BALTIMORE – Michael Dubb’s Grade 3 winner Apple Picker, unraced since last summer, is set to launch her comeback in a familiar spot Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in the $125,000 Skipat for female sprinters.

The 32nd running of the six-furlong Skipat for fillies and mares 3 and up is part of a spectacular 14-race Preakness Day program highlighted by the 150th running of the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown. First race post time is 10:30 a.m. ET

Apple Picker is trained by Brittany Russell, who has dominated the Mid-Atlantic region since her career began five years ago, winning the year-end Maryland training title in 2023 and 2024. She exploded onto the national scene last year with stable star Post Time, who captured the Carter (G2) at Aqueduct and General George (G3) at Laurel Park before placing in three Grade 1 races, including the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

In Apple Picker, she has a horse that already had a steady string of races going into the 2024 Skipat, but enters this year’s renewal fresh. Unraced since a fifth-place finish in Charles Town’s Pink Ribbon Aug. 23, Apple Picker worked a bullet five-eighths at Laurel on May 11.

“She’s been off a long time,” Russell said. “I was hoping to get a prep into her before this. It’s been a while, but she’s been working right along. She’s a bigger, stronger filly. She’s the kind of horse that if you have her right and she’s happy, she’s going to show up. That’s just her.”

If ever a horse deserved a vacation, it was Apple Picker, a hearty mare who raced without a layoff between May 25, 2023, and the Pink Ribbon.

“She just needed a break,” Russell added. “She trains hard and she’s hard on herself. Little things were catching up with her, so we stopped on her. May comes up quick in the schedule. I didn’t get her back on the work tab as early as I’d have liked. She would have been eligible for a three-other-than but this race was always the goal.”

One Magic Philly also makes her seasonal debut in the Skipat. Trained in Southern California by Phil D’Amato, One Magic Philly won the Chillingworth (G3) at Santa Anita in her stakes debut last fall before finishing sixth in a pair of Grade 1 events.

D’Amato has indicated that a significant short-term goal for One Magic Philly is the Chicago (G2) June 21 at Churchill Downs. The Skipat would serve as a nice stepping-stone to that spot.

Zeitlos looms a substantial danger from off the pace. The Thoroughbred Club of America (G2) winner at Keeneland last fall, Zeitlos starts for the first time since finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Del Mar. Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen trains the 5-year-old Curlin mare.

Zeitlos breezed an easy solo half-mile at Churchill on May 2, finishing the distance in :49 3/5 with her ears pricked. She completed her Skipat prep work with a maintenance three-eighths breeze, an Asmussen staple, on May 10.

Disco Ebo won Laurel’s Primonetta over muddy going on April 12. The 13-time winner is one of six black-type earners produced by Katarica Disco, by Disco Rico. Among them are millionaire Smooth B and recent Laurel stakes winner Fore Harp, who took the King T. Leatherbury sprinting on turf.

“[Disco Ebo] been a tremendous mare for us,” trainer Robert E. ‘Butch’ Reid said. “She came out of her last race really well and had a beautiful blowout the other day. We’re expecting a big effort.”

Reid is impressed with Disco Ebo’s maturity.

“She’s a very handy filly,” he said. “She’s learned to come from off of it a little bit lately, too. She used to be a speed-buster.”

Striker Has Dial went right through two allowance conditions in her last couple of starts in New York, winning both in fast fashion. Trainer Horacio DePaz feels that turning the Dialed In filly back to six furlongs was key.

“I think I screwed it up by trying to stretch her out more than she needed to go,” DePaz said. “She won first-time out going seven furlongs [so I thought she could go a bit longer].”

DePaz was thrilled with Striker Has Dial’s half-mile breeze at Belmont on May 3 and believes that a bit of time between races helps. Her last race was on March 22.

Stakes-placed mares Admiral Hopper and Happy Clouds complete the field.