G1 Winner in Field of 12 for 1 1/8-Mile Turf Stakes Saturday
Among Six Stakes Worth $650,000 Topped by G3 BWI Turf Cup

BALTIMORE – Buqui Chala R.IV’s Milagrosa Surena, a group-stakes winner on turf and dirt in her native Argentina, will get an opportunity to translate her stakes winning form to North America when she returns to the grass for Saturday’s $100,000 All Along at historic Pimlico Race Course.

The 52nd running of the All Along for fillies and mares 3 and up scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the turf is the fourth of six stakes worth $650,000 in purses on an 11-race program headlined by the $200,000 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3).

Other scheduled grass stakes are the $100,000 All Along for fillies and mares 3 and older going 1 1/8 miles and $75,000 Ben’s Cat for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-olds and up sprinting five furlongs. They are joined by a trio of six-furlong dirt sprints – the $100,000 Lite the Fuse for -year-olds and up, $100,000 Weather Vane for 3-year-old fillies and $75,000 Shine Again for fillies and mares 3 and up that have not won an open sweepstakes.

First race post time is 12:25 p.m.

Milagrosa Surena made her North American debut Sept. 1 sprinting seven furlongs on the main track at Colonial Downs. It was the first start for the 4-year-old filly since finishing second but being disqualified to last for interference in the 1 ¼-mile Copa de Plata Roberto Vasquez Mansilla Internacional (G1) at San Isidro.

“I know she’s better on the grass,” Pimlico-based trainer Miguel Vera said. “I entered her for a race, but it didn’t go so I just wanted to give her a race to set her up for this race. She’s not a short distance horse, she wants to go long at the grass. After 10 months off, she didn’t run bad at all. It looked like she needed the race. She’s doing great for this race.”

Milagrosa Surena won the 1 ¼-mile Enrique Acebal (G1) last fall at San Isidro in her first turf race after nine straight dirt starts that included a win in the one-mile Miguel Luis Morales (G2) over Una Arrabalera, a six-time group-stakes winner including two Group 1s.

“She ran some pretty nice races,” Vera said. “She’s a Grade 1 winner there and she ran against the best 3-year-old in Argentina. Then they gave her a little time off and sent her up to me. She’s doing great, and I think she fits in this race.”

Horacio Karamanos is named on Milagrosa Surena from Post 11 in a field of 12.

“Hopefully we get a good trip, and we’ll see where we’re at with her,” Vera said.

Other stakes winners in the All Along are My Thoughts, Unruly Julie and Mouffy. Harry Kassap’s Maryland homebred My Thoughts is winless in four starts this year and five straight since her gutsy nose victory in the 1 1/16-mile Fort Indiantown Gap last summer at Penn National.

Unruly Julie, owned and co-bred in West Virginia by O’Sullivan Farms, comes out of a determined front-running half-length triumph in the Nellie Mae Cox going 1 1/16 miles on the Colonial Downs turf, a year after being beaten a nose in the same spot. Six of her seven career wins have come on the grass.

Augustin Stables lightly raced homebred Mouffy takes a two-race win streak into the All Along, capturing a one-mile optional claiming allowance June 21 at Horseshoe Indiana and the 1 1/16-mile Ellis Park Turf Aug. 27, both since being moved to the grass after the daughter of champion Uncle Mo registered two wins from four starts on dirt.

“Mouffy I think quite a bit of,” trainer Jonathan Thomas said. “True to the Uncle Mos, she’s kind of getting better with age. Once we started to stretch her out on the grass, she found new life. I like the filly quite a bit. She’s starting to get good.”

Jevian Toledo has the call on Mouffy from Post 3.

A three-time All Along winner with Strathnaver (2013), Interrupted (2015) and Tuned (2021), trainer Graham Motion goes after a fourth with the duo of Eidikos and Willakia. Andrew Stone’s British-bred Eidikos came to the U.S. over the winter and is stepping up to stakes company for the first time domestically after placing in four of five allowance races in Kentucky and Maryland.

Fitted with blinkers for the first time, the 4-year-old filly broke through with her first North American win Aug. 13 at Laurel Park going 1 1/8 miles, scoring by 2 ¼ lengths as the favorite over next-out winner Stern Chaser.

“I thought she ran really well with the blinkers. I think they really did make a difference. It was definitely a form reversal for her. She’d been steady, but she really stepped up last time,” Motion said. “I actually wasn’t sure she wanted to go that far, but she won very nicely.”

Feargal Lynch will be aboard Eidikos from Post 4.

Stonestreet Stables’ homebred Willakia is also coming off a win, a front-running 6 ¼-length triumph in a 1 1/16-mile allowance July 27 at Colonial. It was the 4-year-old Tapit filly’s first race since late February at Gulfstream Park, and just her fifth overall.

“She’s lightly raced but very talented. Obviously with both these fillies, the chance of getting them black type is really important,” Motion said. “She’s a beautiful filly. I don’t think the mile and an eighth will be a problem for her.”

Motion has had Willakia from the beginning, dating back to her November 2021 debut on the Aqueduct turf. Though her last race came on the front end, she has come from off the pace in each of her other starts.

“She’s always shown a great deal of ability,” Motion said. “Based on the way she ran last time she tends to be fairly close.I would think they have fairly similar styles, to be honest, but neither one of them is fixed to a certain style. I think they’re both pretty adaptable.

Jorge Ruiz rides Willakia from Post 2.

Cedar Hill homebred Myriskyaffair has been worse than third three times in 13 starts for trainer Christophe Clement, running second in the 1 1/8-mile Wonder Again (G3) last spring at Belmont Park. Three of her four starts this year have come on less than firm turf, including a third last out in a 1 3/8-mile optional claiming allowance Aug. 6 at Saratoga.

Full Count Felicia, a last-out winner on the turf at Colonial Aug. 19; Queen Judith, also exiting a win July 1 at Woodbine for U.S. and Canadian Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse; Eight Danzas, third in the Aug. 21 Mrs. Penny and fourth the Nellie Mae Cox; and Kotyle complete the field.

The All Along is named for the French-bred filly that won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Rothmans International, Turf Classic and Laurel’s Washington D.C. International in the span of 41 days in 1983 en route to becoming the first foreign-based horse to be voted U.S. Horse of the Year. A winner of nine races and more than $3 million in purses from 21 starts, she was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1990.