BALTIMORE — Two traditional features will be run today at Pimlico on the eve of the 138th Preakness, as the 10th and 12th races on a 13-race card.
In the 89th running of the Grade 2, $500,000 Black-Eyed Susan at 11/8 miles for 3-year-old fillies, Emollient looks very tough to beat. Trained by Bill Mott for Juddmonte Farms, the daughter of Empire Maker is coming off a gate-to-wire, nine-length runaway in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland.
The Grade 3, $300,000 Pimlico Special, to be run for the 43rd time, has lost much of its prestige since the 1990s, when it was won by champions like Criminal Type, Cigar, Skip Away and Real Quiet.
Run at the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles for older horses, this year’s renewal drew a field of seven. Trainer Chad Brown’s Last Gunfighter, who’s won five in a row including the Evening Attire and Excelsior at Aqueduct, looms a solid favorite.