“Surreal” Black-Eyed Susan for Weber City Miss four
Top four from local prep reconvene
Frank Vespe
May 14, 2026
Friday’s $300,000, Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes will have a familiar look to folks who follow Maryland racing.
No fewer than four of the 10 runners entered ran most recently in Laurel Park’s $150,000 Weber City Miss Stakes. Indeed, the top four from that event – including longshot winner Ivy Girl and beaten favorite Jumping the Gun – return to contest this one.
And though Jumping the Gun made a bold move in that event before fading to third, beaten five lengths, the Black-Eyed Susan linemaker was undeterred: Jumping the Gun has been made the 3-1 morning line favorite.
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“I had it on the TV, and I hear the favorite’s Jumping the Gun, I’m like, ‘What the heck?’” said Andy Simoff, who trains Jumping the Gun for breeder John Guarnere’s Imaginary Stables. “Where’d they come up with that?”
That said, it’s not hard to see Jumping the Gun winning the race. She is, after all, Grade 2-placed, having run second to the very talented Zany, who then was the beaten favorite in a pair of Grade 1 events, the Ashland and the Kentucky Oaks. Jumping the Gun’s defeats to date have come to Zany, another Kentucky Oaks starter in Dazzling Dame – and last out to Ivy Girl in the Weber City Miss.
Simoff surmises that perhaps the morning line factored in that Jumping the Gun might be fitter in her second start after more than four months away.
But he discounts fitness as a reason for her defeat.
“Maybe they didn’t think she was tight enough. I think she was tight enough,” Simoff said. “I’m not going to use that as an excuse, she just just didn’t run her race.”
Then there was the trip: after breaking from the outside in an eight-horse field with the short run to Laurel’s first turn in the 1 1/16-mile contest, Jumping the Gun found herself hung on the far outside every step of the way. She made a strong move to the lead in upper stretch before tiring in the final furlong.
“At the draw I said we were in trouble. Going a mile and a sixteenth, you’re right on the turn [at the start],” Simoff said. “It’s gonna be a nightmare. It turned out to be a nightmare.”
Though Simoff said he does not hold rider Julio Hernandez responsible for the wide journey, Hernandez will not be in the irons Friday. Instead it will be veteran jockey Luis Saez. Saez owns a prior win in this event, in 2016 aboard Go Maggie Go for trainer Dale Romans.
Though Jumping the Gun is 3-1, Miss Fulton Gal, whom she beat by just a head in the Weber City Miss, is 30-1. Miss Fulton Gal, owned by relatives of the late Jimbo Bracciale, the superb jockey of the 1970s and 1980s, stamped herself a Black-Eyed Susan candidate with a rallying win in the Beyond the Wire Stakes March 21 at Laurel.
In an only-in-racing coincidence, Bracciale rode Weber City Miss to a triumph in the 1980 Black-Eyed Susan. Though Miss Fulton Gal, the final horse picked out by Bracciale, who also worked as a trainer, could not score in the Weber City Miss, the Black-Eyed Susan, of course, would be much more than a consolation prize.
New pilot John Velazquez replaces regular rider Raul Mena. The duo will leave from the one-hole.
“I kind of like my post, you know, she can just fall out of there and sit on the rail and save ground on the first turn anyway, and hopefully get a good trip,” said trainer Michael Gorham.
As for the switch to Velazquez, Gorham explained, “I talked about it with the owners, and they said, ‘Maybe this is a chance to get one of the top riders,’” Gorham said. “To me, like, the two would be Irad [Ortiz, Jr.] and Johnny V, and Johnny was open.”
Velazquez has five prior Black-Eyed Susan wins, most recently in 2024 aboard Gun Song for trainer Mark Hennig.
One runner out of the Weber City Miss not changing riders is Ivy Girl, who will be ridden once again by Victor Carrasco, who piloted her to a $55 upset in the Weber City Miss. Ivy Girl is 15-1 on the morning line for the Susan.
“I’m sure if I’d switched it up and put Flavien [Prat] or somebody on, you know, she’d probably be 5- or 6-to-1,” said Amelia Green, who trains Ivy Girl for Lucky Hat Racing LLC. “But I’m very loyal to people that are loyal to me, and Victor rode a great race last time. I didn’t want to make a change.”
In the Weber City Miss, Ivy Girl was squeezed back in the opening jumps, dropping to a distant last. Carrasco took the opportunity to save ground on both turns, rev up a run in the lane, and then swing out in midstretch to run down A. P.’s Girl by a half-length. A. P.’s Girl, trained by Peter Eurton, will have Irad Ortiz, Jr. up and is 5-1 on the morning line in the Black-Eyed Susan.
Green says she hopes Ivy Girl will avoid traffic and not be too far back in the opening stages. It’s a difficult spot, she acknowledges, and a top-three finish would be a big accomplishment.
Green, a former jockey, even rode in Maryland for a time. So Friday’s race is a homecoming of sorts.
“I galloped my own horses today, so riding on the track today for the first time since, you know, I was breezing horses here 10 years ago was quite a surreal feeling,” the trainer said.
That seems to be going around these days.
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