Striker Has Dial easily wins the Skipat, TMJC Photo
Preakness 151 Press Release
LAUREL, MD – Chief Horse Futures’ Striker Has Dial, a troubled second in last year’s race, had clear sailing in her return with a front-running 1 ¾-length triumph in Saturday’s $125,000 Skipat presented by Guinness Open Gate Brewery at Laurel Park.
The 33rd running of the Skipat for fillies and mares three and up sprinting six furlongs was the first of nine stakes, four graded, worth $3.15 million in purses on a spectacular 14-race program headlined by the 151st Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
Ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr. for trainer Horacio De Paz, Striker Has Dial ($16.40) covered a fast main track in 1:10.44 for her second career stakes win. The 5-year-old mare had not raced since capturing the six-furlong Endine Sept. 27 at Delaware Park.
Breaking alertly from her rail post, Striker Has Dial was sent to the front and ran the first quarter of a mile in 22.47 seconds, pressed to her outside by 3-2 favorite Modo. The half went in 45.76 with the top two unchanged, and Striker Has Dial turned for home firmly in command as Benedetta passed Modo for second.
It was three lengths back to Passage East in third followed by Grade 2 winner Kappa Kappa, recently named Pennsylvania-bred Horse of the Year for 2025, and Modo. Complexity Jane, who ran in Friday’s $125,000 Allaire du Pont Distaff, and Sporting Lady were scratched.
Santana won the 2018 Skipat on Vertical Oak for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.
Striker Has Dial improved her record to 5-5-2 from 14 career starts. In last year’s Skipat she bobbled and was bumped at the break, raced three wide and took a short lead into the stretch before settling for second behind Zeitlos, beaten 1 ½ lengths.
Bred in Connecticut, Skipat won 26 of 45 career races over six years, earning $614,215 in purses between 1977 and 1981. Two of her wins came in the Barbara Fritchie (G3), in 1979 and 1981, the latter coming the year after she had been retired and bred and brought back to the races.
$125,000 Skipat Quotes
Winning Trainer Horacio De Pax (Striker Has Dial): “She’s always a forward running filly. It was just a matter of if we had enough fitness. She’d been training so good. Ricardo fit her perfect. He’d been begging me for a year to get on this filly. There’s not a better rider than Ricardo riding the front end on a speed horse. Now we’ve got to plan the next spot. We have to see how she comes out. Obviously, she runs well at Saratoga, and we’ll give that a try. We have options.”
Winning Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. (Striker Has Dial): “She was going so easy today. She had been training good and today it paid off. The pressure never got to her. She was nice and relaxed throughout. When I asked her to go, she did it so easy. She was much the best today.”
