Graded stakes winners Bonny South, Hopeful Growth, Perfect Alibi, and Project Whiskey bring solid credentials to the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) on the Preakness Stakes (G1) undercard Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course.
The nine-furlong Black-Eyed Susan, for 3-year-old fillies, will be the race preceding the Preakness with a post time of 4:41 p.m. and will be part of NBC's national television coverage from 4:30-6 p.m. Like other top races regularly run in the spring, the Black-Eyed Susan has been moved from mid-May to the fall. Also, while it's typically contested one day before the Preakness, this year it's offered on Preakness Day.
Juddmonte Farms homebred Bonny South was rerouted to the Black-Eyed Susan following the announcement in mid-August that the Alabama Stakes (G1) runner-up would be considered for the Preakness lineup. The chestnut daughter of Munnings tuned up for the race with a five-furlong work in 1:01 1/5 Sept. 26 at Churchill Downs for trainer Brad Cox.
Winner of the TwinSpires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) in March, Bonny South was a closing second behind Preakness entrant Swiss Skydiver in the 1 1/4-mile Alabama last time out Aug. 15 at Saratoga Race Course and then bypassed the Sept. 4 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1).
"Since the Alabama she's done really, really well," said Cox. "She's maturing. She's still somewhat lightly raced, only run six times in her life. Hopefully, she'll take a step forward."
Florent Geroux, up for both her recent work and the Fair Grounds Oaks, will ride Bonny South and break from post 5. She shares topweight of 124 pounds with Project Whiskey and Perfect Alibi.
Tracy Farmer's Perfect Alibi won the Adirondack Stakes (G2) and Spinaway Stakes (G1) at 2 but has gone winless in five tries since. She didn't start her 3-year-old campaign until June and finished off the board in the one-mile Longines Acorn Stakes (G1) and seven-furlong Longines Test Stakes (G1) before running third by a length in the Sept. 7 Weber City Miss Stakes at Laurel Park, an automatic qualifier for the Black-Eyed Susan.
St. Elias Stable's Hopeful Growth was fifth to Project Whiskey July 4 in the 1 1/16-mile Delaware Oaks (G3), but avenged that loss with a four-length triumph Aug. 1 in the Monmouth Oaks (G3). Most recently she was sixth to Bonny South's stablemate Shedaresthedevil in the Kentucky Oaks.
Cash is King and LC Racing's Project Whiskey, who captured the Parx Juvenile Fillies Stakes last fall, was a determined half-length winner of the Delaware Oaks at 38-1. The daughter of Tapizar, a $35,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling Sale buy, ran well to be a decisive second in the Monmouth Oaks and got within four lengths of the lead midway through the Weber City Miss before tiring to be last of nine.
"She hasn't run well at Laurel, so we're not sure if she just doesn't like the surface too much," trainer Robert E. "Butch" Reid Jr. said. "She didn't get away clean and got back a little further than she normally is and had to eat some dirt, and it wasn't to her liking.
Three horses—Landing Zone, Miss Marissa, and Mizzen Beau—enter the Black-Eyed Susan off victories. Alfonso Cammarota's Miss Marissa has won two straight including a front-running allowance-level race going 1 1/8 miles Aug. 13 at Saratoga; while Mizzen Beau captured the 1 1/16-mile Bison City over Woodbine's synthetic surface Sept. 12.
BB Horses Landing Zone brings a three-race win streak into the Black-Eyed Susan for Maryland's three-time defending leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez. The Morning Line filly has stretched out from 5 1/2 furlongs, to a mile, to one mile and 70 yards, in each of her victories, which have come by 16 3/4 combined lengths.
Pimlico Race Course, Saturday, October 3, 2020, Race 10Entries: George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan S. (G2)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Project Whiskey (MD) Victor R. Carrasco 124 Robert E. Reid, Jr. 15/1 2 2Truth Hurts (ON) Sheldon Russell 120 Chad Summers 20/1 3 3So Darn Hot (KY) Gabriel Saez 120 George Weaver 6/1 4 4Dream Marie (KY) Joe Bravo 120 Matthew J. Williams 15/1 5 5Bonny South (KY) Florent Geroux 124 Brad H. Cox 7/5 6 6Sharp Starr (NY) Alex Cintron 120 Horacio DePaz 20/1 7 7Mizzen Beau (ON) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 122 Norm W. Casse 12/1 8 8Hopeful Growth (KY) Trevor McCarthy 122 Anthony R. Margotta, Jr. 8/1 9 9Miss Marissa (KY) Daniel Centeno 120 James T. Ryerson 12/1 10 10Landing Zone (KY) Angel Cruz 120 Claudio A. Gonzalez 6/1 11 11Perfect Alibi (KY) Paco Lopez 120 Mark E. Casse 10/1
