The last running of the $300,000 George E Mitchel Black-eyed Susan in front of the old Pimlico grandstand took a little longer than expected to reach post time. A thunderstorm landed at Old Hilltop before the start of the race, delaying it by over an hour.

Those who stayed a little longer to watch it saw Margie’s Intention, the 5-2 favorite, storm down the center of the track to prevail over frontrunning Paris Lily.

The start of the race was delayed over an hour as heavy skies approached and opened up at Pimlico complete with a brief tornado warning for Baltimore County and the City of Baltimore. All patrons were directed inside to shelter in place.

When the gates finally opened Joel Rosario took Paris Lily to the lead, and the adage “speed in the slop” looked likely to ring true as Paris Lily grabbed the lead in testing opening fractions of 22.73 and 46.38. With a slowed third quarter in 25.19 to go 1:11.57 after six furlongs, Rosario appeared to be poised for a solid conclusion of the 1 1/8-mile race for three-year-old fillies.

But with a cyclonic move coming out of the turn, Flavien Prat maneuvered Margie’s Intention to the center of the track to go on the attack. Paris Lily eventually handed over the lead lanes apart, with Margie’s Intention scoring by three-quarters of a lengths, a large part of that margin being attained within the last strides before the wire.

The race was timed in 1:52.05. Kinzie Queen, off at 9-1, took second, two lengths behind the winner.

“We thought she’d liked the mile-and-an-eighth, and she’d pretty much needed all of it to get there,” winning trainer Brad Cox said in the winner’s circle after the race. “I thought there was an opportunity to catch her, but [Paris Lily] was tough to run down.”

The Black-Eyed Susan was the first start for Margie’s Intention in Cox’s barn after WinStar Farm bought into her. It was also the first time Prat rode the Honor A.P. filly.

“They kind of ran away from me and got to the first turn, and they kind of came back to me down the backside,” Prat witnessed. “Then I was able to follow the Godolphin filly (Paris Lilly). And it looks like she was going very well. Brad told me that she kept coming all the time and she was a grinder. I kept riding her, and she was resilient.”

 Margie’s Intention has now won three of her six career starts after making her first five starts at the Fairgrounds. The win by Margie’s Intention along with Good Cheer in the Kentucky Oaks gives trainer Brad Cox wins in the first two legs of the mythical filly Triple Crown. 

The win was Cox’s second Black-Eyed Susan triumph, as he previously won in 2022 with Interstatedaydream. It was Prat’s first Susan win.