Miss Fulton Gal chases Black-Eyed Susan berth, carries Bracciale family hopes

Miss Fulton Gal carried more than form into Laurel Park. She arrived with a shot at the Weber City Miss Stakes, a $150,000 sprint for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles, and with it the chance to punch an automatic ticket to the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes on Preakness Eve.

That stakes path gave the race a Maryland weight that went well beyond the purse. The winner earned the “WIN TODAY-SEE YOU IN MAY” berth into Pimlico’s Black-Eyed Susan, and for Miss Fulton Gal the promise of that bridge from Laurel to Baltimore was paired with something far more personal: the memory of Jimbo Bracciale, the late Maryland rider who helped spot her early and whose family had a sentimental stake in what came next.

Miss Fulton Gal had already shown enough to make the conversation real. Bought for $35,000 last June by Trott Racing Stables and Five Sisters Farm, she came into the weekend with career earnings of $150,450 and a 2026 line of 3 wins and a second from 3 starts, according to her Equibase profile. She was seeking a third straight victory after rallying to win the Beyond the Wire Stakes on March 21, getting up by a head over Peach Tie in a one-turn mile in 1:40.64 and paying $8.20 to win.

Michael Gorham trained the filly, with Raul Mena set to ride from post six. On paper, that made her a live player in a race that offered more than a steppingstone. It offered the kind of stakes win that can change a filly’s season, and possibly her resume, in one afternoon.

For the Bracciale family, though, the race reached back into Maryland racing history. Jimbo Bracciale died on Dec. 15, 2025, at 72, leaving behind 3,545 wins, Laurel riding titles in 1972 and 1980, and Pimlico titles in 1973, 1977 and 1979. He set a Pimlico record in 1973 with 87 wins in a 60-day meet, rode Ruffian to two graded-stakes victories at 2 in 1974, finished third in the 1986 Kentucky Derby aboard Broad Brush and won the 1986 Queen’s Plate on Golden Choice.

The connection to the race’s namesake sharpened the edge. Weber City Miss, with Bracciale aboard, won the 1980 Black-Eyed Susan, then finished with 17 wins from 40 starts and Maryland-bred champion 3-year-old filly honors. That is the kind of local lineage that still matters at Pimlico, and Miss Fulton Gal was set to carry it forward if she could turn a family story into a stakes breakthrough.