My Miss Mo aims to capitalize on wide-open Black-Eyed Susan field

My Miss Mo enters Friday’s $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan with something better than a resume line: she arrives fresh. Saffie Joseph Jr. scratched the Uncle Mo filly from the Kentucky Oaks, and that decision may prove just as important as anything she has done on the racetrack, because she gets to Laurel Park with a lighter schedule and a live chance in a Grade 2 that looks wide open.

The biggest clue is not her lone win, a 12-length maiden romp that hinted at more ability than her record shows. It is the company she has already kept. My Miss Mo was second in both the Davona Dale Stakes and the Gulfstream Park Oaks, two graded races that put her on the map even before the Oaks was taken off the table. She was also purchased for $320,000 at last year’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-year-olds in training, a price that reflected the kind of upside her pedigree suggested. By Uncle Mo out of the Quality Road mare In A Dream, she brings enough class to matter, even if the record still leaves room for bettors to wonder how high the ceiling really is.

The draw only sharpened the tactical debate. My Miss Mo landed post 10, the far outside gate in a field of 10, and was showing around 7-2 on some early odds boards. That is not the cleanest setup, but it also keeps her out of traffic and may let her settle into a stalking trip if the pace gets hot. Jumping the Gun, the 3-1 morning-line favorite, comes in off a third in the Weber City Miss and a second in the Demoiselle. Braken Poppa arrives on a four-race win streak and takes her first shot against open company after dominating Louisiana-bred stakes. Ivy Girl, Miss Fulton Gal, A. P.’s Girl and Majestic Lucia add more names with enough form to keep the pace honest and the race from becoming a single-horse procession.

That is what makes the Black-Eyed Susan more than a steppingstone this year. The race, first run in 1919 as the Pimlico Oaks, has long been the filly counterpart to Preakness weekend, and in 2026 the whole show shifts to Laurel Park while Pimlico Race Course undergoes renovation. With Preakness 151 also at Laurel, the setting changes, but the stakes do not. If My Miss Mo can turn her graded near-misses into a clean trip and a finishing kick, Joseph will have found the right target, not just the prestigious one.