Flameaway Lands in Pimlico Special (G3) over Dixie (G2)
Preakness Show Finisher Tenfold Returns to Baltimore for Pimlico Special
Undefeated Fighting Mad Represents Wests in Miss Preakness (G3)
Runco Seeks Second Graded-Stakes Win of Career with Lewisfield
Live Oak Plantation Full of ‘Souper’ Horses

BALTIMORE – Arindel’s multiple stakes-winning homebred Cookie Dough, unable to make planned starts in the Breeders’ Cup and Kentucky Oaks (G1), will finally get her chance on the big stage in Friday’s $250,000 Xpressbet Black-Eyed Susan (G2) at Pimlico Race Course.

The 95th running of the 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan for 3-year-old fillies is one of seven stakes, four graded, worth $1.15 million in purses on a 14-race program on the eve of the 144th Preakness Stakes (G1), the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

First-race post time Friday is 11:30 a.m. The Black-Eyed Susan, carded 11th, has a scheduled post time of 4:48 p.m. and will be part of NBCSN’s national television coverage from 3 to 5 p.m.

Based at Gulfstream Park with trainer Stanley Gold, Cookie Dough made the 17 ½-hour trip from South Florida to Baltimore arriving early Monday morning. She jogged over Pimlico’s main track Thursday for the second straight day under Arindel’s assistant farm trainer Carl Allsop.

“I just took her for a jog around the racetrack, just once around the wrong way to stretch her legs,” Allsop said. “She shipped like a pro, took everything in stride and settled straight in. She hasn’t dropped a grain since she’s been here. We’re happy, she’s healthy, and we’re ready to go and win the Black-Eyed Susan.”

Allsop said there was no adjustment time needed for Cookie Dough, a Florida-bred daughter of Brethren who walked quietly around the shedrow following her Thursday morning exercise before settling into her stall on the back side of Barn D, adjacent to the Preakness Stakes Barn.

“From the first day I took her out there, she just jogged around there like she’s been here all her life. Very professional,” Allsop said. “It was kind of nice being one of the first ones here, because she got time to settle in before all the madness. It might play to our advantage a little bit.”

Cookie Dough swept the final two legs of the Florida Sire Series for 2-year-old fillies last fall, and was targeted for a start in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) but developed pneumonia shortly after arriving in Kentucky and was forced to scratch. Following recovery, she didn’t make her sophomore debut until March 2, leading all the way before getting nailed at the wire by Jeltrin in the one-mile Davona Dale (G2) at Gulfstream.

For her next start, Cookie Dough came back in the 1 1/16-mile Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2), and again set the pace through six furlongs before winding up third behind Champagne Anyone and Dunbar Road. Champagne Anyone was fourth and Jeltrin finished 10th in the Oaks May 3, while Cookie Dough failed to earn enough qualifying points and was left to wait for Baltimore.

“We were still very hopeful that we’d get in the Oaks, but we didn’t quite make it. It was a circumstance of events, it happens,” Allsop said. “We’re here and ready for this one.”

Cookie Dough drew Post 4 in a field of nine and was made the 3-1 second choice on the morning line behind 5-2 program favorite Point of Honor, fourth in the Gulfstream Oaks and also on the outside looking in for the Kentucky Oaks.

Reigning Eclipse Award winner Irad Ortiz Jr. will ride Cookie Dough for the first time, replacing Gulfstream-based jockey Jeffrey Sanchez, who had been aboard for her last six races.

“It’s a good draw for her. She’s got an engine. She’s going to be right up there,” Allsop said. “We’re going to Irad this time around. No reason at all except that he’s here, and he’s one of the best in the country. He’s going to have her right in the body of the race. She’s just got that natural speed, great gate speed. He can sit with her and get a piece of it – a big piece of it.”

It’s possible Cookie Dough could go to the track Friday morning, Allsop said, depending on her demeanor. The track will be open for training from 5 to 8:30 a.m.

“We like to take her out in the afternoons, too. She goes out and stretches her legs. Tomorrow morning, it’s totally up to Stan. He said we’ll just see how she’s acting,” he said. “If she’s getting really high and happy and like a handful, then we’re going to consider taking her out and just giving her a jog early in the morning. If she’s as calm as she’s being right now, we’ll probably just leave her. This is how she’s been since she got here.”

Flameaway Lands in Pimlico Special (G3) Over Dixie (G2)

Owner John Oxley and trainer Mark Casse have decided to run Flameaway in Friday’s $300,000 Pimlico Special (G3) instead of Saturday’s $250,000 Maker’s Mark Dixie (G2). The 4-year-old Flameaway was entered in both races, with the Pimlico Special 1 1/4 miles on dirt and the Dixie 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Flameaway is a stakes winner on both grass and dirt but has raced far more on the dirt, including a pair of 2-year-old stakes taken off the turf.

“We thought the Pimlico Special might be a better spot for him,” Casse said. “He’s only run a couple of times on the turf, and he won a stakes at Gulfstream and got beat three lengths by Mendelssohn in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. We just thought there would be better races down the road to try him back on the grass.”

Flameaway drew Post 11 of 14 in the Pimlico Special, and will be ridden by Julien Leparoux. They are 6-1 on the morning line. Rally Cry is the 9-2 program favorite in a wide open race.

“There’s some question for us whether he’ll go a mile and a quarter. But if you look at two of the best races he ever ran, they were going a mile and an eighth — one being the Blue Grass and one being the Jim Dandy,” Casse said. “We just went back and forth on it, talked about 10-15 minutes and that’s what we came up with. It wasn’t a clear-cut way to go either way.”

Preakness Show Finisher Tenfold Returns to Baltimore for Pimlico Special

Tenfold is set for his return to Pimlico Race Course, the same place that saw him close strongly and finish third in last year’s Preakness Stakes (G1), less than three-quarters of a length behind the winner Justify.

The 4-year-old Tenfold, trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, is back at the same track for Friday’s $300,000 Pimlico Special (G3), which drew a 14-horse field topped by 9-2 favorite Rally Cry and 5-1 second choice You’re To Blame. Tenfold, who will be ridden by Ricardo Santana, Jr., is among three horses at 6-1.

“He’s a very good horse that has not run up to par this year,’’ said Asmussen, “but he’s doing wonderfully physically. And he did run third on this race track last year beaten a half, three quarters of a length by Justify. So, anything similar to that would suffice.”

Tenfold is winless in two starts this year, running fourth in an allowance at Fair Grounds and seventh in the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) on April 13. As a 3-year-old, the Winchell Thoroughbreds-owned colt followed up his Preakness effort by winning the Jim Dandy (G2) at Saratoga before closing out the year with a seventh-place finish in the Travers (G1).

“He’s a quality horse,’’ said Asmussen, noting the colt’s Jim Dandy win, “so he’s capable of big things. He’s just got to put it all together.”

Asmussen, a two-time Preakness winner – with Hall of Famers Rachel Alexandra in 2009 and Curlin in 2007 – sends out Laughing Fox in Saturday’s 144th running of the Preakness.

Undefeated Fighting Mad Represents Wests in Miss Preakness (G3)

Though a coincidence, the name of owners Gary and Mary West’s entrant in Friday’s $150,000 Adena Springs Miss Preakness (G3) has proven prophetic.

The 3-year-old filly Fighting Mad carries a two-for-two record into the six-furlong Miss Preakness, the second win coming at Churchill Downs on the Tuesday of Kentucky Derby Week. Four days later, the Wests’ Jason Servis-trained Florida Derby (G1) winner Maximum Security finished first in the Kentucky Derby (G1), only to be disqualified to 17th for interference.

The Wests now have a high-profile lawsuit in federal court seeking to reinstate Maximum Security as the 145th Kentucky Derby winner. Like Maximum Security, the Bob Baffert-trained Fighting Mad is a homebred and by New Year’s Day, with whom the Wests won the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). New Year’s Day, who had trouble attracting mares as a stallion, was sold this year to Brazil.

“How about that? Baffert said with a laugh of Fighting Mad. “That’s an omen right there. Fighting Mad. They named that one right.”

Baffert was especially pleased with Fighting Mad’s allowance victory given that she broke slowly from Post 1.

“She got left and still came back and ran in 1:09 and change,” he said. “She came out of the race really well. But there are some tough races on the undercard. I was hoping there would be like five, six horses. A lot of full fields.”

Baffert also has the program favorite for the 144th Preakness Stakes (G1) in Improbable.

Runco Looks for Second Graded-Stakes Win of Career with Lewisfield

Peruse the list of all-time leading active trainers in wins in North America, and you’ll see names like Hall of Famers Steve Asmussen (8,431 victories through May 16), Jerry Hollendorfer (7,603), King T. Leatherbury (6,501), Bill Mott (4,911) and D. Wayne Lukas (4,816).

Not too far down the list, however, is the name of a 58-year-old West Virginian named Jeff Runco, who cracked the 4,000-win mark a couple years back and comes to Pimlico on Saturday with 4,193 victories and a chance to win just the second graded stakes of his 35-year career.

The race is the $150,000 ClearSpan Maryland Sprint (G3) and the horse is Lewisfield, a 5-year-old gelded son of Great Notion who was bred in Maryland by owner Linda Zang. The fleet bay brings of record of 7-4-4 from 17 starts into the six-furlong race, a distance at which he has finished first, second or third in 12 of 13 races. His lone off-the-board appearance in that stretch was a fifth in last year’s Frank J. DeFrancis Memorial Dash (G3).

“He’s pretty consistent,” said Runco, who saddled Lewisfield to a third-place finish in the 2018 Maryland Sprint. “He’s been training great, and he’s ready for Saturday. He’s just got to get up into good position.”

Winning the Sprint would be “great,” said Runco. “Graded stakes are hard to come by.”

Indeed, the trainer’s only graded-stakes win to date came back in 2008 with his best-known horse, Researcher, who took the Queens County Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack, along with winning three straight editions of the Charles Town Classic and nearly $1.4 million. He was retired from flat racing in 2011, during which time he was 13-6-2 from 29 starts.

“Both Researcher and Lewisfield are great big, good-looking horses,” said Runco. “Of course, one was a router and Lewisfield is a sprinter, but they both love to train. Lewisfield isn’t one you’d go pet on – he lives to eat, train and race, that’s it.

“He tries every time. That’s all you can ask for. That, and a little racing luck,” he added.

Live Oak Plantation Full of ‘Souper’ Horses

Soup for you?

For Charlotte Weber, the owner of Live Oak Plantation, it’s all about soup – in business and recently in horse racing.

The Campbell Soup heir will send out two of her “souper” named horses this weekend at Pimlico Race Course – Souper Escape in the $100,000 Maker’s Mark Hilltop Stakes on Friday’s Black-Eyed Susan card and Souper Echo in the $100,000 The Very One on Preakness Stakes day on Saturday.

Michael Trombetta trains both fillies, and is looking forward to see if they can step up their game on one the biggest racing weekends of the year.

“It’s the logical step up for both of them,’’ said Trombetta, who has a total of 12 horses entered in 11 different races at  Pimlico on Friday and Saturday, including Win Win Win in the $1.65 million Preakness, the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

Souper Escape, a 3-year-old filly, won her last race, an allowance at Laurel on April 27, and Souper Echo, a 4-year-old filly, also won an allowance at Laurel April 22 in her last start, and is two-for-three on turf.

“Souper Echo has been training well, and we just think it’s logical to give her a try in this one,’’ said Trombetta of his filly, the 9-2 co-third choice behind 3-1 favorite Jo Jo Air and 4-1 second choice Misericordia.

As for Souper Escape, Trombetta says “the timing is good” for a run in the Hilltop at a mile on the turf. Souper Escape is 20-1 on the morning-line. It should also be noted that Trombetta won last year’s Hilltop with – you guessed it – a filly named  Souper Striking.

What’s all this souper stuff? Turns out, Weber – granddaughter of Campbell Soup founder John T. Dorrance – decided about four or five years ago to use the word soup in a name depending on whether it fit the foal crop. According to Live Oak, there are 31 active horses with Souper in their name.

Here’s the list, provided by Live Oak Plantation:

Souper Best Bet, Souper Bianco, Souper Boom, Souper Catch, Souper Charlotte, Souper Cohiba, Suoper Colassal, Souper  Courage, Souper Dormy, Souper Echo, Souper Energizer, Souper Escape, Souper High Voltage, Souper Honor, Souper Jackpot, Souper Jaguar, Souper Riptide, Souper Scat Daddy, Souper Scatdaddle, Souper Scoop, Souper Shenanigan, Souper Shepard, Souper Smart, Souper Stonhenge, Souper Striking, Souper Sugar Shack, Souper Tapit, Souper Thriller, Souper Watson, Souper Whirlwin, Souper Zoom.