Resolute Racing’s Youalmosthadme will look to improve on a disappointing run as the favorite in the Beaumont Stakes (G2) at Keeneland as she drops a grade and shortens up to six furlongs in the $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes (G3) May 17 at Pimlico Race Course.
The dirt sprint for 3-year-old fillies drew a field of 12—nine of them stakes winners—but they are all looking for a breakthrough graded victory.
Youalmosthadme was a three-time stakes winner in Kentucky as a juvenile, but in her 3-year-old debut she tired after pressing the pace for six furlongs of the seven-furlong Beaumont. Youalmosthadme finished third, beaten 12 1/4 lengths by stablemate Denim and Pearls .
Trainer Brad Cox is looking for improvement in the Oxbow filly’s second race of the year and he think six furlongs could help her.
“She probably wasn’t quite as tight as I’d like to have had her in the Beaumont. And it was maybe a little too far for her, especially off the layoff,” Cox said.
“She’s obviously very precocious, having broken her maiden in April of last year. We bought her out of that race, and she was very good to us all last year. We gave her a break through the winter, just to let her be a horse. Her run in the Beaumont was good. I probably expected a little more, but she’s come back to work very well since.”
If Youalmosthadme can’t improve on her 2024 debut, there are a lot of ways the Miss Preakness could go. Florida-based Mystic Lake won two seven-furlong dirt sprint stakes at Tampa Bay Downs this year for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. The Mo Town filly is coming off a second-place finish in the Star Shoot Stakes on the all-weather track at Woodbine.
Amo Racing USA’s Launch has three wins and a second, all sprinting on dirt since her import from Europe last year. The Jorge Delgado trainee finished second to subsequent Kentucky Oaks (G1) starter Into Champagne in the Glitter Woman Stakes and won the Any Limit Stakes in her most recent run March 17, both at Gulfstream Park.
Trainer Todd Pletcher has entered Value Area , who sandwiched a third-place finish in the Ruthless Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack with maiden and allowance wins in New York.
Lady Moscato , trained by D. Wayne Lukas, has two wins this year since adding blinkers but she had her win streak stopped when finishing sixth in the Eight Belles Stakes (G2) on the Kentucky Oaks undercard.
Parx-based Carmelina cuts back to sprinting, where the Maximus Mischief filly has four wins, after trying longer in the Busher Stakes and Gazelle Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct.
“We expect her to really run well in here,” said trainer Robert E. “Butch” Reid Jr. “She’s won three stakes for us already, so she’s a very, very solid filly. She’s tough. She hasn’t ducked anybody. We got her a little out of her distance capability in that last one so we’re going to drop her back and stick to one-turn races from here.”
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