Among Six Stakes, Three Graded, Worth $1 Million in Purses May 17

BALTIMORE – Five years to the day after saddling Covfefe for a track-record victory, trainer Brad Cox will send out Resolute Racing’s multiple stakes winner Youalmosthadme in search of her first graded-stakes success in the $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) Friday, May 17 at historic Pimlico Race Course.

The 39th running of the $150,000 Miss Preakness for 3-year-old fillies going six furlongs is one of six stakes, three graded, worth $1 million in purses during a spectacular 14-race card on the eve of the 149th Preakness Stakes (G1), headlined by the 100th running of the $300,000 George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan (G2) for 3-year-old fillies.

Other stakes on the program are the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) for 3-year-olds and up at the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles, listed $150,000 Allaire du Pont Distaff for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/8 miles and $100,000 The Very One and $100,000 Hilltop, both scheduled for the turf.

First race post time is 11:30 a.m. EST.

Cox’s lone Miss Preakness triumph came May 17, 2019 when Covfefe romped by 8 ½ lengths in 1:07.70, shattering the old track record of 1:09 set by Northern Wolf in 1990. The fastest prior Miss Preakness had been Lucky Livi’s 1:10 in 2000.

While Covfefe had only three starts ahead of the Miss Preakness, Youalmosthadme has never been worse than third with four wins in seven races, four of them wins, including the six-furlong Myrtlewood and 6 ½-furlong Fern Creek last fall in Kentucky to cap her juvenile season. By 2013 Preakness winner Oxbow, she has raced once this year, finishing third as the favorite in the seven-furlong Beaumont (G2) April 7 at Keeneland.

“She probably wasn’t quite as tight as I’d like to have had her in the Beaumont. And it was maybe a little too far for her, especially off the layoff,” Cox said. “Last summer I tried to stretch her out a little bit between Ellis [Park] and Churchill [Downs]. It didn’t work; we cut her back to three-quarters at Keeneland. That seems to be about all she wants.”

Tyler Gaffalione, who won the 2018 Miss Preakness on Happy Like a Fool, rides from Post 3 at topweight of 124 pounds, two to six more than her rivals.

“She’s obviously very precocious, having broken her maiden in April of last year. We bought her out of that race, and she was very good to us all last year” Cox said. “We gave her a break through the winter, just to let he be a horse. Her run in the Beaumont was good. I probably expected a little more, but she’s come back to work very well since.”

Youalmosthadme is one of nine stakes winners in a field of 12 for the Miss Preakness, including fellow graded-stakes placed Closing Act and Mystic Lake. C2 Racing Stable and Stefania Farms’ Mystic Lake, based in South Florida with trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., exits a runner-up finish in the six-furlong Star Shoot April 27 over Woodbine’s all-weather surface, where she also ran third in last fall’s 1 1/16-mile Mazarine (G3). She has won each of her last two tries on dirt, both seven-furlong stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, most recently the March 24 Sophomore Fillies.

Douglas Scharbauer’s Closing Act has raced once this year, a front-running three-quarter-length triumph over her elders in the 6 ½-furlong Blue Bonnet April 18 at Lone Star Park. As a 2-year-old she won two of four starts including a popular 3 ¼-length score in the 5 ½-furlong Astoria at Belmont Park second time out, and was third in the six-furlong Schuylerville (G3) at Saratoga.

“She won the Astoria at Belmont as a 2-year-old. She’s had one race this spring, and she won it, the Blue Bonnet. She’s a Texas-bred and she beat older mares in her only race this year,” Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said. “Obviously the Miss Preakness is a step up, but she’s won multiple stakes.”

Joel Rosario, to be inducted in the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame this summer, has the call from Post 8. Scharbauer’s mother, Dorothy, and sister, Pamela, campaigned 1987 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness winner Alysheba with his father, Clarence, serving as the ownership’s public face.

Cash is King and LC Racing’s speedy Carmelina cuts back to a sprint off a seventh-place finish after setting the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Gazelle (G3) April 6 at Aqueduct. The Maximus Mischief filly has won or placed in five of her eight starts, topped by sprint stakes victories last year in the Keswick at Colonial Downs, Shamrock Rose at Penn National and Gin Talking at Laurel Park.

“We tried her longer but it looks like she’s a little bit limited to seven-eighths of a mile probably, so we’re going to drop her back to three-quarters. We expect her to really run well in here,” trainer Robert E. ‘Butch’ Reid Jr. said. “She’s won three or four stakes for us already, so she’s a very, very solid filly. She’s tough. She hasn’t ducked anybody. We got her a little out of her distance capability in that last one so we’re going to drop her back and stick to one-turn races from here.”

Mychel Sanchez has the call from Post 7.

DARRS, Inc.’s Cap Classique is entered to make her seasonal debut for Brittany Russell, Maryland’s leading trainer in 2023. Second as the favorite to Carmelina in the seven-furlong Gin Talking, the daughter of 2019 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner and older male champion Vino Rosso won each of her first three races by 9 ½ combined lengths capped by Laurel’s six-furlong Smart Halo last November.

“It’s a little bit of a tough ask off the bench but she seems like a good sprint filly. We just kind of freshened her up and she’s been working right along so I think I have her fit enough,” Russell said. “She’s always been really honest in the morning training. [Owner] David Ross was great in the sense that he let us [be patient with her]. When she got beat, was it a bad race? No, but we just thought it was a good time to stop and see if they take that step forward with a little freshening. She looks great, she’s training great. She’s a good filly. It’s a big weekend to ask her to come off the shelf, but she’s a really classy filly so I think she’ll handle herself well.”

Russell’s husband, champion jockey Sheldon Russell, rides from Post 9.

Also entered are Belle’s Blue Bell, a winner of two straight for trainer Carlos David; Discreet Ops, unbeaten in two starts trained by Laurel-based Ben Feliciano Jr.; Lady Moscato, exiting the May 3 Eight Belles (G2); Launch, who ran her win streak to two races in the six-furlong Any Limit March 17 at Gulfstream Park; Let Them Watch, a two-time stakes winner at 2 for trainer Mike Maker; Miss Harriett, three-for-six lifetime with a pair of Laurel stakes wins, based at Pimlico with trainer Brandon McFarlane; and stakes-placed Value Area.