Competitive field to line up for milestone Black-Eyed Susan
At 0h04, on May 17, 2024 • By PREAKNESS STAKES
Grade 3 heroine Lemon Muffin will face four fellow stakes winners as well as Grade 2-placed California shipper Corposo in a highly competitive milestone edition of the $300,000 George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Friday, May 17 at historic Pimlico Race Course.
The 100th running of the 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan for 3-year-old fillies highlights a spectacular 14-race program that includes six stakes, three graded, worth $1 million in purses and serves as a fitting prelude to Saturday’s 149th Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
Other graded stakes on the Black-Eyed Susan program are the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) for 3-year-olds and up at the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles and $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs.
Rounding out the stakes action are the listed $100,000 Allaire du Pont Distaff for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/8 miles and a pair of scheduled turf events – the $100,000 Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies at one mile and $100,000 The Very One, a five-furlong dash for females 3 and older.
First-race post time Friday is 11:30 a.m. Post time for the Black-Eyed Susan, carded as Race 13, is scheduled for 5:44 p.m.
Among prominent Black-Eyed Susan winners are Hall of Famer Gallorette; Nellie Morse, the only filly to also win the Preakness, in 1924; But Why Not, Caesar’s Wish, High Voltage, Vagrancy, Wide Country and Wistful.
Aaron Sones and Julie Gilbert’s Lemon Muffin can add her name to the list with a repeat of her performance in the 1 1/16-mile Honeybee (G3) Feb. 24 at Oaklawn Park, her maiden triumph after racing five times previously with four consecutive runner-up finishes. By multi-millionaire Collected, who won five graded-stakes including the 2017 Pacific Classic (G1), she graduated by 3 ½ lengths at odds of 28-1.
Following the Honeybee, Lemon Muffin ran seventh in the Fantasy (G2) at Oaklawn and, most recently, eighth in the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks (G1) May 3, both times to Thorpedo Anna, the latter after breaking a step slow and racing near the back of a 14-horse field before improving her position late.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas has had the most Black-Eyed Susan starters since 1976 with 18 and is tied with former protégé and fellow Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher for the most wins with four, the most recent coming with Serena’s Song in 1995.
“She has her days when she’s up and down and everything. On her best day, she’s a very, very nice filly,” Lukas said of Lemon Muffin. “But she doesn’t always show up every time, so we’re hoping that we get one of those days when she does.”
Flavien Prat is named to ride from Post 3 in a field of eight at topweight of 124 pounds, yielding from two to six pounds to her rivals.
