PREAKNESS 146: GRADE II DINNER PARTY, G3 DUPONT PREVIEWS

By David Joseph —-

Bye Bye Melvin, English Bee Top $250,000 Dinner Party (G2)

BALTIMORE – Grade 3-winning stable mates Bye Bye Melvin and English Bee will take on the imposing pair of Kuramata and Grade 1-placed Sacred Life as well as Grade 2 winner Somelikeithotbrown in a competitive edition of Saturday’s $250,000 Dinner Party (G2) at Pimlico Race Course.

The 120th running of the 1 1/16-mile Dinner Party for 3-year-olds and up on the grass is part of a spectacular 14-race program featuring 10 stakes, six graded, worth $2.25 million in purses headlined by the 146th renewal of the Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

Other graded-stakes on the card are the $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) for 3-year-olds and $150,000 Maryland Sprint (G3), both going six furlongs; $150,00 Gallorette for fillies and mares 3 and up at 1 1/16 miles on the grass; and $100,000 UAE President Cup (G1) for Arabian horses.

First race post time is 10:30 a.m.

Pimlico’s oldest stakes race and the eighth-oldest in the country, the Dinner Party was contested at two miles for its 1870 debut, won by the Hall of Famer Preakness. The distance has changed eight times over its history, settling at the current 1 1/16 miles in 2014.

Alex G. Campbell Jr.’s Bye Bye Melvin, a homebred son of champion Uncle Mo, made his 4-year-old debut in an open, third-level allowance at the Dinner Party distance April 15 at Keeneland, where he took a short lead into the stretch and nearly held it the rest of the way before being beaten a neck when second to Midnight Tea Time. It was his first race since running third by one length in the 1 1/8-mile Bryan Station Nov. 6 over the same course.

“He’s been very consistent. He was a little unlucky the other day coming off the layoff. He might have gotten a little tired,” trainer Graham Motion said. “He’s a very hard-trying, hard-knocking horse. He’s been thrown all sorts of different ground to run on.”

Bye Bye Melvin won the one-mile Saranac (G3) by a head last summer on a soft course at Saratoga, then was beaten a nose when second in the James W. Murphy over yielding ground on the Preakness undercard in October.

“He’s put in some really strong efforts which kind of show that his Saratoga win was not a fluke, I think,” Motion said. “He’s a big, strong, gorgeous horse. I think this will hopefully be a stepping stone to some longer races this summer. Ultimately, I think probably a mile and a quarter is going to be a good trip for him.”

Motion, whose previous Dinner Party wins came with Dr. Brendler in 2003 and Better Talk Now in 2006 when it was contested as the Dixie, will also send out Calumet Farm homebred English Bee. A 5-year-old son of turf champion English Channel, he will be racing for the first time since running fifth in a 1 1/16-mile allowance Oct. 8 at Keeneland.

“We gave him a freshening over the winter. I felt like he’d been going at it for a long time without a break,” Motion said. “After we ran him at Keeneland last time I wanted to give him some time. He went to the farm at Calumet and Jack Sisterson got him started for me and he came back to me here in the beginning of the year.”

English Bee won the 1 1/8-mile Virginia Derby (G3) at Colonial Downs and the one-mile Parx Fall Derby in successive 2019 starts but has gone winless since. During that stretch, other than his most recent race, he hasn’t lost by more than 3 ½ lengths with seconds by a neck in the Wise Dan (G2) and half-length in the Canadian Turf (G3).

“This horse, I love this horse. He’s a hard-knocking, tough little horse,” Motion said. “He’s been a little unlucky probably not to come away with another win in one of these races he’s been in, but he hasn’t been beaten far in some pretty tough races. He’s a hard-trying horse.”

Hall of Famer John Velazquez will ride Bye Bye Melvin from outermost Post 8, while Joel Rosario has the assignment on English Bee from Post 2.

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, winner of the 2016 Dinner Party with Takeover Target, entered Kuramata and Sacred Life. Peter Brant’s Kuramata will be making just his fourth career start and first in a stakes, breaking his maiden Feb. 21 at Tampa Bay Downs and winning a 1 1/16-mile allowance April 2 at Aqueduct in his two races this year.

Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables and Bethlehem Stables’ Sacred Life was a Group 3 winner in his native France that has yet to break through with his first graded-stakes in North America. Winner of the 1 1/16-mile Oceanport last summer at Monmouth Park, the 6-year-old ran third by 2 ½ lengths in the Maker’s Mark Mile (G1) April 9 at Keeneland in his first race in seven months.

Irad Ortiz Jr. will be aboard Kuramata from Post 3 with Hall of Famer Javier Castellano riding Sacred Life from Post 5.

Also exiting the Maker’s Mark Mile, where he was seventh by less than four lengths, is Skychai Racing and Sand Dollar Stable’s Somelikeithotbrown, second to Factor This in last fall’s Dinner Party. Trained by Mike Maker, the 5-year-old son of 2008 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) winner Big Brown is a graded winner on two surfaces, taking the 2019 Jeff Ruby (G3) on the all-weather at Turfway Park and the Bernard Baruch (G2) over the Saratoga turf last summer.

Somelikeithotbrown owns four wins and three seconds in seven career tries at the Dinner Party distance. Jose Ortiz gets the call from Post 1.

“He was second in this race last year,” Maker said. “It’s a nice distance for him.”

Completing the field are Dreams of Tomorrow, third by 1 ¼ lengths in the Henry S. Clark April 24 at Pimlico for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey; 2018 American Derby (G3) winner Real Story; Talk Or Listen, Group 3-placed in France in 2019; and stakes-placed Midnight Tea Time.

Horologist Seeks Good Time in $150,000 Allaire du Pont (G3)

BALTIMORE – Five-time stakes winner Horologist will go after her fourth career graded triumph and third in six starts when she makes her Pimlico Race Course debut in Friday’s $150,000 Allaire du Pont (G3).

The 28th running of the 1 1/8-mile du Pont for fillies and mares 3 and up is one of six stakes, four graded, worth $1 million in purses during a spectacular 14-race card on the eve of the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1), headlined by the 97th running of the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) for 3-year-old fillies.

Other graded stakes on the program are the $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs, and $150,000 Allaire du Pont (G3) for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/8 miles. Rounding out the stakes action are a pair of turf events, the $100,000 Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies at one mile, and $100,000 The Very One, a five-furlong dash for females 3 and older.

First race post time is 11:30 a.m.

The du Pont returns to its traditional spot on Preakness weekend after being moved to late December amid the coronavirus pandemic and run as the last graded-stakes on the East Coast. Horologist can give Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott his second du Pont victory, following Ajinia – 1997’s champion 3-year-old filly – in 1998.

Horologist has raced once this year, winning the Top Flight Invitational April 10 at Aqueduct. It was the 5-year-old Gemologist mare’s third straight trip at 1 1/8 miles, after winning the Beldame (G2) and finishing off the board in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) to cap 2020. Other graded wins have come in last summer’s Molly Pitcher (G3) and 2019 Monmouth Oaks (G3), both at Monmouth Park, the latter for original trainer John Mazza.

This will be the 14th consecutive stakes start for Horologist – the name for a maker of clocks or watches – and 12th overall against graded competition. She has raced once previously in Maryland, finishing second by a nose to Arrifana in the one-mile Nellie Morse at Laurel Park in March 2020.

Robert and Lawana Low’s Spice Is Nice is seeking her first career stakes win in the du Pont, a race her trainer – newly elected Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher – won with Pool Land (2006), Super Espresso (2011) and Stopchargingmaria (2015).

Second in the 2020 Davona Dale (G2) off a 12-length debut triumph, both last winter at Gulfstream Park, Spice Is Nice won an optional claiming allowance at Belmont Park before running sixth in the 1 ¼-mile Alabama (G1) in what would be her season finale. She returned to win a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance April 9 at Keeneland, her first start in nearly eight months.

“She had a nice allowance win at Keeneland. The timing is good for this,” Pletcher said. “She’s a nice filly that had a good break and came back well from it. So, we’re making the step back into the graded stakes ranks and feel good about the way she is doing.”

One of Pletcher’s former horses now trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Another Broad has been off the board in both her starts this year after capping 2020 running third by a length behind Eres Tu and Wicked Awesome in the du Pont. Winner of the 2019 Top Flight Invitational, she has placed four times in graded-stakes.

Reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox entered the pair of Dreamalildreamofu and Getridofwhatailesu. The Elkstone Group’s Getridofwhatailesu won the Jan. 23 Pippin at Oaklawn Park before taking third in the Azeri (G2) won by 2020 Kentucky Oaks (G1)-winning stablemate Shedaresthedevil. Last out she was fourth in the April 17 Apple Blossom (G1) won by front-running Letruska with Cox-trained two-time champion Monomoy Girl second.

“She’s a stakes-winner and hopefully we can make her a graded-stakes winner,” Cox said. “She’s doing great, and probably is going to get a little class relief. No Letruska’s or Monomoy Girls in this group.”

Full of Run Racing’s Dreamalildreamofu exits a three-quarter-length triumph in the one-mile Latonia over Turfway Park’s all-weather surface March 27. The Commissioner filly broke her maiden in March 2020 on the grass and also owns a pair of off-the-turf wins. This will be her graded-stakes debut.

“Dreamalildreamofu is coming off a synthetic race,” Cox said. “She’s performed well on three different surfaces – turf, dirt and synthetic. So, we have options with her.”

BB Horses’ Landing Zone, scratched from last year’s Black-Eyed Susan (G2) while on a three-race win streak, finished fourth in the 2020 du Pont after dueling for the early lead. This year she was second by 1 ¼ lengths in the 1 1/16-mile Nellie Morse and most recently sixth following an inside trip in the one-mile Heavenly Prize March 6 at Aqueduct.

Landing Zone, 4, comes from the barn of Claudio Gonzalez, Maryland’s winningest trainer each of the past four years who sprung a mild upset in last year’s historic Pimlico Special (G3) with Harpers First Ride.

“She hasn’t run a race in a long time and she’s doing better than ever. She wants to run,” Gonzalez said. “She breezed good the other day here and she came back very happy. She had a nice streak going last year, she won here and in Delaware. I feel good about her. The race is going to be tough. She feels good, and when my horses feel good that’s when we have to try.”

Sonata Stable’s Lucky Stride is a 10-time career winner, capturing back-to-back stakes to open 2021 in the Wayward Lass at Tampa Bay Downs and Nellie Morse, the latter over Landing Zone. Third to du Pont contenders Horologist and Mrs. Danvers in the Top Flight, she was also fifth in the Shuvee (G3) last summer behind Letruska, beaten only 3 ½ lengths.

Allen Stable, Inc. homebred Mrs. Danvers won an open allowance and the 1 1/8-mile Comely (G3) in successive starts to cap her 3-year-old season, but has gone winless in two starts this year for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. Prior to the Top Flight, she was fifth after leading early in the Royal Delta (G3) Feb. 20 at Gulfstream.

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