Pyrenees scoring last year’s edition. (Anika Miskar/Past The Wire)
Shares Spotlight with $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) May 16
David Joseph/Pimlico
BALTIMORE – Blue Heaven Farm homebred Pyrenees, who capped a spectacular day of racing for trainer Cherie DeVaux last spring and propelled her to a lucrative weekend bonus, will make his 5-year-old debut in an attempt to defend his title in the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) Friday, May 16 at Pimlico Race Course.
The 55th running of the 1 3/16-mile Pimlico Special for 3-year-olds and up is among six stakes, three graded, worth $1.05 million in purses on a blockbuster program headlined by the 101st running of the $300,000 George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan (G2) for 3-year-old fillies, serving as a fitting prelude to Saturday’s 150th Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
Also on the card are the $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs and listed $125,000 Allaire du Pont Distaff for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/8 miles. They are joined by a pair of stakes scheduled for the turf – the $125,000 Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies at one mile, and $100,000 The Very One, a five-furlong dash for females 3 and older.
Post time for the first of 14 races is 11:30 a.m. ET
Prior to winning the Pimlico Special with Pyrenees, named for the mountain range on the border of France and Spain, DeVaux captured the Hilltop with She Feels Pretty and du Pont with Shotgun Hottie. She wound up with the most points among trainers for their horses in stakes races over Preakness (G1) weekend, cashing the top bonus prize of $50,000.
“It wasn’t something we were targeting, necessarily, it just kind of worked out that way. It was a big day, and it was exciting,” DeVaux said. “It was where She Feels Pretty got her year started off and she went on to have a really great year and so did Pyrenees. It [was] the beginning of what ended up being a really awesome year.”
Pyrenees had been off nearly 12 months when he kicked off his 2024 campaign with a maiden special weight victory going 1 1/16 miles in late January, launching a four-race win streak capped by his stakes debut in the Pimlico Special.
From there, the son of Into Mischief ran second to Kingsbarns – beaten favorite in the Pimlico Special – in the 1 1/8-mile Stephen Foster (G1) and Highland Falls in the 1 1/4-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) at Saratoga before finishing a troubled seventh in the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) in his season finale.
“He’s doing well,” DeVaux said. “He’s run really well off the layoff before. Where he started his campaign prior to last year was a lot longer of a layoff, so we’re at least ahead of the game in that respect. He’s training well and he looks great. We’re kind of just hoping that he runs a good race, and we can move forward.
“[The Pimlico Special] was a target spot for him to come back, just because we know he likes the track and for the familiarity,” she added. “He might need the race, but it’s just a good target for him to start the year off.”
Jockey Jose Ortiz has the mount.
Trainer Brad Cox entered the pair of Star of Wonder and Grade 3 winner Encino. WinStar Farm homebred Star of Wonder takes a two-race win streak into what will be his stakes debut, having won four of five career starts. Most recently, he launched his 4-year-old season with a half-length victory in a one-mile optional claiming allowance April 4 at Aqueduct over multiple graded-stakes placed Castle Chaos.
“They’re both doing well,” Cox said. “I think they’ll both like the distance. This is going to be Star of Wonder’s first opportunity at graded-stakes company. He’s very well bred. He’s a nice horse doing really well right now and ran a big race at Aqueduct off the layoff.”
Godolphin homebred Encino won three consecutive starts including the John Battaglia Memorial on Turfway Park’s all-weather surface and the Lexington (G3) over Keeneland’s main track, both at 1 1/16 miles, before going to the sidelines. He returned Jan. 16 with an optional claiming allowance victory at Fair Grounds before finishing seventh in the Gulfstream Park Mile (G2) and rebounding with a runner-up effort in the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Cup Classic (G3) on the Turfway Park synthetic. The winner that day, Mercante, was subsequently second in the Turf Classic (G1) May 3 at Churchill Downs.
“We wheeled him back in three weeks after a dull effort at Gulfstream,” Cox said. “We didn’t really think he’d like the one turn down at Gulfstream. I thought he ran a really big race at Turfway. The horse that beat him came back and ran a really well. A lot of positives. He’s had plenty of time to recover since the Turfway race, and [he’s] back to the dirt. He’s a graded-stakes winner on dirt. I think he’s a dual surface horse. We’ll see how things go Friday, but I think he could even run on the turf at some point if the right opportunity presented itself.”
BC Stables and Henry Schmueckle’s Just Steel returns to Pimlico for 89-year-old Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas after finishing fifth to stablemate Seize the Grey in last year’s Preakness Stakes (G1). Runner-up in the Smarty Jones, Southwest (G3) and Arkansas Derby (G1) last winter and spring, and 17th in the Kentucky Derby (G1), he went nine months between starts until running fifth by two lengths in a six-furlong allowance Feb. 23 at Oaklawn Park.
Just Steel, by 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify, is winless in four tries this year, finishing fifth in the March 29 Oaklawn Mile (G3) and sixth, beaten three lengths by Mindframe, in the seven-furlong Churchill Downs (G1) May 3.
“He ran very well in his last race. He got a really good [speed] number. If he runs that race back, he’ll be very effective,” said Lukas, who also considered Saturday’s $150,000 Maryland Sprint (G3). “He has been getting fit. I shortened him up [last race] because he wasn’t fit, but he is getting his act together now and he is getting a little bit tighter so I figured maybe we would give him a shot to go two turns.
“He chipped his ankle in the Preakness last year. Seize the Grey won it, but at the top of the stretch, I thought he was poised to run right by him,” he added. “I gave him six, seven months off. We gave him every chance to heal and be right. He is a big, grand looking horse. I tell you what, there won’t be a prettier horse in the post parade than him. He is a big, muscular horse with a lot of hip. Really, an attractive horse.”
Red Route One, bred and owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds and trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, is a three-time graded-stakes winner that has placed in seven other graded events and earned over $2 million in purses. He is no stranger to Pimlico, having run fourth in both the 2023 Preakness and 2024 Pimlico Special. He was a last-out sixth in the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) April 19 at Oaklawn after winning the Essex Handicap (G3) there March 22.
J R Sanchez Racing Stable, owned and trained by Laurel Park-based Rudy Sanchez-Salomon, takes career-best form into the Pimlico Special. The 4-year-old gelding tackles his first graded attempt off back-to-back wins over his home course, the latest a rallying 2 ¾-length decision in the 1 1/8-mile Native Dancer April 12.
“It was a very impressive race, very exciting. We were waiting for that kind of race,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “He’s been doing so well; I’ve just been taking my time with him. It’s a big step. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the horse, but you never know. I have a really good feeling about him this time, especially going a mile and three-sixteenths.”
“He’s a horse that needs to be ridden really hard and [jockey Jevian Toledo] knows how to ride him now. You have to ride him all the way because he’s kind of a lazy, heavy horse,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “Right now he’s awesome. I hope he stays that way to the race.”
Completing the field are Jupiter Stable’s Phileas Fogg, 5 ¼-length winner of the 1 ¼-mile Excelsior April 5 at Aqueduct; Andrew Farm, Mountmellick Farm, Ocean Reef Racing, White Mountain Stables and Stonecrest Farm’s San Siro, a last-out second in the 1 3/16-mile Ben Ali (G3) April 19 at Keeneland; Thorndale Stable and Jeff Hiles’ 11-time winner Time for Trouble, fourth in the Ben Ali; and Turman Racing Stable and AJ Suited Racing Stable’s Awesome Aaron, exiting a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance victory April 12 at Oaklawn Park.
The Pimlico Special was created in 1937 by Alfred Vanderbilt, the master of Sagamore Farm, as the first major stakes in the United States set up as an invitational and was won by Triple Crown champion War Admiral. The following year, War Admiral was upset by Seabiscuit in what Sports Illustrated called the ‘Race of the Century.’
Revived in 1988 by late Maryland Jockey Club president Frank De Francis, the Special’s illustrious roster of winners also includes Triple Crown winners Whirlaway, Citation and Assault, and modern-day Horses of the Year Criminal Type, Cigar, Skip Away, Mineshaft and Invasor.
