Jim McKay-Bound Tricks to Doo has Friday Breeze at Fair Hill
Walsh Bringing Sundaysatthebeach to Black-Eyed Susan; Maid in the Mist to Hilltop
Stall Hoping to Make Headlines with Real News in James Murphy

BALTIMORE – Multiple stakes winner Las Setas, riding a four-race win streak, put in one final serious work Friday morning ahead of her next scheduled assignment in the 95th running of the $250,000 Xpressbet Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Friday, May 17 at Pimlico Race Course.

Working in company with recent maiden winner Saltworks, a half-sister to 2016 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Cathryn Sophia, Las Setas was timed in 1:11.60 for six furlongs on the main track with regular rider Jevian Toledo up.

Owned by Robert Manfuso, Wayne Harrison and trainer Katy Voss, the Maryland homebred will have Toledo back aboard in the Black-Eyed Susan.

“She went really well this morning,” Voss said. “We worked her behind another filly and let her get some dirt in her face, then they opened up and let her slip through on the rail and she did everything perfectly.”

Racing exclusively at Laurel, Las Setas has been a front-running winner in each of her last four starts dating back to her sophomore debut Jan. 20. She reeled off victories in the seven-furlong Wide Country, one-mile Beyond the Wire and April 20 Weber City Miss at about 1 1/16 miles, the latter earning her an automatic berth in the Black-Eyed Susan.

The most prestigious race in Maryland for 3-year-old fillies, contested at 1 1/8 miles, the Black-Eyed Susan will be the longest and toughest test yet for Las Setas.

“The water gets a lot deeper. It’s going to be a much tougher race,” Voss said. “There are fillies in there that have run much better [sheet numbers] than she has, but we’ll see. She’s doing well. She hasn’t missed a beat since her last race.”

Voss said Las Setas will gallop up to the Black-Eyed Susan and ship from Laurel the morning of the race.

Other horses being pointed to the Black-Eyed Susan include Grade 1-placed Brill, who fetched $1 million yearling in 2017 for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer; multiple stakes winner Cookie Dough, placed in back-to-back Grade 2 stakes; Our Super Freak, second by a nose, and stakes winner Pat’s No Fool, third to Las Setas in the Weber City Miss; Suncoast Stakes winner Point of Honor; and Keeneland maiden winner Sundaysatthebeach.

The Black-Eyed Susan is 11th on a 14-race program featuring seven stakes, four graded, worth $1.15 million in purses. First post is 11:30 a.m., with post time for the Black-Eyed Susan set for 4:48 p.m.

Jim McKay-Bound Tricks to Doo has Friday Breeze at Fair Hill

Lael Stables’ Tricks to Doo, a stakes winner at 2 and graded-stakes placed at 3, is expected to make his next start in the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint for 3-year-olds and up on the Black-Eyed Susan undercard.

Trained by Arnaud Delacour, Tricks to Doo breezed five furlongs in 1:00.40 over the all-weather surface at Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. Friday morning, the fastest of 10 horses at the distance.

A 4-year-old bay son of Grade 1 winner Into Mischief, Tricks to Doo most recently ran fourth, beaten 1 ¾ lengths, behind Dirty’s record-setting performance in the inaugural 5 ½-furlong King T. Leatherbury Stakes April 20 at Laurel.

“He breezed well, and we’ll probably put him in the McKay,” Delacour said. “He ran well the last time. He had [Post] 15 on the outside so we had to use him a little bit to get a position and try to save some ground, and it probably cost him a little bit at the end. I hope to have a better draw and we can use him a little less at the beginning and hopefully he can give us a little better finish.”

Tricks to Doo has a win and a second in three tries on the grass, the victory coming in a five-furlong allowance Jan. 12 at Tampa Bay Downs in his seasonal debut. He won Tampa’s Inaugural Stakes in his juvenile finale and was fourth in the Swale (G3) and third in the Hutcheson (G2) in 2018 at Gulfstream Park – all sprinting on the dirt.

“He probably wouldn’t be good enough to compete against the best on the dirt, but he’s definitely a decent dirt horse,” Delacour said. He’s a solid horse. I like him, and he should fit. I think it’s a good spot for him.”

Delacour said he is considering both Jehozacat and Irish import I’m So Fancy for the $150,000 Stella Artois Gallorette for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/16 miles on the grass Saturday, May 18 on the undercard of the 144th Preakness Stakes (G1), the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

Jehozacat, 4, is a two-time optional claiming allowance winner on the turf at Tampa while 5-year-old I’m So Fancy is a Group 3 winner at 1 1/8 miles in Ireland who has yet to make her North American debut. Lael Stables owns both horses.

“We gave her plenty of time last year and she came back with two solid races this year, so I’m very happy with her,” Delacour said of Jehozacat. “[I’m So Fancy] is an interesting prospect. I really like her.”

Other horses Delacour is pointing to Preakness weekend stakes are Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) runner-up Chalon in the $100,000 Fidelity First & Blackwell Real Estate Skipat for females 3 and up sprinting six furlongs on the dirt, and 2018 Sandpiper Stakes winner Fashion Faux Pas in the $100,000 Maker’s Mark Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies going a mile on the grass. Both races are May 17.

Walsh Bringing Sundaysatthebeach to Black-Eyed Susan; Maid in the Mist to Hilltop

Kentucky-based trainer Brendan Walsh plans to send two horses to Pimlico – Sundaysatthebeach for the $250,000 Xpressbet Black-Eyed Susan (G2) and Maid in the Mist for the $100,000 Maker’s Mark Hilltop Stakes, both races for 3-year-old fillies on Friday, May 17.

Maid in the Mist went from third to second to winning a Keeneland maiden race at the Hilltop’s mile distance on grass. Sundaysatthebeach also comes in to her 1 1/8-mile stakes off a maiden victory, graduating on her fourth attempt. When she put it together, the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro won by 5 3/4 lengths.

“They’re both fillies that I’ve always liked,” Walsh said at Churchill Downs. “Maid in the Mist showed some form last year, and we gave her some time off and she came out and won her first run back, which was great. She looks like she’s progressed.

“The other filly we really like, Sundaysatthebeach,” he added. “She physically was very immature. We just wanted to give her time to get it together, and it looked like she would eventually. It looked at Keeneland like she’s starting to put the pieces together. I’m excited about her. I think she’ll be a pretty nice filly going forward.”

Walsh said it made sense to send both maiden winners from Kentucky to Pimlico because he’s well-stocked with 3-year-old turf fillies and he wants to keep Sundaysatthebeach with her age group.

“But, I think she’s ready to take the step forward to stakes company,” he said.

Stall Hoping to Make Headlines with Real News in James Murphy

The unbeaten streak of Pimlico’s $100,000 James W. Murphy Stakes contender Real News ended at two with his second in the Palisades Turf Sprint last month at Keeneland. But, it took a Breeders’ Cup champion to beat him, as 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Bulletin prevailed by 1 1/2 lengths.

Real News, trained by Al Stall Jr. for Town and Country Racing LLC and Gary Broad, went wire-to-wire to win his Jan. 24 debut in a 5 1/2-furlong race taken off the grass at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. The son of The Factor returned with a nose victory in a March 8 grass allowance at the same distance after being boxed in until the final furlong. He made the jump to stakes company a month later at Keeneland.
    
Now Real News takes another step in the Murphy, stretching out from 5 1/2 furlongs to a mile around two turns on turf.

“After those two sprints at the Fair Grounds and Keeneland, it seemed very clear that it’s time to stretch him out a little bit,” Stall said. “The Factors are pretty decent up to a mile or so. After winning two races, it’s hard to find a spot for him, and this is a straight 3-year-old race going a mile. It’s time to see how he handles the second turn and that type of company. He competed well with them sprinting. He’s a big, long-striding colt. And he’ll run off turf if it happens to rain, also.

“He’s a nice horse; he’s sound. He gives you a pretty good feeling. I like the way he fights,” he added. “He was closing in on Bulletin. Now, Bulletin might have been easing up a little bit, but he was certainly getting away from a bunch of nice horses over at Keeneland. He’s shown quite a bit of finish in everything he’s ever done, so it’s time to take it to the next distance. He’s got to ship to conduct an experiment, but that’s just the nature of the game. He might run to the head of the lane and not finish up and we’ll say, ‘Well, we’re going to have a come-from-behind sprinter.’ But we need to find out sooner than later.”

Joel Rosario has the mount in the Murphy, part of the Preakness Day undercard.