My Miss Mo scores in Black-Eyed Susan
Score follows Oaks scratch
Nick Hahn
May 15, 2026
For trainer Saffie Joseph, a win is not just a win, especially when it comes in the $300,000 George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Stakes, run this year at Laurel Park while Pimlico is being rebuilt.
My Miss Mo, the filly he trains for Averill Racing LLC, Mathis Stable, LLC, and Tristan De Meric, was scratched prior to the running of the Kentucky Oaks May 1. In the Black-Eyed Susan, My Miss Mo was second choice in the morning line at 7-2 but went off favored by the wagering public at 5-2.
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Breaking from the outside of a nine-horse field, jockey Tyler Gaffalione hurried up alongside to press the pace of longshot Savor It with Mychel Sanchez aboard. Savor It led a modest pace that eventually timed at 24.14 for the first quarter and 49.10 for the first half mile.
Savor It began to tire, and My Miss Mo was in front after three quarters in 1:14.48. But as Savor It gave up the lead, morning line favorite Jumping the Gun, off at 6-1, had emerged and was ready to challenge.
“Coming from the outside post, we wanted to get forward,” explained Gaffalione. “She breaks alertly, so just wanted to not get ahead of ourselves, but let her get forward. That way she wouldn’t lose too much ground going around the first turn.”
The impending stretch duel lasted the rest of the turn and down Laurel’s long stretch to the sixteenth pole when Jumping the Gun finally gave way to finish second. My Miss Mo won by 1 ¾ lengths in 1:52.15 for nine furlongs on a fast main track. Jumping the Gun was a length clear of A. P.’s Girl in third as runners from the Weber City Miss over the strip finished second and third.
My Miss Mo could have run in the Kentucky Oaks, but instead Joseph cherished coming to the Black-Eyed Susan.
“Today was the right race, and there’s no regrets,” relished Joseph. “She was very gutsy. This filly, we liked her from the beginning. We thought she showed some speed and that she was going be a sprinter. We were wrong. She was a different filly going longer.”
My Miss Mo broke her maiden by over 12 lengths at Gulfstream Park at seven furlongs but didn’t produce a win in her next three starts as Joseph gradually lengthened the distance of her races. She finished second in the Davona Dale (G2) and Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) in her last two starts, both this year and with Gaffalione aboard. Worked up a bit himself, Joseph put the Black-Eyed Susan win in a perspective that anyone can appreciate.
“Emotion has to come naturally,” realized Joseph. “So, it’s not like White Abarrio. It not like Skippylongstocking, It’s not like Pegasus. It’s not like those ones, but it means just as much. I’m grateful to be in this position. I’m thankful to all the owners. God’s blessed us to be here, and we’re grateful to be here, and we appreciate being here because it’s not easy to be here.”
My Miss Mo was bred by Valerie Mastromonaco, Tristan de Meric and Uncle Mo Syndicate. The Florida-bred bay filly is by Uncle Mo out of In a Dream by Quality Road. This was her second win from six career starts and pushed her bankroll to over $328,000.
In 2020 the naming of the Black-Eyed Susan recognized the late George E. Mitchell, who was a community leader in the Park Heights neighborhood where the race for three-year-old fillies going a mile and an eighth is usually run.
NOTES Saffie Joseph, Jr. and Brittany Russell both won a pair of stakes on the day, Russell scoring with Peach Tie in the Miss Preakness and Coach Mazzula in the Hilltop and Joseph in the Pimlico Special, as well as the Black-Eyed Susan… Following the first race Hit Zero suffered a fatal heart attack… In the fifth, a fall occurred involving two horses, but both Typhoon Kuhn and Long Straw walked off under their own steam, as did riders Carlos Lopez and Matilda Burnham… Handle on the card was just shy of $23.8 million…
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