Trainer Greg Compton will arrive at Pimlico Race Course on Friday with a pair of three-year-old fillies who, much like himself, are both seeking their first graded stakes victories.

Compton, who sports 21 winners and runners with over $1.2 million banked from 103 starters this year, has 236 career victories and over $7.5 million banked from just over 1,500 starters in his career. He is seeking graded stakes success with Kinzie Queen in the Grade 2, $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan in the main event on Friday, as well as with GW’s Girl in the Grade 3, $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes three races earlier on the card.

Kinzie Queen is a sophomore daughter of McKinzie and will have the services of jockey Junior Alvarado for the first time fresh off his first Kentucky Derby triumph two weeks ago aboard Sovereignty. She arrives off a sharp allowance score over the main track at Oaklawn Park in her most recent start.

Initially a $140,000 yearling purchase who began her career in the Steve Asmussen barn, Kinzie Queen was nabbed out of a $50,000 maiden claiming race at Churchill Downs last fall by Compton and co-owner John Holleman in her fourth start. She had been second twice and third twice for Compton before prevailing against allowance foes last out by nearly three lengths as the 3-2 favorite after exiting the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes, where she finished fifth as a 22-1 shot.

“She’s coming into this race really well,” Compton said of Kinzie Queen, who sports a 1-2-1 slate and over $150,000 banked this year and is listed at 10-1 on the morning line in the Grade 2 affair. “I thought that last allowance win really set her up for this race. She acted like the extra distance [one-sixteenth of a mile] would be to her benefit. I do most of my claiming off the Ragozin sheets and I called John [Holleman] and told him I thought I spotted one that would be worth the claim, and he didn’t hesitate to give me the green light.”

Although Kinzie Queen has yet to travel the nine furlongs of the Black-Eyed Susan, she has competed at one mile and one-sixteenth in each of her last four outings, sporting one first, one second and one third-place finish to go along with a fifth-place effort in the Grade II Fantasy at Oaklawn. Although Compton has never won a stake at Pimlico or a graded stakes at any venue, he believes Kinzie Queen has a few intangibles on her side.

“I think she’ll do well over the track,” Compton said. “Besides, it’s great to get a rider like Junior Alvarado, who has won countless graded stakes and just won the Kentucky Derby for the first time. I’ve had a little luck at Pimlico over the years on Preakness weekend. I won an allowance race on Preakness Day a few years back and another horse was third in a stakes, so I’m looking forward to having two chances to win a graded stakes there.”

Nearly two hours earlier Compton will saddle G W’s Girl for the Grade 3, $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes for three-year-old fillies at six furlongs on the main track. Unlike Kinzie Queen, who arrives off a sharp allowance score, GW’s Girl will head into the Miss Preakness following a disappointing fourth-place effort as the 3-2 second choice in the Grade 2 Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland.

Her conditioner blamed her subpar performance on the sloppy surface, something he is hoping to avoid on Friday at Pimlico. 

“She had won her two previous starts against stakes horses at Oaklawn Park on a fast track, and that race at Keeneland was her first time racing in the slop,” Compton said of G W’s Girl, a winner twice in three starts this year and three times in five career outings and is listed at 12-1 on the morning line for the Miss Preakness Stakes. “I just think she could not handle it. That was her first time running on a sloppy track, and I’m willing to think that’s the main reason she just didn’t fire that day. Of course, you never know what you’ll get on Friday, but I’m certainly hoping for a fast track.”

A Florida-bred sophomore daughter of Munnings that Compton trains for Mag Racing LLC, G W’s Girl graduated against maiden special weight foes on the turf at Delaware Park last summer in her career debut as an overlooked 9-1 shot. She then was fifth against male rivals in the $240,000 Indian Summer Stakes on the grass at Keeneland three weeks later.

But two months later she prevailed by a length in the $150,000 Mockingbird Stakes at Oaklawn and came right back to capture the $150,000 Dixie Bell Stakes there by nearly three lengths as the 3-10 favorite.

The stinker last out darkens her form, but on best, G W’s Girl should be a player in this spot. Paco Lopez has the mount. Compton, an Arkansas native stabled during the summer at Delaware Park, is hoping for the best.

“It would mean a lot to get my first graded stakes win with either one of those fillies,” Compton said of G W’s Girl and Kinzie Queen. “It’s the one weekend when Maryland racing is in the national spotlight.”