- Adare Manor was installed as a 5-2 morning line favorite for Friday’s Grade 2, $250,000 USD Black-Eyed Susan Stakes for three year old fillies at Pimlico.
- The Black-Eyed Susan traditionally takes place the day before the Preakness, much as the Kentucky Oaks is the ‘lead in’ for the Kentucky Derby.
- Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath will face male horses in the Preakness on Saturday. Adare Manor did not run in the Kentucky Oaks.
The post position draw for Friday’s Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico Race Course has been set with Adare Manor installed as a 5-2 morning line favorite. The Black-Eyed Susan is a Grade 2, $250,000 USD race for three year old fillies the day before the Preakness Stakes. The 13 horse field will run 1 1/8 mile on dirt as the main event on a loaded Friday card. Also on the card is the Grade 3, $300,000 USD Pimlico Special for 3 year olds and up. All told, there are six stakes races on Friday’s 14 race card.
One of the biggest storylines at Pimlico this year involves a filly that *won’t* run in the Black-Eyed Susan. Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath will face a field of male horses in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes. Secret Oath upset favored Nest (5-2) in the Kentucky Oaks as a 6-1 betting choice. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas could have entered her in this event, but instead chose the more daunting task of competing against eight male opponents in the Preakness. Secret Oath is a 9-2 third choice on the Preakness morning line behind favored Epicenter (6-5) and Chad Brown’s Early Voting (7-2).
That makes the field for the Black-Eyed Susan a bit less competitive than it would have been otherwise. Adare Manor–a daughter of Uncle Mo–was one of the horses transferred to Tim Yakteen by suspended Bob Baffert earlier this year. She won her first two starts of 2022 including a devastating 13 length win in the Grade 3 Las Virgenes Stakes on February 6 at Santa Anita. She came back on April 9 in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks, losing by a neck as the race favorite to Desert Dawn. Desert Dawn came back and finished third in the Kentucky Oaks. In the interim, Adara Manor has been transferred to trainer Sean McCarthy by owner Michael Lund Peterson. She’ll break from the #10 post position in the Black-Eyed Susan under jockey John Velazquez.
Maryland bred Luna Belle is the second choice at 9-2 but the ‘wiseguy’ choice as the top competitor for Adare Manor is the Danny Peitz trained Beguine with jockey Jose Ortiz aboard. Beguine was an ‘also eligible’ for the Kentucky Oaks but failed to draw into the race. She’s coming in off a second place finish in the Grade 3 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park on February 8. She won a MSW at Oaklawn in her previous race and has been showing strong improvement every time out. She’ll break from post 5 and the price is definitely right at 12-1.
Other potential contenders are Chad Brown’s Distinctlypossible, coming in off a win in her 2022 debut (MSW at Keeneland on 4/10/22) at 6-1, Interstatedaydream is also at 6-1 trained by Brad Cox and coming off a third place behind Kentucky Oaks favorite Nest in her last start. Second favorite Luna Belle is something of a question mark. She’s put up a five race winning streak dating back to her win in the Maryland Juvenile Fillies last December. She did win at 1 1/16 miles in her last race but that is her only competition so far of more than a mile. All of the races in her streak were at Laurel Park and she’s definitely stepping up in class here.
Here’s the full field rundown for the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes:
Here’s the replay of Adare Manor’s beatdown of the field in the Las Virgenes Stakes:
