Sophomore Filly, Claimed for $150k Last Fall, Sprints to Win

LAUREL, MD – Paradise Farms Corp. and David Staudacher’s Lady Scarlet, who had a two-race win streak snapped in her previous start, returned to her winning ways with her first graded-stakes triumph in Friday’s $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) at historic Pimlico Race Course.

The 37th running of the six-furlong Miss Preakness for 3-year-old fillies was the third of six stakes, four graded, worth $1.05 million in purses on a sensational 14-race Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Day program headlined by the 98th edition of the 1 1/8-mile fixture for 3-year-old fillies.

It was the first Miss Preakness win for both trainer Mike Maker and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. The winning time was 1:10.07 over a fast main track.

Multiple stakes winner Happy Soul, favored at 4-5 in the field of six, went to the lead as expected and was pushed through splits of 23.01 seconds for a quarter of a mile and 45.58 for the half by Gimmick on her outside. Ortiz, meanwhile, rated Lady Scarlet in third and swung wide as they approached the stretch, where the winner reeled in the two leaders and edged clear by 3 ¾ lengths.

Happy Soul held off Gimmick by a length for second, with Verylittlecents another length back in fourth followed by Saucy Lady T and La Casa d’Oro. Program favorite Under the Stars and Sweet Solare were scratched.

Maker claimed Lady Scarlet for $150,000 out of her maiden win last November in Kentucky. After finishing fifth in the first start for her new connections, the daughter of Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Union Rags won back-to-back races to open her sophomore campaign, including the six-furlong Cicada March 19 at Aqueduct. She set the pace before fading to fourth in the seven-furlong Beaumont (G3) April 10 at Keeneland.

$150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) Quotes

Winning trainer Mike Maker, Lady Scarlet: “We left it up to [jockey] Irad [Ortiz Jr.] to be creative. If they hooked up on the lead, so be it. If they gave it [the lead] to us, so be it. I think she can go either way. She's won on the lead before, and she's won from coming off it. So, it worked out perfectly. I think she's a good horse and there's plenty of races out there.”

(On claiming Lady Scarlet for $150,000) “It sounds like a lot, which it is, but with the purse structure that there is, the prices of horses has gone up."

Winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., Lady Scarlet: “I got a perfect trip. She broke good from a great position. I waited for the time to roll, and she did very well. She did everything right, everything perfect. They went out a little fast and I was right there behind them and waited for the time to go. I had plenty left.”

Jockey John Velazquez (Happy Soul): “She broke good and got a good position. I don’t think she ran her ‘A’ race today. Last time out, she was flat. Today, she was mad but she wasn’t herself.”