May 17 Stakes Not Ruled Out for Automatic Qualifier Call Another Play

LAUREL, MD – Madaket Stables and Slam Dunk Racing’s Corposo, third in the Santa Anita Oaks (G2) in her most recent start, turned in a sharp breeze Friday ahead of an anticipated start in the $300,000 George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan (G2) May 17 at Pimlico Race Course.

Celebrating its 100th running this year, the Black-Eyed Susan for 3-year-old fillies headlines a 14-race program featuring six stakes, three graded, worth $1 million in purses that serves as a fitting prelude to the 149th Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, May 18.

Corposo went five furlongs in 59.80 seconds over a fast main track at Santa Anita for trainer Peter Eurton, fourth-fastest of 34 horses at the distance. It was the fourth work back since finishing behind a pair of Bob Baffert-trained horses, Nothing Like You and Kinza, in the Santa Anita Oaks.

“She worked five-eighths pretty comfortably,” Eurton said. “She’s very giving. She’ll do whatever you want. She’ll go in 1:03 if you want. I was very pleased with the work.”

The 1 1/16-mile Santa Anita Oaks was just the third start for Corposo, who went unraced at 2 and debuted running fourth in a 6 ½-furlong maiden special weight Feb. 18. Next out she prompted the pace, took over at the top of the stretch and dueled through the lane to get her nose down first in a similar spot going one mile March 8.

A chestnut daughter of 2019 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner and champion older male Vino Rosso, Corposo would be racing away from Santa Anita for the first time in the 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan.

“That’s our penciled-in plan. She worked very well today. As long as she comes out of it good and looks good on Monday, she’ll be on the plane on Tuesday,” Eurton said. “We’re hoping she travels well and hopefully we have some good luck.”

Eurton previously finished seventh in the Black-Eyed Susan with She’s a Warrior, who ran third in the Santa Anita Oaks, then a Grade 1 race, in 2016.

Trainer Michael Trombetta said Friday he hasn’t ruled out the Black-Eyed Susan for R. Larry Johnson’s Maryland homebred Call Another Play, who earned an automatic berth from her victory in the 1 1/16-mile Weber City Miss April 20 at Laurel Park.

“We’re thinking about it. We’re going to try to get some more information about who’s coming and who’s not and then make a decision,” he said. “She’s been doing great. The obvious question is whether she’s good enough to run at this level.”

Call Another Play, by 2018 Florida Derby (G1) winner Audible, has strung together three straight wins and is 4-for-9 lifetime with one second and two thirds. The Weber City Miss was her stakes debut.