BALTIMORE – Way to Be Marie is coming off the best race of her career in winning the Tom Benson Memorial in March at Fair Grounds. If there is more improvement to come from the 4-year-old filly, Way to Be Marie could be the one to beat in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Gallorette Stakes at Pimlico.
Way to Be Marie had a busy winter at Fair Grounds, finishing in the money in three stakes, including the off-the-turf Pago Hop. She got a beautiful, off-the-pace trip in the Benson, one race after dueling on the lead in the Al Stall Memorial when finishing third.
“She moved forward in her last race. That was the race we were looking for from her,” trainer Rob Atras said. “She finished up really strong, sat a perfect trip, and really, it was her best race yet.”
From a Beyer Speed Figure standpoint, Way to Be Marie earned her best number (89) when finishing second in the Grade 2 Edgewood Stakes over yielding ground in May 2024. The Pimlico turf should have some give in it after several days of rain this week.
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“She doesn’t mind a bit of moisture in the ground. If there is, I don’t think it’s going to hurt her,” said Atras, who has Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Junior Alvarado to ride.
Trainer Graham Motion, a three-time Gallorette winner, sends out Queen of the Mud and Sparkle Blue in this year’s running. Queen of the Mud won the restricted Springtime Stakes at Santa Anita last October, then finished second behind Queen Maxima in the Grade 3 Monrovia on April 5 at Santa Anita. That was the fourth of what is now a five-race winning streak for Queen Maxima, who won the Unbridled Sidney Stakes at Churchill Downs.
“It seemed like a good comeback spot. We didn’t realize that the filly who’s going to end up being the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup [Turf Sprint] was going to be in there,” Motion said.
Motion ultimately believes sprinting is what Queen of the Mud will end up doing, but “she trains like she will handle this” 1 1/16-mile distance, he said.
Flavien Prat, who has won twice on Queen of the Mud, is reunited with the 5-year-old mare.
Sparkle Blue is a multiple stakes winner going 1 1/8 miles. She has a strong closing kick, though she did win the Grade 2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs in 2024 on the front end. Motion felt Sparkle Blue was “a little unlucky” when she finished second to Nineteenamendment in the Dahlia Stakes at Laurel last out.
“She was coming, just a little too late,” he said. “A mile might be a little quick for her.”
Dana’s Beauty and Austere finished first and third in the Latonia Stakes over Turfway Park’s synthetic surface last out. Both are stakes winners on turf.
Ocean Club won the Grade 3 Noble Damsel Stakes last year at Aqueduct, while Charlene’s Dream was a stakes winner at Golden Gate and Horseshoe Indianapolis. Three Havanas, a multiple Group 3-placed runner in Germany, makes her U.S. debut for Christophe Clement.
Rounding out the field is Conquest Dancer, who looks like she was entered with hopes of this race being moved to dirt.
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