Juliet Foxtrot, Varenka Trying To Get 2020 Seasons Back On Track In Saturday’s Gallorette

Juliet Foxtrot and Varenka, graded winners in 2019, will seek their first stakes score this season in the $150,000 Gallorette (G3) Saturday, Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course.

A field of eight fillies and mares was entered in the 1 1/16-mile Gallorette on grass, the second on a 12-race all-stakes Preakness Day program, and the first of seven graded events. First race post time is 11 a.m.

The Gallorette honors the Hall of Fame mare bred in Maryland, who was the leading money-winning female in history when she retired in 1948. During her five seasons of racing she often competed against the top male handicap runners in the country. She won 21 of 72 starts, including the Whitney and the Carter.

Augustin Stable's homebred filly Varenka showed so much promise as a 2-year-old that she raced in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) as a maiden and won three of five starts last year, topped by a dead-heat victory in the Lake Placid (G2) at Saratoga.

The daughter of Hall of Famer Ghostzapper is winless in three tries in 2020. In her most recent outing, she was fifth, beaten 2 ¼ lengths, as the 3-1 favorite in the One Dreamer on Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs.

“She's been a little disappointing this year, I would say,” trainer Graham Motion said. “She won a stake last year as a 3-year-old and I think she's found the step up to older horses a little bit tougher. Having said that, she hasn't been beaten very far in her races this year. I thought she was a little unlucky last time at Kentucky Downs. She didn't have a great trip and she was only beaten two lengths. In three times year this year she's been beaten two, three lengths each time. She's right there she just has to step up a little bit.”

Varenka will race in blinkers for the first time. She will start from the outside post under jockey Trevor McCarthy.

Juddmonte Farm's British homebred Juliet Foxtrot had a very strong 2019 season after being imported and turned over to trainer Brad Cox. The daughter of Dansili capped a three-race win streak with a front-running score in the Modesty Handicap (G3) at Arlington Park. She just missed by a nose to Vasili in the John C. Mabee (G2) at Del Mar, then was second to champion Uni in the First Lady (G1).

Juliet Foxtrot finished the season with a third, beaten 1 ½ lengths, in the Matriarch (G1). This season, the speedy 5-year-old mare, who drew the inside post in the Gallorette under Florent Geroux, has not been able to find the same type of success.

Robert and Lawana Low's 4-year-old homebred She'sonthewarpath has thrived this year for trainer Steve Margolis, winning three of five starts, all in stakes company. With Gabriel Saez taking over for regular rider Chantal Sutherland, the Declaration of War filly will be making her first start since finishing second on Aug. 2 in the Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Stakes. She'sonthewarpath's third dam is the Lows' standout sprinter Capote Belle.

Storm the Hill will make her first start since January and debut for top turf trainer Mike Maker. The 6-year-old Get Stormy mare, owned by Alastar Thoroughbred Company and Michael Valdes, is the most seasoned of the Gallorette runners with 29 starts. The Gallorette will be her 11th straight graded-stakes. Her most recent victory was in the Senator Ken Maddy (G3) at Santa Anita in November 2018. Horacio Karamanos as the mount from Post 3.

Not in Jeopardy, third by a half-length in the 2019 All Along at Laurel Park; No Mo Lady and Jabuticaba, respectively second and fourth in the 2020 All Along Sept. 7; and Wicked Awesome are also entered, the latter for main track only.

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Preakness To Highlight All-Stakes Program At Pimlico On Oct. 3

Highlighted by the $1 million Preakness (G1), presented this year as the final jewel in a refashioned Triple Crown, the Maryland Jockey Club will serve up a total of 16 stakes, nine graded, worth $3.35 million in purses over Preakness weekend at Pimlico Race Course.

The 145th running of the 1 3/16-mile Preakness for 3-year-olds will anchor an all-stakes program of 12 races, seven graded, worth $2.7 million on Saturday, Oct. 3. It will be joined this year by the 96th renewal of the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2), one of the country's premiere events for 3-year-old fillies, contested at 1 1/8 miles.

Turf runners 3 and up will travel 1 1/16 miles in the $250,000 Dinner Party (G2), previously run as the Dixie, now in its 119th year. Pimlico's oldest stakes race and the eighth-oldest in the country, it was named the Dinner Party for its 1870 debut and run at two miles.

Other grass stakes on the Preakness program are the $150,000 Gallorette (G3) for fillies and mares 3 and up, $150,000 Laurel Futurity for 2-year-olds and $150,000 Selima for 2-year-old fillies, each going 1 1/16 miles; and $100,000 James W. Murphy for 3-year-olds and $100,000 Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies at one mile.

Joining the Preakness Day lineup this year is the $200,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) at six furlongs for 3-year-olds and up. Other sprint stakes on the card are the $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs and $100,000 Skipat for fillies and mares 3 and up.

Rounding out the Oct. 3 stakes lineup is the $100,000 UAE President Cup (G1) for Arabians, contested at 1 1/16 miles for 4-year-olds and up.

The historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) for 3-year-olds and up, returned to 1 3/16 miles after being contested at 1 ¼ miles in 2019, is the centerpiece of a Friday, Oct. 2 card that also serves as Claiming Crown Preview Day.

Each winner of the nine Claiming Crown Preview Day races will earn automatic entry and a stipend toward travel costs to the annual Claiming Crown Day program being held for the eighth consecutive year at Gulfstream Park. A similar preview was hosted at Laurel Park in 2015.

Preakness weekend will kick off Thursday, Oct. 1 with three stakes led by the $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) for 3-year-olds at six furlongs. It will be joined by a pair of five-furlong turf sprints, the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint for 3-year-olds and up and $100,000 The Very One for fillies and mares 3 and older.

Live racing will be conducted at Pimlico this year from Sept. 24-26 and Oct. 1-3.

Nominations for all Thoroughbred stakes, excluding the Preakness, close Thursday, Sept. 17. Nominations for the UAE President Cup for Arabians close Saturday, Sept. 19.

All nominations can be forwarded to Racing Secretary Jillian Tullock at Pimlico Race Course, Hayward & Winner Aves., Baltimore MD 21215, e-mailed to stakes coordinator Coley Blind at cblind@marylandracing.com, or by calling 410-542-9400 or 800-638-1859.

For more information go to: https://www.pimlico.com/sites/www.pimlico.com/files/PDF/2020_Preakness_Stakes_0.pdf

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