May 10 2004
The boys have centerstage in the Preakness, but the fillies and the handicap division will have their big races on Friday. The feature race on Friday is the $500,000 Pimlico Special Handicap (G1) at the same distance as the Preakness, 1 3/16 miles. Last year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide will be back to try and keep his record at Pimlico undefeated. He will have to face Santa Anita Handicap winner Southern Image and San Bernardino Handicap winner Dynever along with four others so he will have to be at the top of his game to win here. The highweight for the Special is Southern Image at 120 lbs, who is coming off two straight wins in $1 million races at Santa Anita.
Although not as important as the Kentucky Oaks, the Black-Eyed Susan is still a grade 2 race at 1 1/8 miles with a purse of $200,000. Most of the top fillies are passing this one up for races at Belmont, but a nice field of eight has been entered including Bob Baffert's Yearly Report, winner of the Melair and Santa Ynez in her last two starts, and local favorite Pawyne Princess, second to the boys in the Federico Tesio last out.
Past performances are available free online for the Black-Eyed Susan from the Daily Racing Form here in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Post time for the Black-Eyed Susan is 5:11pm EDT and the Pimlico Special is 5:43pm EDT on Friday and both will be televised on ESPN (schedule).
| The Pimlico Special | ||||
| PP | Horse and Weight | Trainer | Jockey | M/L Odds |
| 1. | Midway Road - 116lbs | Neill Howard | Robby Albarado | 5-1 |
| 2. | Ole Faunty - 114lbs | Elliott Walden | Pat Day | 20-1 |
| 3. | Evening Attire - 115lbs | Patrick Kelly | Edgar Prado | 8-1 |
| 4. | Southern Image - 120lbs | Michael Machowsky | Victor Espinoza | 3-1 |
| 5. | Funny Cide - 118lbs | Barclay Tagg | Jose Santos | 2-1 |
| 6. | Bowman's Band - 113lbs | H. Allen Jerkens | Raphael Dominguez | 12-1 |
| 7. | Dynever - 117lbs | Christophe Clement | Cory Nakatani | 5-2 |
| The Black-Eyed Susan | ||||
| PP | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | M/L Odds |
| 1. | Pilfer | John Servis | Stewart Elliott | 30-1 |
| 2. | Pawyne Princess | John Robb | Raphael Dominguez | 5-2 |
| 3. | America America | Franck Mourier | Cory Nakatani | 30-1 |
| 4. | Song Track | Neill Howard | Robby Albarado | 8-1 |
| 5. | Rare Gift | John Kimmel | Edgar Prado | 6-1 |
| 6. | Yearly Report | Bob Baffert | Jerry Bailey | 4-5 |
| 7. | Native Annie | Michael Stidham | Victor Espinoza | 20-1 |
| 8. | Menifeeque | Bill Mott | Cornelio Velasquez | 12-1 |
