Something Awesome, Unbridled Juan Breeze Saturday for Pimlico Special (G3)
Timeless Curls Making Graded-Stakes Debut in Allaire duPont Distaff (G3)

BALTIMORE – Rose Petal Stable’s stakes winner Pat’s No Fool, based at Laurel Park with trainer Gary Capuano, is being considered by her connections for a start in the $250,000 Xpressbet Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Friday, May 17 at Pimlico Race Course.

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

Pat’s No Fool is exiting a third-place finish behind Black-Eyed Susan-bound Las Setas and Our Super Freak, beaten 4 ¾ lengths, in the Weber City Miss Stakes April 20 at Laurel. The Black-Eyed Susan would mark her graded-stakes debut.

“She’s doing great coming out of that race,” Capuano said. “She’s ready to go if it looks like she can be competitive in there. It just depends on how the race shapes up. I don’t want to throw her to the wolves.”

Pat’s No Fool broke her maiden second time out in her 3-year-old debut Feb. 3 at Laurel, capturing the one-mile Maddie May Stakes against fellow New York-breds two starts later March 31 at Aqueduct. She breezed five furlongs in 59.60 seconds Wednesday at Laurel, fastest of seven horses at the distance.

“She won the restricted New York-bred race but she’s still basically eligible for an a-other-than, state-bred or something like that,” Capuano said. “I think she’s pretty decent. We’ve got a lot of options with her. Obviously, I’d like to stay home and run in the Black-Eyed Susan, if she can be competitive.”

Other horses being pointed to the Black-Eyed Susan include Las Setas, a winner of three straight stakes including the Weber City Miss; Todd Pletcher-trained Gazelle (G2) winner Always Shopping; 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; Dunbar Road, second in the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) last out March 30; Our Super Freak, second by a nose to Las Setas in the Weber City Miss; and Suncoast Stakes winner Point of Honor.

The Black-Eyed Susan will be run as the 11th race, with a post time of 4:48 p.m. First-race post is 11:30 a.m.

Capuano said he is pointing O Dionysus to a return trip in the $250,000 Maker’s Mark Dixie (G2) for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles on grass as part of the Preakness undercard May 18.

The 5-year-old Bodemeister gelding was a stakes winner on dirt at 2 and 3 who has three wins and a third in five career tries on turf, most recently finishing third by a neck in the one-mile Henry S. Clark Stakes April 20 at Laurel.

O Dionysus ran fourth in last year’s Dixie, which was rained off the grass to a sloppy and sealed main track. He breezed a half-mile in 49.40 seconds Friday over Laurel’s main track.

Something Awesome, Unbridled Juan Breeze Saturday for Pimlico Special (G3)

Stronach Stable homebred stablemates Something Awesome and Unbridled Juan each worked a half-mile Saturday at Laurel Park in advance of the historic $300,000 Pimlico Special (G3) May 17 on the Black-Eyed Susan undercard.

Something Awesome, beaten as the favorite in last year’s Pimlico Special, breezed in 49 seconds, 15th fastest of 45 horses at the distance, while Unbridled Juan went the same four furlongs in 48.60 seconds, ranking 11th. Both works came over a muddy main track.

A multiple graded-stakes winner of more than $1.3 million in 29 career starts, 8-year-old Something Awesome is winless in three 2019 starts, finishing sixth April 20 in defense of his upset in last year’s Charles Town Classic (G2).

“Something Awesome right now is back pretty much and in the right condition. He’s training really well,” trainer Jose Corrales said. “He’s an older horse, and they do as much as they want to do. That horse has given me so much for my whole career, I can’t ask for anything more. I’m very blessed with having that horse and having him do what he’s done.”

Something Awesome had won three straight races, all in stakes, heading into last year’s Pimlico Special, a run started in the General George (G3) at Laurel. He was off the board in both that and the $9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) at Gulfstream Park to open 2019.

“He’s going in this year a little more fresh than what he was last year. Last year he won three stakes in a row and did a lot right away quick,” Corrales said. “He ran so much last year and did so much, I think if he’s going to run any better it will probably happen in this race.”

Unbridled Juan, 7, finished a nose behind Something Awesome in seventh in the 1 1/8-mile Charles Town Classic, only the fifth time in 30 lifetime races he was worse than third. He began this year running fourth in the Fred Hooper (G3) at Gulfstream, third in the John B. Campbell and second in the Harrison E. Johnson Memorial, the latter two at Laurel, beaten a total of four lengths.

“The horse is working really good right now. He’s training real good. I’m surprised he didn’t run as good as expected at a Charles Town,” Corrales said. “He’d never been there. It was his first time and I think with the small racetrack, I don’t think it was in his favor.”

Unbridled Juan is a two-time stakes winner who ran second in last year’s $250,000 Dixie on the Preakness undercard, a race downgraded to Grade 3 status when it was rained off the grass. This year’s Pimlico Special was lengthened from 1 3/16 to 1 ¼ miles.

“He’ll like the distance,” Corrales said. “He ran well this year. He’s a funny horse in that he’s not the kind of horse that’s going to go over there and win by five lengths, even if he’s the best horse in the race. The races don’t always set up the way you want them. He just hasn’t had a lot of luck.”

Timeless Curls Making Graded-Stakes Debut in Allaire duPont Distaff (G3)

After a failed try on the grass, Sookdeen Pasram’s stakes winner Timeless Curls will return to the dirt and stretch out to 1 1/8 miles for her graded debut in the $150,000 Caplan Brothers Glass Allaire duPont (G3) May 17 at Pimlico.

Timeless Curls, a 4-year-old daughter of two-time Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Curlin, had never been worse than third through her first 10 starts, five of them wins, including a four-race streak capped by her 3 ¾-length victory in the Nellie Morse Stakes Jan. 12 at Laurel.

Following that, the Dale Capuano trainee ran third as the favorite in the Maryland Racing Media Stakes Feb. 18 before finishing seventh after pressing the pace in the one-mile Dahlia Stakes April 20 over Laurel’s world-class turf course.

“She came out of her race well and she had an excellent work yesterday so she’s all set and ready to go,” Capuano said. “I haven’t had a chance to look at the race yet, but that’s our plan.”

Timeless Curls worked five furlongs in 59.40 seconds Friday at Laurel, the fastest of nine horses at the distance. It was her lone breeze since the Dahlia.

“She did that relatively easy, so she’s in good shape,” Capuano said.

The chestnut Timeless Curls made her career debut on the Black-Eyed Susan undercard last May, finishing second by a head to D.J.’s Favorite in a six-furlong maiden special weight on the main track. She was 7 ¾ lengths clear of third-place finisher Shotdowninflames.

“For her first start, it was a pretty good race,” Capuano, a career winner of 3,423 races, said. “She’s run well. She’s been honest. She’s a hard-trying filly, so we’ll see what happens.”