Unbeaten Good Move Makes Preakness Debut in Miss Preakness

Among Seven Stakes, Four Graded, Worth $1.15 Million in Purses Friday

Power of Snunner Seeks Graded Triumph in $150,000 Allaire DuPont (G3)

AMONG SEVEN STAKES, FOUR GRADED, WORTH $1.15 MILLION IN PURSES FRIDAY

      BALTIMORE – Good Move, who runs in Friday’s $150,000 Adena Springs Miss Preakness (G3), could take another step toward stamping herself as the latest standout filly bred and raced by the Klein family of Louisville.

The 33rd running of the six-furlong Miss Preakness for 3-year-old fillies is one of seven stakes, four graded, worth $1.15 million in purses on Preakness Eve’s popular Black-Eyed Susan Day program at Pimlico Race Course.

Good Move impressively won her only two prior races, both at Oaklawn Park at six furlongs, with a six-length debut triumph followed by a 4 1/2-length allowance score on March 11. In trainer Brad Cox, she comes from one of the hottest barns in the country, including its victory with Monomoy Girl in the Kentucky Oaks (G1).

“Brad really liked her coming into her first race, and thought that she would run the way she did,” said owner-breeder Richard Klein. “I think all along they’ve liked her.”

Luis Saez will ride Good Move for the first time.

A minor foot issue kept the filly out of a scheduled run in Keeneland’s Beaumont (G2) and the decision was made to bypass the Eight Belles (G2) on Oaks Day for the Miss Preakness. The daughter of Broken Vow worked in :58 4/5 seconds for five-eighths of a mile Friday at Churchill Downs in preparation for the race.

“Not to say the Miss Preakness won’t be tough, but the Eight Belles came up tough, too,” Klein said. “So we’re just taking a shot with her as opposed to running her in a (second-level allowance race), thinking she’s got the ability to step up to this company now.”

The Klein stable raced in the names of Richard Klein and his parents, Louisville philanthropists Bert and Elaine. With the deaths of Elaine and then Bert in recent years, Richard said he opts to use Klein Racing instead of his own name as a tribute to his parents.

“I wanted them to still be a part of it, and they are,” said Richard Klein, who was the managing partner in the stable with his parents.

The Kleins have raced a slew of quality horses, most of them produced from their relatively small broodmare band, including Good Move’s mom Change Up and her half-sister Pinch Hit. The Kleins campaigned Grade 1 winner Outofthebox and graded-stakes winners All American Bertie, Swept Away, De Bertie, Miz Ida, Hidden Assets and Cash Control.

Most recently the Kleins won the Twin Spires Turf Sprint (G3) at Churchill Downs, the family’s first stakes win at their hometown track on Derby Day. Richard Klein also recalls finishing third with odds-on favorite Swept Away in the 2000 Miss Preakness.

Also in the Miss Preakness’ extremely competitive field of 10 3-year-old fillies is undefeated Artistic Diva, who is an Illinois-bred but made both her career starts in California for trainer John Sadler, including winning a minor stakes.

Almond Roca is among the more accomplished fillies, her three victories including a pair of $100,000 stakes before she finished sixth in the Florida Oaks (G3) on turf.

“She had a really strong campaign at Tampa, winning the two sprint races,” said trainer Graham Motion. “We took a shot because she was stabled at Tampa. We didn’t have a really good option to run her back in, and I thought I would try stretching her out on the grass. She broke her maiden on the grass, and I wanted to see how she stretched out. I thought she ran well that day but, to me, she showed that she’s probably more of a dirt sprinter. We decided to sit out and wait for this spot and kind of freshen her up for it. She’s pretty quick.”

Buy Sell Hold is among the dozen horses coming to Pimlico from Kentucky and New York trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, who on Kentucky Derby Day became only the second trainer to win 8,000 races. Buy Sell Hold had her final work for the Miss Preakness Sunday at Churchill Downs, working an easy half-mile in :50 2/5 seconds. The Violence filly won her first two starts, including beating males in last May’s Kentucky Juvenile, but since has sat on a trio of fifth-place finishes.

“She probably needed her last race off the layoff,” assistant trainer Scott Blasi said of Buy Sell Hold’s first start in seven months. “She’s just a fast filly. She’s traveling well and hopefully runs her race on the day.”

Maryland-bred Limited View, trained by Laurel-based John Salzman Jr., comes in with a 5-for-9 record, including three stakes at Laurel.

Happy Like a Fool, who ended her 2-year-old season winning Belmont’s Matron (G3), returned to racing with a fourth-place finish in Keeneland’s Beaumont and figures to improve in her second start off the six-month hiatus.

Lezendary ships in from New York, where she won her last two starts, a maiden race on her fourth attempt and the $100,000 Cicada for Zayat Stables, which campaigned 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Also making their first start outside of New York are the Jeremiah Englehart-trained I Still Miss You, whose 3-for-7 record includes a pair of stakes, and Purrfect Miss, making her first start since taking fourth in Belmont’s Frizette (G1) Oct. 8. Keeneland allowance winner Bootsy’s Hadenough rounds out the field.

The Miss Preakness is the seventh race, with a 2:39 p.m. scheduled post.

POWER OF SNUNNER SEEKS GRADED TRIUMPH IN $150,000 ALLAIRE DUPONT (G3)

At the age of 8, Power of Snunner tries to win her first graded stakes in Friday’s 25th running of the $150,000 Maker’s Mark Allaire DuPont Distaff (G3).

Power of Snunner, winner of 10 of 35 starts with 16 seconds, has raced once this year, taking a $100,000 stakes for Pennsylvania-breds at Parx Racing. The mare finished fourth in last year’s DuPont when trained by Kentucky-based Joe Sharp. Moved back to trainer Timothy Kreiser’s Mid-Atlantic base, Power of Snunner won Delaware’s $100,000 Obeah and the restricted Plum Pretty at Parx last year.

The favorite in the contentious field of eight fillies and mares competing at 1 1/8 miles could be the Ignacio Correas-trained Blue Prize, who has never been worse than third in five starts at the distance, including an 8 1/2-length romp in Churchill Downs’ Falls City Handicap (G2) last November.

In two starts at age 5 this year, Blue Prize was seventh in Oaklawn Park’s Azeri (G2) before shipping to New York to take Aqueduct’s $100,000 Top Flight. Her rider that day, Eclipse Award-winning jockey Jose Ortiz, has the return mount on the daughter of Pure Prize, a Group 1 winner in her native Argentina before relocating to America last June.

Dorodansa is in her first stakes in more than two years but she’s been in good form for trainer Kellyn Gorder, who also trains Bootsy’s Hadenough. Dorodansa was two lengths in front at the eighth pole in a second-level allowance race at Oaklawn when the jockey erroneously stopped riding in the 1 1/16-mile race at the track’s mile finish line, winding up third by a neck.

The daughter of Wood Memorial winner Bellamy Road ran back three weeks later in the same type of race, romping by 5 3/4 lengths. In her last start she was a respectable fourth in a money-won allowance race after facing a lot of traffic.

“The race at Keeneland came up really tough,” Gorder said. “That race just didn’t have a whole lot of pace. Even though she’d been coming from off the pace, she just likes to do her own thing. She got in behind a slower pace than she’d seen at Oaklawn and (jockey) Florent (Geroux) had to tap on the brakes quite a few times in the first turn. She’s a pretty cool filly.”

Fuhriously Kissed was third in Oaklawn Park’s Apple Blossom (G1) in her first start after being claimed for $62,500 by Loooch Racing and turned over to Churchill Downs-based trainer Tony Quartarolo. Loooch Racing also entered Thistledown allowance winner Katalust in the DuPont.

Kentucky shipper Song of Spring will be running late as she seeks her first graded victory after finishing third in Keeneland’s Doubledogdare (G3) in her last start. She is trained by Neil Howard, who won the 1990 Preakness Stakes with Summer Squall.

“The lure of it is the mile and an eighth, which we are looking for,” Howard said of the DuPont.

Barclay Tagg, the former Maryland mainstay who won the 2003 Preakness with Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide, is sending out Verve’s Tale, third in her past three stakes. Maryland-based Mike Trombetta has Laurel Park’s Nellie Morse winner In the Navy Now in the DuPont.

The DuPont is carded as the 13th race, with a 5:57 p.m. post.

About Pimlico Race Course

Legendary Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness® Stakes, the Middle Jewel in horse racing’s famed Triple Crown, first opened its doors on October 25, 1870, and is the second oldest racetrack in the United States. Pimlico has played host to racing icons and Baltimoreans have seen the likes of legendary horses such as Man o’ War, Seabiscuit, Secretariat, Affirmed, American Pharoah and Cigar thunder down the stretch in thrilling and memorable competition. For more information on Pimlico, visit www.pimlico.com.

The Stronach Group is North America’s leading Thoroughbred racetrack owner/operator. The Stronach Group racetracks include Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park & Casino, home of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, Golden Gate Fields, Portland Meadows, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, home of the world-famous Preakness. The company owns and operates the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida and is one of North America’s top race horse breeders through its award-winning Adena Springs operation. The Stronach Group is one of the world’s largest suppliers of pari-mutuel wagering systems, technologies and services. Its companies include AmTote, a global leader in wagering technology; Xpressbet, an Internet and telephone account wagering service; and Monarch Content Management, which acts as a simulcast purchase and sales agent of horseracing content for numerous North American racetracks and wagering outlets. The Stronach Group is also a leading producer of social media content for the horseracing industry. For more information contact David Joseph at david.joseph@marylandracing.com or call 954.658.7156.