Last Year’s Black-Eyed Susan Winner Headlines $150,000 Grade 3 Stakes

Field of 11 Set for $150,000 Adena Springs Miss Preakness (G3)
 

BALTIMORE, MD., 05/10/15– Stopchargingmaria stormed through her 3-year-old season with amazing results, winning the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) at Pimlico Race Course last May and then going on to Grade 1 victories in the Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama.  Now, the Todd Pletcher trained filly is back at Old Hilltop, easing into her 4-year-old season and hoping the $150,000 Allaire DuPont Distaff Stakes (G3) sets her up for another wonderful season.

Stopchargingmaria drew post 2 in the 12-horse field for the DuPont, carded as the 10th of 14 races on Friday, Black-Eyed Susan Day at Pimlico. She will be ridden by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, who has been up in her last three races.

“She’s pretty versatile,” Pletcher said. “She can sit close to the pace or come off it, as well. The post position won’t matter to her.”

With her past performance record, Stopchargingmaria figures to draw favoritism, a position Pletcher expects, and one that wouldn’t surprise trainers Larry Jones or John Servis. But, neither of those trainers was willing to just hand off victory.

Jones will send his filly Blue Violet out against the DuPont field, and also saddle Divine Dawn in the $150,000 Adena Springs Miss Preakness (G3), a race that drew 11 3-year-old filly sprinters.

“Blue Velvet is a good horse, too. She likes to lay back, but we make her stalk. We want her just off the pace,” Jones said. “Hopefully, it will be exciting at the end.”

Servis said his entry, Joint Return, is ready to run.

“She’s coming in very good,” Servis said. “And, she’s a closer. She doesn’t care where she starts because she drops way out of it anyway. It makes no difference to her, and I think the 1 1/8 miles is a good spot for her.

“And let me tell you, I’m not coming there just to take a tour of Baltimore.”

A year ago, the Black-Eyed Susan victory started Stopchargingmaria’s exemplary season.

“That victory propelled her to the Coaching Club and Alabama, two very prestigious victories,” Pletcher said. “After she ran second in the Beldame Stakes, a Grade 1 last fall, we gave her a rest and then brought her back in the (G1) Madison (April 4), where she was a close miss.”

Pletcher said the filly is in fine form and that she is running in the DuPont primarily because he didn’t like the way the weights were written for the Ruffian (G2) at Belmont Park May 9.

“This race has a better weight distribution and is more optimal for her as we ease her back into competition,” he said. “The main thing for her at Pimlico is we know she handles (the track) well.”

Also entered are Top Flight (G3) runner-up Before You Know It; Brenda’s Way, runaway winner of Pimlico’s Geisha Stakes April 18; 2014 Geisha winner Celtic Katie, third in this year’s race; 2014 Delaware Oaks (G2) winner Fortune Pearl; Lunar Surge, second in the Doubledogdare (G3) April 17 at Keeneland; Perique, who took an April 11 allowance at Pimlico; 2014 Korean Derby and Oaks winner Queen’s Blade; Yahilwa, winner of the Sixty Sails (G3) April 18 at Hawthorne; and Oasis at Midnight.

FIELD OF 11 SET FOR $150,000 ADENA SPRINGS MISS PREAKNESS (G3)

Divine Dawn comes into the six-furlong Miss Preakness off a second-place finish in the Beaumont (G2) April 12 at Keeneland, and Jones hopes she will help him repeat history.

“We like running at Pimlico,” said Jones, known for fielding competitive fillies. “We won the Miss Preakness with Wildcat Betty B (in 2006), and we’ve won the DuPont, with By the Barrell (in 2008). I know these races always come up tough, but we like that.”

This will be the 30th running of Miss Preakness, and the field will have a number of strong contenders including Graham Motion’s Miss Ella, undefeated in her only two starts including the seven-furlong Beaumont.

Streamsong, like Miss Ella, didn’t race until after she turned 3 this January. She has won two of her four starts and turned in performances that made Miss Preakness her ultimate spring goal.

Friday, the Kodiak Kowboy filly will break from post 8 with trainer Tim Keefe believing she has a shot at winning. She was seventh in her stakes debut, the five-furlong Stormy Blues on grass April 18 at Pimlico.

“She came out of her last race in great shape,” Keefe said. “She’s worked in company and I couldn’t be happier. She likes dirt, I think she’s going to be a sprinter and I think she can get this six furlongs. I think she can do this.”

Trainer Kathy O’Connell decided not to enter surging Lady Shipman, a winner of four straight, but is bringing Coco’s Wildcat to the party.  Coco hasn’t won a race since July 2014, but over the last five months the Florida-bred hasn’t finished worse than third and is coming in off a second-place finish at Tampa Bay Downs.

“She’s training well and likes the short distances,” O’Connell said. “She went seven-eighths to be a very good second in Tampa.  Over her career, she’s run very well. There’s only been one bad race and I can’t explain that. I don’t know what’s going to happen in this race – I’m not a handicapper – but I like to think I’ve done my job well and that we’ll be less than a 10-1 shot.”

Stakes winner Enchanting Lady, Kaleem Shah-owned stablemate of Preakness Stakes contender Dortmund; Irish Jasper, a multiple stakes winner for trainer Derek Ryan; recent allowance winners Huasca and Spark; Regina Christina, Super Saks and Windy Forecast round out the field.