1) won by front-running Letruska with Cox-trained two-time champion Monomoy Girl second.
“She’s a stakes-winner and hopefully we can make her a graded-stakes winner,” Cox said. “She’s doing great, and probably is going to get a little class relief. No Letruskas or Monomoy Girls in this group.”
Full of Run Racing’s Dreamalildreamofu exits a three-quarter-length triumph in the one-mile Latonia over Turfway Park’s all-weather surface March 27. The Commissioner filly broke her maiden in March 2020 on the grass and also owns a pair of off-the-turf wins. This will be her graded-stakes debut.
“Dreamalildreamofu is coming off a synthetic race,” Cox said. “She’s performed well on three different surfaces – turf, dirt and synthetic. So, we have options with her.”
BB Horses’ Landing Zone, scratched from last year’s Black-Eyed Susan (G2) while on a three-race win streak, finished fourth in the 2020 du Pont after dueling for the early lead. This year she was second by 1 ¼ lengths in the 1 1/16-mile Nellie Morse and most recently sixth following an inside trip in the one-mile Heavenly Prize March 6 at Aqueduct.
Landing Zone, 4, comes from the barn of Claudio Gonzalez, Maryland’s winningest trainer each of the past four years who sprung a mild upset in last year’s historic Pimlico Special (G3) with Harpers First Ride.
“She hasn’t run a race in a long time and she’s doing better than ever. She wants to run,” Gonzalez said. “She breezed good the other day here and she came back very happy. She had a nice streak going last year, she won here and in Delaware. I feel good about her. The race is going to be tough. She feels good, and when my horses feel good that’s when we have to try.”
Sonata Stable’s Lucky Stride is a 10-time career winner, capturing back-to-back stakes to open 2021 in the Wayward Lass at Tampa Bay Downs and Nellie Morse, the latter over Landing Zone. Third to du Pont contenders Horologist and Mrs. Danvers in the Top Flight, she was also fifth in the Shuvee (G3) last summer behind Letruska, beaten only 3 ½ lengths.
Allen Stable, Inc. homebred Mrs. Danvers won an open allowance and the 1 1/8-mile Comely (G3) in successive starts to cap her 3-year-old season, but has gone winless in two starts this year for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. Prior to the Top Flight, she was fifth after leading early in the Royal Delta (G3) Feb. 20 at Gulfstream.