BALTIMORE – For an eighth straight year, the Maryland Jockey Club is offering bonus money totaling $100,000 to trainers who run a minimum of five horses in the 15 stakes races during Preakness weekend, May 17 and 18, at Pimlico Race Course.

    The blockbuster weekend includes a total of 16 stakes, nine graded, worth $4.4 million in purses. The trainer with the most points will receive $50,000, second is worth $25,000, third $12,000, fourth $7,000, fifth $4,000 and sixth $2,000.

    Points are accumulated for finishing first (10 points), second (seven), third (five), fourth (three) and having a starter (one) in the 15 horoughbred stakes, led by the 149th running of the $2 million Preakness Stakes, Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, May 18. Trainers must have a minimum of five starts to qualify for the bonus.

    Other graded events on Preakness Day are the $500,000 Dinner Party (G3) for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles and $100,000 Gallorette (G3) for fillies and mares 3 and older at 1 1/16 miles, each on turf, and the $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) for 3-year-olds and $100,000 Maryland Sprint (G3) for 3-year-olds and up, both at six furlongs; and $100,000 UAE President Cup (G1) for older Arabian horses on the main track. The UAE President Cup is not part of the bonus.

    Supporting Preakness undercard stakes are the $100,000 Sir Barton for 3-year-old non-winners of a sweepstakes going 1 1/16 miles and $100,000 Skipat for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting six furlongs, both on dirt, along with the $100,000 James W. Murphy for 3-year-olds going one mile and $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint at five furlongs, each on the grass.

    Preakness Eve, May 17, will be highlighted by the 100th running of the $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles and two supporting graded-stakes – the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) for 3-year-olds and up going 1 3/16 miles and $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs.

    The Black-Eyed Susan undercard also includes the $100,000 Allaire du Pont Distaff for fillies and mares 3 and older going 1 1/8 miles on the dirt as well as the $100,000 Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies going one mile and $100,000 The Very One for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting five furlongs, both on the turf.

    Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen has been the leading Preakness weekend stakes trainer four times in its first seven years, earning the top bonus in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022. Brad Cox (2019), Mike Maker (2020) and Maryland-based Graham Motion (2023) have also won the top prize.

    Nominations are free for all stakes, with the exception of the Preakness, and close Tuesday, May 7. To make a nomination, email stakes coordinator Eleanor Albert at [email protected] or call 800-638-1859.

    There will also be bonus money totaling $50,000 for trainers with the most points in non-stakes races during Preakness weekend. The points are accumulated in similar fashion with $25,000 going to the leader, $10,000 to second, $7,500 to third, $4,000 to fourth, $2,500 to fifth and $1,000 to sixth. Trainers must have a minimum of three starts to qualify for the bonus.

    Entries will be taken and post positions drawn on Sunday, May 12 for the Black-Eyed Susan Day program and Monday, May 13 for the Preakness Day program. The post-position draw for the Preakness will be held at Monarque on Fleet Street in Baltimore’s Harbor East neighborhood.

    HALLANDALE BEACH - The doors at Silks simulcast facility at Gulfstream Park will open at 9:30 a.m. today and Saturday to accommodate patrons wishing to watch on wager on races from Churchill Downs.

    The Kentucky Oaks will be run on today’s Churchill Downs program and will get underway at 10:30 a.m.  Saturday’s Kentucky Derby Day program will also have a 10:30 a.m. first-race post time.

    Fierceness, who captured the $1 million Curlin Florida Derby at Gulfstream by a record 13 ½ lengths, tops the field of 20 horses in the Kentucky Derby.  Gulfstream Park Oaks winner Power Squeeze will run in the Kentucky Oaks.

    Many other horses that competed during Gulfstream Park’s Championship Meet will compete in stakes on both days at Churchill Downs.

    Today’s 20-cent Rainbow 6 pool at is expected to grow to an estimated $100,000 after going unsolved Thursday for the second day following last Saturday’s mandatory payout. 

    Jockey Edgard Zayas continued to win races in bunches Thursday. Zayas, who rode four winners on Saturday’s program, won another five races Thursday to push his Royal Palm meet-leading victory total to 27.

    Zayas rode back-to-back winners for trainer Joe Orseno, scoring aboard Magic Soul ($7) in Race 3 and Super Spin ($20.80) in Race 4. He also doubled for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. with back-to-back wins aboard Lady O’Brien ($2.60) in Race 6 and Goats On a Tree ($5) in Race 7. He finished his big day with a gate-to-wire score aboard Live High Live Low ($9.40) in Race 8 for trainer George Weaver.

             

    OLDSMAR - By winning the Suncoast Stakes on Feb. 10 at Tampa Bay Downs and the Gr. II Gulfstream Park Oaks on March 30, 3-year-old filly Power Squeeze proved she belongs in next Friday’s $1.5-million Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.

    So did her jockey, six-time Tampa Bay Downs riding champion Daniel Centeno.

    Following the 52-year-old Venezuela product’s outstanding performance in the Gulfstream Park Oaks – in which Centeno avoided an early squeeze play going into the first turn after breaking from the No. 1 post position, then timed her power stretch move perfectly to upset 1-2 favorite Ways and Means – owner Bill Cosgrove of Lea Farms and trainer Jorge Delgado agreed they need look no further for their filly’s rider under Churchill’s Twin Spires.
Centeno, who will be making his first-ever appearance at Churchill Downs, is still (figuratively) pinching himself to be sure it’s for real.

    “You never know in this business,” said Centeno, whose previous brush with the classic scene came in 2019 when he rode Alwaysmining to an unplaced finish in the Preakness at Pimlico. “You only have to get the opportunity to ride the right horse and try to keep on her for something like this to happen.

    “When I talked to the owner and he told me he wants me to come to Louisville and ride her again, I said ‘Sure, no problem. I’ll follow her wherever you want me to go.’ The filly and I get along real well, so now we’re going to the Oaks,” Centeno said.

    While Power Squeeze’s credentials are topnotch – she is 4-for-6 in her career, with a four-race winning streak – she is expected to face such standouts as 2023 Eclipse Award Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Just F Y I, Grade I Central Bank Ashland Stakes winner Leslie’s Rose, Grade II Fantasy Stakes winner Thorpedo Anna and Ways and Means, along with eight or nine others.

    Despite the imposing lineup, if Power Squeeze can duplicate her Florida form, she should be right in the mix for the garland of pink stargazer lilies awarded to the winner.

    “It’s very exciting,” said Centeno, who plans to fly to Louisville on Thursday with his wife Brooke and his father Enrique. “I’ve ridden a lot of nice horses in my career, and it’s never too late to get another one. I’m blessed and grateful to Jorge and Mr. Cosgrove to be going.”

    Power Squeeze completed the mile-and-a-sixteenth at Gulfstream in 1:44.19. Her winning time of 1:40.22 in the mile-and-40-yard Suncoast, the Oldsmar oval’s “Road to the Kentucky Oaks” prep race, was less than a second off Nest’s stakes record. Nest went on to finish second in the 2022 Longines Kentucky Oaks to Secret Oath. Centeno thinks Power Squeeze, a daughter of Union Rags out of the Awesome Again mare Callmethesqueeze, will welcome the added distance of the mile-and-an-eighth Longines Kentucky Oaks.

“I think the longer she goes, the