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Eleven-filly field assembled for Black-Eyed Susan
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| Joint Return rallied four wide from a distant last to score in the Calder Oaks last out
(Calder/Coady Photography) |
Already a three-time winner this year, Joint Return goes
for her biggest payday yet in the 90th renewal of the Grade 2, $500,000
Black-Eyed Susan on Friday at Pimlico Race Course.
Trained by John Servis, the Include filly will break from the rail in a field of 11 for the 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed
Susan, which also a pair of horses from trainer Todd Pletcher, a three-time
race winner.
One of Pimlico's oldest stakes races, first run as the
Pimlico Oaks in 1919, the Black-Eyed Susan for three-year-old fillies is 10TH on a
13-race card worth nearly $1.6 million in purses and featuring eight stakes
races, including the historic Grade 3, $300,000 Pimlico Special. Both races will be
part of NBCSN's live broadcast from 4-5 p.m. (EDT).
One notable absentee from the Black-Eyed Susan is Ria Antonia. The Canadian
champion and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner, who finished sixth in the
May 2 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, could return to face the boys Saturday
in the Preakness Stakes.
Servis' last graded stakes victory at Pimlico came in the
2004 Preakness Stakes with Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones, who fell short
when second in the Belmont Stakes three weeks later.
Joint Return has won three of four starts this year, most recently taking the
1 1/16-mile Calder Oaks by 1 3/4 lengths on April 12. That race came only two weeks after
the dark bay filly ran fifth
of seven, beaten 12 1/2 lengths, under regular rider Kendrick Carmouche in the
Gulfstream Park Oaks in her graded debut.
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"She just didn't run her race," Servis said. "She just
didn't show up. Kendrick said she never took a hold of the bit at any part of
the race and, for whatever reason, she just wasn't there.
"I'm looking forward to this race, big-time," the horseman continued. "She's
run well against some decent fillies. The only time she ran against real quality
fillies was at Gulfstream, and she didn't show up. I'm anxious to see how she
performs this week against the better fillies."
Joint Return ended her two-year-old season with a one-mile
maiden victory at Parx Racing in mid-November, then came back to beat winners at
first asking on New Year's Day. In her stakes debut, the Kentucky-bred lass rallied for a 4
1/4-length triumph over Black-Eyed Susan contender Vero Amore in the Busher
Stakes at
Aqueduct on February 1.
"That's the way she's run from day one," Servis said of her
closing style. "Early on in her training, she wasn't a very good work horse. I
was thinking that she's probably eventually going to need blinkers and that
would probably make her focus in more and make her a better filly, but she's
just been running so good.
"She's so laid back," he added. "She's a very classy filly. I would say her
turn of foot is probably her best asset."
Though the Black-Eyed Susan has always been in the mix for
Joint Return, the race became more of a focal point after Servis decided to
bypass the Kentucky Oaks on May 2 at Churchill Downs.
"When she threw in that race at Gulfstream, obviously I was
very disappointed and that steered us away from the Oaks," Servis explained.
"After the bounce-back race at Calder, we just started to focus in on the
Black-Eyed Susan."
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| Stopchargingmaria needs a return to her juvenile form to be competitive in the Black-Eyed Susan
(NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) |
Pletcher won his first Black-Eyed Susan in 2005 with Spun
Sugar, and followed up with Panty Raid in 2007 and In Lingerie in 2012. He
returns this year with Grade 2 heroine Stopchargingmaria and Grade
3-placed Sloane Square.
Stopchargingmaria won the Tempted and Demoiselle at Aqueduct to close her juvenile campaign last year, but has yet to recapture
that form in 2014. A well-beaten fifth in her sophomore bow, the February 22 Davona Dale
at Gulfstream Park, she was fourth in the Fantasy at Oaklawn Park last out on April 5.
"I think like a lot of horses, her running style didn't
suit the way Gulfstream was playing at that time of the season," Pletcher said.
"We shipped her to Oaklawn and she ran a little better, although I didn't think
she ran to her full capabilities. Now, she seems to have moved forward and has
been training very enthusiastically, indicating to us that she's back in form.
Hopefully, that turns out to be the case."
Unraced as a juvenile, Sloane Square debuted with a pair of
victories this year, scoring by a combined 11 3/4 lengths, while stretching out each time. She
won a Gulfstream maiden going 5 1/2 furlongs on January 19 and romped over winners on
February 21 at Calder before finishing second as the favorite in the one-mile Bourbonette Oaks over
Turfway Park's Polytrack most recently in late March.
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"Sloane Square has run well in all three of her starts, and
I thought she fought hard in the race at Turfway," Pletcher asserted. "She tries
hard every time. She has stepped up in class and distance each time, and has run
well. She's a filly that's always very businesslike and trains very
professionally, so we're hoping she can step up to that next level."
Fortune Pearl will be making her stakes debut in the Black-Eyed Susan for
trainer Graham Motion. The Mineshaft filly broke her maiden over Tampa Bay downs
turf and followed up with a pair of runner-up efforts, once of which came in an
off-the-turf contest at Gulfstream in mid-February. A subpar run over that
track's grass one month later saw Fortune Pearl shipped to Pimlico to take a
main-track optional claimer by 2 1/4 lengths on May 2.
Image of Anna is another who faces black-type rivals for the initial time
Friday. The Richard Violette Jr.-trained daughter of Ready's Image didn't break
her maiden until stretched out to 1 1/16 miles over Aqueduct's inner on March
16. The bay miss scored a 7 3/4-length front-running victory on that day and
followed up in an off-the-turf allowance on Aqueduct's main track April 16.
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| Euphrosyne has yet to finish worse than third in her seven-race career
(Oaklawn Park/Coady Photography) |
Also entered in the Black-Eyed Susan are America, who ran third in the
Gulfstream Park Oaks, and Euphrosyne. The latter filly was a quarter-length back
of Sugar Shock in the Honeybee at Oaklawn but was elevated to first after the
stewards ruled the winner had caused interference in the lane. Euphrosyne met
Sugar Shock once again in the Fantasy but could only manage third that time to
her rival's winning effort.
Others of note in the Black-Eyed Susan are Arethusa and La Mejor Fiesta. The
former is shipping in from California for the Black-Eyed Susan off a fifth-place
run in the Santa Anita Oaks. Prior to that, Arethusa rallied to be third in the
Las Virgenes to open her three-year-old campaign. La Mejor Fiesta has competed
on dirt just once in her six-race career, with that coming as only her second
win at Remington Park in the Trapeze last December. Her four races before that
all came on turf, and she followed the Trapeze victory with a fourth-place
effort in the Bourbonette Oaks on Turfway's all-weather.
The Black-Eyed Susan field is completed by Grade 3-placed Shanon Nicole and
dual stakes second Vero Amore.
Also on Friday's card is the $50,000 Hall of Fame
Jockey Challenge featuring seven of the eight active Hall of Fame riders, and
Lady Legends for the Cure V. The first-ever
pari-mutuel race showcasing retired female riders, it is being held for the
final time.
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For the first time this year, Pimlico has partnered with
the local affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, global leader of the breast
cancer movement, and Baltimore-based Suited to Succeed for "The Ultimate Girls
Day Out," to support issues important to women.
Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
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