While the colts will compete in the Preakness Stakes (G1) on Saturday, some of the top three-year-old fillies in the country will square off in Fridays featured race at Pimlico the $250,000 Black Eyed Susan Stakes. The Grade 2 event will be contested at a mile and an eighth on the main track and has drawn a field of fourteen.
Land Over Sea has been given the edge as the slight favorite at odds of 2-1 and comes out for the same trainer, owner and jockey combination that will team up with Nyquist in the Preakness Stakes (G1). Trained by Doug O’Neill and owned by Reddam Racing, the chestnut daughter of Bellamy Road has two wins from nine starts and is coming out of a runner-up effort in the Kentucky Oaks (G1). She will have regular rider Mario Gutierrez aboard and they will break from post position three.
Second choice at morning line odds of 5-2 is Go Maggie Go, one of two fillies in the race for trainer Dale Romans. A bay daughter of Ghostzapper, the lightly-raced filly won the first two starts of her career, including the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2), before finishing fourth in the Kentucky Oaks (G1). Luis Saez will be in the irons and they are scheduled to break from post position five.
Also in the field at odds of 6-1 is Kinsley Kisses for trainer Todd Pletcher. A chestnut daughter of Congrats, she was purchased for $200,000 as a yearling and has won two of her three starts. She is trying to earn her first stakes victory and was last seen finishing third in the Beaumont Stakes (G3) at Keeneland. John Velazquez will be aboard and they will break from post position ten.
The field is set for the $1 million Haskell, where Nyquist will be trying to re-stake his claim as the top three-year-old in the country.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $300,000 United Nations Stakes. Scheduled to be run at a mile and three-eighths on the turf, the Grade 1 event has drawn a field of ten colts and geldings.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes, a key prep race for the Haskell Invitational (G1). The Grade 3 event will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth and has drawn a field of seven three-year-olds.
With five grade 1 races and a grade 2, the undercard for the June 11 Belmont stakes could be the best single day of racing on the calendar outside of the Breeders’ Cup.
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