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.
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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