Yo Daddy looks to make the grade in Pimlico Special
Excelsior winner is second choice on morning line
Press Release
May 12, 2026
Winning Move Stable’s claimer-turned-stakes winner Yo Daddy, refreshed for his 5-year-old season, chases a third win this year and first against graded company in the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) Friday, May 15 at Laurel Park.
The 56th running of the 1 3/16-mile Pimlico Special for 3-year-olds and up is the fifth of six stakes, three graded, worth $1.05 million in purses on a blockbuster program headlined by the 101st running of the $300,000 George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan (G2) for 3-year-old fillies on the eve of the 151st Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
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Also on the card are the $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs and listed $125,000 Allaire du Pont Distaff for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/8 miles. They are joined by a pair of listed stakes scheduled for the turf – the $125,000 Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies at one mile, and $100,000 The Very One, a five-furlong dash for females 3 and older.
Post time for the first of 14 races is 11:30 a.m. ET. The Pimlico Special is carded as Race 12 (5:37 p.m. ET).
Yo Daddy was claimed for $50,000 out of an April 14, 2024 win at Keeneland by New York-based Linda Rice, whose 2,821 career victories and counting are a record for female trainers. Among her many meet titles is Laurel’s 2017 winter stand.
In 17 starts since joining Rice’s barn, Yo Daddy has been third or better 14 times including six wins. He’s two-for-three this year starting with a 1 ¾-length optional claiming allowance going 1 1/8 miles Feb. 4 at Aqueduct, his first race in 244 days.
From there Yo Daddy ran second by a length in the one-mile Stymie Feb. 28 and became a stakes winner in his most recent start when stretched back out to 1 ¼ miles in the April 4 Excelsior, raging up from just off the pace to win by 1 ¾ lengths.
“We gave him a pretty good break last fall after the Saratoga meet but he’s come back very well as a 5-year-old, very fresh,” Rice said. “He won his first allowance race back at a mile and an eighth, he was second in the Stymie which was a flat mile and I think a little short for him. The mile and three-sixteenths of the Pimlico Special, that’s really right up his alley.”
Five of Yo Daddy’s eight career wins have come at 1 1/16 miles or longer, and he was second in last summer’s Belmont Gold Cup (G3) at Saratoga, rained off the turf and contested at 1 3/8 miles in what ultimately was his final start of 2025.
“Frankly I picked this race out because I thought that he’s best around the two turns,” Rice said. “The distance is right for him and we’re going to find out.”
Yo Daddy is twice graded-stakes placed, also running third in the one-mile Westchester (G3) last spring prior to his run in the Gold Cup. Jose Lezcano is named to ride in the Pimlico Special from outermost Post 7.
“I claimed him in Kentucky as a 3-year-old. We raced him pretty aggressively for about a year or better,” Rice said. “He’s a very big horse and the break really did him a lot of good. He’s bigger and stronger as a 5-year-old. He’s in very good form.
Yo Daddy is 3-1 on the morning line.
The Saffie Joseph, Jr.-trained Navajo Warrior is the lukewarm 5-2 favorite. He arrives with four wins in his last six starts, including a gaudy 99 Beyer speed figure in winning his most recent outing versus allowance foes, but he has never won a stake. Flavien Prat is named.
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