The Maryland Jockey Club has unveiled the 2010 Pimlico spring stakes schedule
after reaching agreement with both the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s
Association and Maryland Horse Breeders Association. The schedule was approval
by the Maryland Racing Commission on Tuesday at its monthly meeting.
The headline event of the six-week stand that begins April 17 is the 135th
running of the $1 million Preakness S. (G1), the middle jewel of the Triple
Crown, on May 15. The 20-day meeting at the historic Baltimore track will
conclude May 22.
The marquee meet of the Maryland racing season will feature 18 stakes races
for purses of $2,435,000.
Preakness weekend features 15 stakes races worth more than $2.2 million. The
May 14 card features seven stakes races, six for fillies and mares, highlighted
by the $175,000 Black-Eyed Susan S. (G2) for three-year-old fillies. Preakness
Day will have eight added-money races, including six graded events: the
Preakness, Dixie S. (G2), Gallorette S. (G3), William Donald Schaefer S. (G3),
Maryland Sprint S. (G3), and Hirsch Jacobs S. (G3).
“Springtime at Pimlico brings out the best in us,” said Tom Chuckas, Maryland
Jockey Club president and chief operating officer. “It is important to keep the
stakes schedule strong during Preakness weekend when some of the nation’s finest
Thoroughbreds come to town.”
The Pimlico Special (G1) and Allaire duPont Distaff S. (G2) have been put on
hiatus due to a purse shortage. It is the fourth time in the last nine years the
Pimlico Special has been cancelled for this reason. Due to rules implemented by
the American Graded Stakes Committee, the Pimlico Special will now lose its
graded status having not been run for two consecutive years.
“We have tried hard to recruit Grade 1 winners to run in the Special,”
Chuckas said. “Unfortunately a $250,000 purse is just not good enough to
persuade connections, so we have decided to suspend the race this year.”
The other newsworthy change to the stakes schedule was renaming the Woodlawn
S. to the James W. Murphy S. Murphy, who saddled nearly 1,400 winners for
earnings of more than $24 million, passed away last June. Murphy had a banner
Preakness week in 1994, winning both the Pimlico Distaff (G3) and the Miss
Preakness S., with Double Sixes and Foolish Kisses, respectively.
First post for 17 days of the meeting will be 1:10 p.m. (EDT) with
adjustments on Preakness Day (10:45 a.m.), Black-Eyed Susan Day (12:15 p.m.) and
Kentucky Derby Day, May 1 (12:45 p.m.).
The Pimlico stable area will be open for training from April 10 through May
31.