Among Four Stakes on Saturday’s Maryland Pride Day Program

BALTIMORE – Lucky 7 Stables’ Street Lute, unsuccessful in her first try on grass and against her elders last month, returns to face her own kind on a more familiar surface in search of an eighth career stakes victory in Saturday’s $75,000 Miss Disco at historic Pimlico Race Course.

The fourth running of the Miss Disco for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs is among four stakes restricted to Maryland-bred/sired horses worth $300,000 in purses on the 10-race Maryland Pride Day program. First race post time is 12:40 p.m.

Also on the card are the six-furlong, $75,000 Star de Naskra for 3-year-olds and a pair of 1 1/16-mile turf stakes, the $75,000 Find for 3-year-olds and up and $75,000 All Brandy for fillies and mares 3 and older.

Jockey Xavier Perez has ridden Street Lute in each of her last nine races, first climbing aboard to capture the six-furlong Smart Halo last November at Laurel Park. Together they have teamed up for six wins, all in stakes, the most recent coming in an off-the-turf edition of the Stormy Blues June 13 at Pimlico, contested at five furlongs.

Other stakes wins for Street Lute came last year in the Small Wonder at Delaware and Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship and Gin Talking at Laurel, and this year in Laurel’s Xtra Heat and Wide Country, all at either six for seven furlongs. She also ran third when stretched out to a mile in the Beyond the Wire March 13 and sixth against graded company in the Miss Preakness (G3).

Trainer Jerry Robb got a chance to try Street Lute on the grass in her most recent start, where she ran sixth after chasing the pace in the 5 ½-furlong M. Tyson Gilpin July 19 at Colonial Downs, beaten a total of 2 ½ lengths.

“We were hoping she’d like the grass because she’s bred for it. We got a good break and she was right there sitting in third and when I asked her to go, she just wasn’t getting hold of the track,” Perez said. “She came out of the race like she didn’t do anything. It was a like a little workout for her. She’s been tearing the barn down since.”

Perez is also Street Lute’s regular workout partner, and said she was sharp in a final tune-up for the Miss Disco over Laurel’s newly reconstructed main track last weekend. They will break from Post 3 at topweight of 122 pounds, giving away four pounds to each of their four rivals.

“She’s all fired up. She didn’t get to do anything and she didn’t get anything out of that race,” Perez said. “She worked last week in 59 [seconds] and change and that was really impressive for her working on the new surface. She was really happy. She came back to the barn bouncing. I had to jump off of her because she was so happy.”

Perez said he was encouraged with the way Street Lute was heading into the Miss Disco, named for Alfred G. Vanderbilt’s Maryland-bred multiple stakes winner, dam of 1957 Preakness (G1) winner and Hall of Famer Bold Ruler and granddam of fellow Hall of Famer and 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat.

“She’s happy, she’s eating well, she looks great. She’s bright-eyed and just doing awesome,” Perez said. “I’m looking forward to the next race.”

Trainer Gary Capuano entered the pair of Hitch a Ride and Malibu Beauty. Rose Petal Stable’s Hitch a Ride was third to subsequent Monmouth Oaks (G3) runner-up Edie Meeny Mino Mo in a June 13 optional claiming allowance at Pimlico and most recently ran second in a restricted six-furlong allowance July 30 to Down the Stretch Racing’s My My Girl, also entered in the Miss Disco.

ZWP Stable, Inc. and Non Stop Stable’s Malibu Beauty was a front-running four-length winner of a second-level optional claiming allowance July 17 at Delaware Park in her most recent start. She won back-to-back starts this spring at Laurel and Pimlico to earn her way into the Stormy Blues, where she prompted the pace but was unable to hold off Street Lute and finished second by a half-length.

Completing the field is Mens Grille Racing’s Response Time, a waiver maiden claiming winner May 14 on the Pimlico turf for trainer Hamilton Smith. Each of her two most recent efforts have also come on the grass, including a runner-up finish against older horses July 28 at Colonial Downs.