Paddington, Water Cannon Tesio Highweights

Eight 3-year-olds, including a filly, are set to square off in the April 17 Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. The Tesio could prove more of an indicator of horses that may compete in the May 15 Preakness Stakes (gr. I), also held at the Maryland racetrack.

The $100,000 Tesio is at 1 1/8 miles. The co-highweights at 119 pounds are Gallop U's Paddington, trained by Michael Dickinson, and The Nonsequitur Stable's Water Cannon, trained by Linda Albert.

Paddington, by Saint Ballado, last raced Nov. 2, 2003, when he finished second in the Nashua Stakes (gr. III) at Aqueduct behind Read the Footnotes, the Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II) winner who is training up to the May 1 Kentucky Derby (gr. I). Paddington is two-for-five, having won the Whirling Ash Stakes at Delaware Park last September.

Water Cannon, by Waquoit, is a two-time stakes winner in Maryland. Water Cannon won the Feb. 28 Miracle Wood Stakes and March 27 Private Terms Stakes at Laurel Park. Water Cannon has made 10 starts and won four times, all at 1 1/16 miles.

Michael Gill's Pawyne Princess (by Saint Ballado) is the lone filly in the Tesio field. Trained by John Robb, Pawyne Princess won a March 31 allowance event for 3-year-old fillies at Pimlico. She'll stretch out another sixteenth of a mile for the Tesio.

Here's the field, in post-position order with jockeys and weights:

1 Cryptic Skier Luis Garcia 115 pounds
2 Pawyne Princess Jeremy Rose 110
3 Irish Laddie Horacio Karamanos 115
4 Magazine Steve Hamilton 115
5 Paddington Mario Pino 119
6 Last Frontier Jozbin Santana 115
7 Major Tanner Abel Castellano Jr. 115
8 Water Cannon Ryan Fogelsonger 119

The Tesio is the ninth race on the program. Post time is 5:16 p.m. EDT.