BALTIMORE – Girls Know Best, claimed for $40,000 last fall, became a stakes winner for the second time Saturday with a popular 1 ¾-length victory in the $100,000 The Very One at legendary Pimlico Race Course.

 

The 19th running of the five-furlong The Very One for fillies and mares 3 and up was among seven undercard stakes, three graded, on a 14-race program highlighted by the 143rd renewal of the Preakness Stakes (G1), the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

 

Co-owned by Brian Chenvert and trainer Eddie Kenneally, who nabbed the 4-year-old filly for a tag out of a Keeneland victory in October, Girls Know Best ($4) skipped over the sloppy, sealed surface in 57 seconds, the fastest time since Ageless set the course record of 55.66 seconds in the 2015 The Very One.

 

It was the second straight The Very One victory and third overall for Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, who won with Everything Lovely in 2017 and Gilded Gold in 2006.

 

Girls Know Best was outrun for the early lead by Victorias Fire, chasing the 30-1 long shot through a quarter-mile in 21.74 seconds. Girls Know Best swept to the lead around the turn and kept going, winning for the fourth time in six starts, including the Ladies Turf Sprint Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park since being claimed.

 

Pretty Perfection was second. Anna’s Bandit finished third after getting away slowly and had her four-race win streak, the last two in stakes, snapped.

 

The $100,000 The Very One and the $150,000 Maryland Sprint (G3) for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs are part of the renewed Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series which kicked off on Preakness weekend. MATCH is an assortment of 25 races at tracks in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania which originally debuted in 1997 and ran for five years.

 

$100,000 The Very One Stakes Quotes

 

Eddie Kenneally (Winning Trainer, Girls Know Best) – (By phone from Kentucky) “I didn't know what to think [about running on off track]. I contemplated scratching her, even though she has won six races on the dirt, but not at this level. I didn't know if I should run her or not, but we decided to go ahead and it worked out. She had won five races before we claimed her. She knew how to win. She was just a 3-year-old last year. A 3-year-old having already won five races means a lot. She looked like she was a pretty sound filly so we went ahead and claimed her. She's matured and grew-up and I think she's just sort of got lucky, really. 

 

“[Javier Castellano] knows her and he's won a stakes on her at Gulfstream this year. I think he rides her with some confidence and we figured that is the only way to ride her. She's naturally quick, so there isn't a whole lot of instructions, really.

 

“We'll see what comes up for her. I think she will go back to the grass.”

 

Javier Castellano (Winning Jockey, Girls Know Best) – “She's very straightforward. She's got the speed and she's got the dimension. I like her because she doesn't have to be in the lead, and that other horse she targeted and let dictate the race. She just sat right off her and relaxed. If she wants to go to the lead she can, but today they were going fast and my goal was to save something for the end and that's what happened. She finished really strong.”