BALTIMORE – As Old Hilltop prepares to host one more Preakness weekend before a massive renovation commences, it’s fitting that there’s a solid chance for locally based trainers to pick up a victory in Friday’s $125,000 Hilltop Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the turf.
“We’re always looking forward to this weekend,” said trainer Arnaud Delacour, who is based at the nearby Fair Hill Training Center. “We enjoy the atmosphere, the ambiance, and we have a lot of history. It’s going to be fun to be there and, you know, a little bit nostalgic about what’s going to happen, but looking forward [to it].”
Delacour will saddle White Rocks, one of two Fair Hill-based fillies in the Hilltop field, along with Pretty Lavish, who will take the van ride down for Graham Motion. Complexity Jane is based at Laurel Park, the site of next year’s Preakness, with Brittany Russell, while Pure Majestic is also based at Laurel for John Robb.
This will be the first start in Maryland for White Rocks, who began her career at Turfway Park over the winter. After a front-running six-length maiden win at second asking, she turned in an eye-catching performance in the Cincinnati Trophy at a mile. Unchallenged on the front end, she led by nearly 10 lengths at one point before holding on by 1 1/4 lengths.
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In the Bourbonette Oaks, going 1 1/16 miles on March 22, she again showed the way. Despite actually setting slower fractions, she finished fifth on a day when closers performed well.
“She has probably put on weight a little bit [since then], which she needed to,” Delacour said. “When we did the Bourbonette, it was a logical spot, but it was coming back pretty quick out of a pretty tiring race where she did it the hard way. So she was probably a little bit lighter than I would have wanted, but the past couple of weeks have done her a lot of good.”
This will be the first start on turf for the filly after four outings on Tapeta. With rain in Baltimore through the week, the prospect of a softer course looms.
“I’ve had this race in mind for her,” Delacour said. “It’s home for her, and [I] wanted to try her on the turf. I think it’s a logical spot. I don’t know about the soft turf, but they’re all going to have to run on it.”
Pretty Lavish is also making her first Maryland start. The filly won her debut on soft turf in Ireland before coming to Motion. She won an allowance at Tampa Bay Downs by a hard-charging neck, but then was eighth in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks on March 8.
“I was kind of asking quite a lot of her,” Motion said of the disappointing effort. “She’s only run twice in America, so it was a big step up for her. I freshened her up a little bit when we left Florida.”
Pretty Lavish will be hoping for someone to go with White Rocks early, and that could be Complexity Jane. The filly won the Weber City Miss by three-quarters of a length going 1 1/16 miles last month on dirt at Laurel. She switches surfaces and cuts back slightly for the Hilltop rather than taking the berth her win earned her in the Grade 2, 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan.
She is from the first crop of Complexity, who has sired graded and group stakes winners on both dirt and turf. Should continued wet conditions force races to the main track, Complexity Jane becomes a standout.
Additional speed could come from Me Governor, a stakes winner on the Aqueduct turf last fall who is going beyond 6 1/2 furlongs for the turf time; Pure Majestic, winner of the off-the-turf Selima last year but well-beaten in three stakes outings since; and Princess Attitude.
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A strong pace would be good news for the lightly raced but well-regarded Obeissante. The filly makes her first start against winners for Todd Pletcher off a win in a one-mile maiden race at Gulfstream Park. The 75 Beyer Speed Figure she earned lines up respectably with this field.
Princess Attitude is one of three fillies in the Hilltop who are cross-entered in Wednesday’s Horseshoe Indianapolis Handicap, along with Sigh No More, an Irish Group 3 winner on soft turf making her U.S. debut, and stakes-placed Play With Fire. Trainer Vicki Oliver said she would run Princess Attitude at Pimlico. Brendan Walsh, who trains Sigh No More and Play With Fire, will scratch out of the Horseshoe Indianapolis races and run in the Hilltop.
The Very One
Later on the card, older fillies and mares take to the turf course for the $100,000 The Very One Stakes, a five-furlong sprint. Maryland-bred Bosserati is 2 for 3 over this course and will be trying to avenge her lone loss here, a ninth-place finish in last year’s The Very One.
“She didn’t run good here last year,” trainer Russell said. “Looking back, we thought we had her ready. I think we have her tighter at this point.”
Bosserati, who beat males in last fall’s Maryland Million Turf Sprint at Laurel, is making her first start of the year and has been consistently breezing since late March for her return.
Accomplished Girl was eighth in the Giant’s Causeway at Keeneland last out against some divisional leaders, but before that, she had a good winter at Fair Grounds, with two stakes wins and two third-place finishes in stakes.
Mendys Honey has won four straight races against lesser company. She moves to turf for the first time, and her pedigree suggests she should relish the surface.
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