Gun Song wins with ease in Black-Eyed Susan
Gun Song, ridden by John Velazquez, scored a 3 1/4-length win in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico on Friday.
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John Velazquez has now won the Black-Eyed Susan a record five times.
It took him over a decade to secure victory No. 5, but when it happened, Gun Song made it look pretty easy down the stretch.
Velazquez rode Gun Song to a 3 1/4-length win Friday at Pimlico Race Course, taking the Black-Eyed Susan for the first time since 2012 with In Lingerie. He also won in 2005, 2003 and 1998.
Longshot Jeanne Marie showed early speed and was still challenging for the lead around the second turn, but after she finally weakened, nobody else provided much of a challenge for Gun Song toward the end of the 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-old fillies, which takes place the day before the Preakness Stakes.
"She's a horse that kind of waits, and I wanted to make sure to keep her mind running, and she actually opened up," Velazquez said. "I didn't know she was going to open up that much, but she did it nicely. I thought it was going to be a much faster pace, but it didn't show up."
Corposo and Call Another Play finished second and third, respectively.
There was no prohibitive favorite in the race, which was the 100th running of the Black-Eyed Susan. The morning line had Corposo (5-2) with the shortest odds, followed by Recharge (7-2), D. Wayne Lukas-trained Lemon Muffin (4-1) and Gun Song (9-2). By the time the race began, Gun Song was favored, followed by Corposo.
Recharge, trained by Steven Asmussen, finished last after bumping with Corposo early.
"I am very proud of her," said Peter Eurton, Corposo's trainer. "I thought she was done inside the quarter pole. She got a little more focused. She tends to look around and check things out. We are thinking she can build off this one."
Gun Song, trained by Mark Hennig, paid $6.60, $3.80 and $2.80. She won in 1 minute, 51.39 seconds. Gun Song hadn't raced since a fourth-place showing in the Gulfstream Park Oaks -- her stakes debut -- on March 30.
"Turning for home I could see she was pretty strong," Hennig said. "Other than her last race, she always finishes very well. In my heart, I felt she was a good horse."
Gun Song is the chestnut daughter of Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year who was elected to the Hall of Fame last month.
Other stakes winners Friday at Pimlico included Shotgun Hottie in the Allaire Dupont Distaff, She Feels Pretty in the Hilltop and Mystic Lake in the Miss Preakness. Future Is Now took the The Very One Stakes, and Pyrenees prevailed in the Pimlico Special.
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ST. LOUIS -- — Lars Nootbaar and Masyn Winn hit two-run homers, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat Boston 10-6 on Friday night to drop the Red Sox below .500 for the first time since the season’s opening week.
Nolan Arenado had three hits that included an RBI single in the eighth after entering in a 3-for-27 slide.
“I think today we were just locked in on just competing and we were in it,” Arenado said.
Nolan Gorman and Alec Burleson also went deep for the Cardinals, who matched season highs for runs, hits (14) and homers. St. Louis has had at least 10 hits in five of its last six games.
“A lot of good at-bats tonight from everybody, you know, and stringing them together as well,” Burleson said. “Just, you know, singled them to death when we needed to and then, you know, had a couple of long balls mixed in there too. So, a lot of fun to watch when we’re clicking.”
Winn’s two-run homer off Cam Booser was the first home run of Winn’s big league career.
“He came up to me right before that at bat, he said I’m going to be taking some big swings,” Nootbaar said. “And I was like, do it, dude, why not?”
Boston has lost three straight and 10 of 14, falling to 22-23. The Red Sox had not been under .500 since a 1-2 start.
Kyle Gibson (3-2) allowed five runs, eight hits and three walks in six-plus innings as the Cardinals won for the fourth time in five games.
Brayan Bello (4-2) gave up a season-high five runs in a season-low 4 2/3 innings. Pitching on his 25th birthday, he tied a career-worst by allowing three homers.
“It was a bad outing,” Bello said through an interpreter. “The team did everything possible to score some runs, to get me some run support, but I wasn’t able to make the adjustment tonight.”
Nootbaar put the Cardinals ahead when he drove a changeup 430 feet over the center-field wall for his third home run in 10 days.
“Hitting’s contagious and you have handful of guys that have some knocks and all of a sudden you feel a little bit better about yourself and have more confidence,” Nootbaar said.
David Hamilton’s two-run triple tied the score in the second. Tyler O’Neill scored on the hit and received a standing ovation in his return to St. Louis, his team from 2018-23.
Gorman homered in the second and Rafael Devers tied the score 3-3 with a 443-foot drive in the third — he is 9 for 20 against Gibson with three extra-base hits.
“We were what, 3 for 12 with runners in scoring position?” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “But the at-bats are getting better, which is, you know, a positive.”
Burleson homered leading off the fourth and Paul Goldschmidt hit an RBI single for a 5-3 lead in the fifth.
“Today was fun, man,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “Up and down the lineup, not a whole lot of breathing room. Extra-base hits, homers, some key hits when they were needed from just about everybody. So, offense looked really really good today.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Red Sox: RHP Garrett Whitlock (left oblique strain) experienced soreness in his right elbow following a rehab start and has been shut down. Whitlock, who threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings at Triple-A Worcester on Wednesday, returned to Boston and will undergo imaging tests over the weekend.
Cardinals: C Willson Contreras (left forearm fracture) had his cast removed and still hopes to return around the All-Star break. … RHP Giovanny Gallegos (right shoulder impingement) threw a bullpen session.
UP NEXT
The Cardinals will start RHP Miles Mikolas (3-5, 6.19 ERA) against RHP Kutter Crawford (2-2, 2.24 ERA) and the Red Sox on Saturday night. Mikolas allowed just one run in six innings in his lone career start last year against Boston. Crawford gave up four runs in four innings in his only career start against St. Louis in 2022.
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