Speedster Love and Pride Ready for DuPont

Love and Pride, an A.P. Indy filly who has made it a habit of getting out to the lead, will be trying for her second stakes win of the year when she takes on eight rivals in the Allaire DuPont Distaff Stakes (gr. III) on the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) undercard at Pimlico Race Course May 19.

Helping her cause is that she boasts a bullet workout of :48.56 for four furlongs at Saratoga Race Course May 13.

The Allaire DuPont Distaff, contested at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares, is the 10th race and is scheduled for 4:36 (EDT). With the exception of Absinthe Minded, who will carry 120 pounds, the rest will tote 118.

Love and Pride, who held the lead at the first quarter and half-mile calls in her last six races, set the pace to win the Affectionately Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack by seven lengths in late January to begin her 4-year-old season. In her other starts this year, the Green Hills Farm-owned filly finished second in the Top Flight Handicap (gr. IIT) and fourth in the Sixty Sails Handicap (gr. III). John Velazquez rides the filly for trainer Todd Pletcher.

Catch a Thief, who races for Charles Dimino, enters the Allaire DuPont off a triumph in the listed Plugged Nickle Stakes at Aqueduct in March. By Flatter , Catch a Thief has raced once in Maryland, winning the Twixt Stakes at Laurel Park in 2010. Trained by T.A. Hills, Catch a Thief will be ridden by Julien Leparoux.

Awesomemundo has raced just once this year but that effort proved somewhat special. The daughter of Awesome Again turned it on in the final furlong to win an allowance/optional claimer at Santa Anita Park in February by 7 1/2 lengths. Awesomemundo races for Jill Baffert, whose husband, Bob, is the trainer. Mike Smith rides.

Briland Farm’s Absinthe Minded has competed in five stakes this year and has finished in the top four in all of them, three of which were graded. The daughter of Quiet American won the Pippin Stakes and the Bayakoa Stakes, both at Oaklawn Park, to start the year and finished second in the Apple Blossom Handicap (gr. I) behind Plum Pretty two races back. She is the leading earner in the field, with a bankroll just under of $600,000. Corey Nakatani rides for trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Check Point, the leader in the field with eight career wins, finished fourth in last year’s Allaire DuPont. Trained by Alan Goldberg for Richard Santulli, the daughter of Posse ran third in the Videogenic Stakes on grass at Aqueduct in her sole start this year.

Farnsworth Stables’ Canadian Mistress will get a break from grade I winner Awesome Maria. The daughter of Canadian Frontier finished third and fourth behind that rival in two graded stakes at Gulfstream Park in her most recent starts.

The remaining members of the field are Pinch Pie (by Victory Gallop), who finished third in last year’s Alabama Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga and who won an optional claimer at Gulfstream in her sole start this year; Strike the Moon (by Malibu Moon ), stakes-placed in both her outings this year; and Daring Reality (by Include ), a stakes winner last year who is making her 2012 debut.

$100,000 Allaire DuPont Distaff Stakes (gr. III, Race 10, 4:36), Fillies and Mares, 3 and Up, 1 1/16 Miles
PP. Horse, Jockey, Weight, Trainer
1. Canadian Mistress, R A Dominquez, 118, M D Wolfson
2. Absinthe Minded, C S Nakatani, 120, D W Lukas
3. Check Point, J S Rosario, 118, A F Goldberg
4. Daring Reality, A S Arroyo, 118, C A Lynch
5. Awesomemundo, M E Smith, 118, B Baffert
6. Strike the Moon, J Pimentel, 118, M J Trombetta
7. Catch a Thief, J R Leparoux, 118, T A Hills
8. Love and Pride, J R Velazquez, 118, T A Pletcher
9. Pinch Pie, J Castellano, 118, A W Dutrow