Black-Eyed Susan now on card

The Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, historically run in recent years on the day before the Preakness Stakes, will instead be run on the same card as the Preakness this year, according to a stakes schedule distributed by Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Wednesday.

According to the schedule, the Oct. 3 Preakness card will feature 12 races, all of them stakes and seven of them graded. This year, the Preakness is the third leg of the Triple Crown, scheduled one month after the re-scheduled Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Along with the Black-Eyed Susan, the Preakness card also will feature another transplant, the Grade 3 De Francis Dash, historically run in the fall at Pimlico’s sister track, Laurel Park in suburban Maryland.

“Everybody’s stakes schedules got disrupted, and I’m just trying to group things together on Preakness Day,” said Sal Sinatra, president of both tracks. “We’re just trying to be a little creative.”

The Preakness card this year is in a perfect spot for top-class horses that plan to run on the blockbuster Derby and Oaks cards at Churchill this weekend, with the two cards spaced four weeks apart. Normally, most of the horses that run in stakes races during Derby week do not wheel back two weeks later at Pimlico.

The Preakness card also will be held five weeks prior to the Breeders’ Cup two-day event this year at Keeneland in

Lexington, Ky. on Nov. 6-7. This year, the Preakness is a Win and You’re In race for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, awarding the winner a no-fees guaranteed berth for the $7 million race.

Six of the stakes races on the Preakness card will be turf races – the James W. Murphy Stakes, the Hilltop Stakes, the Laurel Futurity, the Grade 2 Dinner Party (formerly called the Dixie Stakes), the Grade 3 Gallorette, and the Selima Stakes. In addition to the Preakness, De Francis Dash, and Black-Eyed Susan, the dirt stakes on the card include the Grade 3 Miss Preakness and the Skipat Stakes. A stakes for Arabians fills out the card.

According to Sinatra, Pimlico still does not have any plans to allow spectators at Preakness, despite a recent announcement by Gov. Larry Hogan allowing several types of businesses to reopen as of Friday at limited capacity, including movie theaters and small concert venues.

“He told us last week that there should be no spectators for the Preakness,” Sinatra said. “We’re still grouped as an arena. So we’re in a holding pattern.”

Sinatra said that he does not know if owners will be allowed on the grounds for the Preakness, despite owners being allowed on the track apron at Laurel Park since early June.

“We’re still trying to work that out,” Sinatra said. “I’ve been on a lot of phone calls with other tracks about how they are handling it, and hopefully we have something to say soon.”