by Ron Parker

Grade 3 winner Passion appears to be a formidable contender in the $100,000 Adena Stallions’ Miss Preakness Stakes (G3) at Pimlico Race Course on Friday.

Owned by Michael Tabor, Susan Magnier, and Derrick Smith, the Came Home filly is one of eight three-year-old fillies entered in the six-furlong race.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Passion won her career debut at Arlington Park by 7 ½ lengths as a two-year-old and followed with a third-place finish in the Adirondack Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course. She closed her juvenile campaign with an unplaced finish in the Spinaway Stakes (G1) on September 2 at Saratoga.

She opened this year on the turf at Santa Anita Park after a layoff of more than 4 1/2 months, winning an allowance race by three lengths. She subsequently earned a victory in the La Habra Stakes (G3) before she was shipped to Keeneland Race Course for a third-place finish in the Stonerside Beaumont Stakes (G2) on April 10.

Arnold and Adam Smolen’s Kosmo’s Buddy, a regular on the Maryland circuit, will make her graded stakes debut in the Miss Preakness. The Outflanker filly has placed in six stakes races, five of them at Laurel Park, and enters off a runner-up finish in the Hookedonthefeelin Stakes on May 3 at Pimlico.

Ron Parker is a Thoroughbred Times contributing writer

The field, in post-position order, with horse, (sire), jockey, weight, and trainer:

1. Casanova Killer (Storm Boot), Jeremy Rose, 116, Steve Klesaris;

2. Hadavision (Vision and Verse), Ramon A. Dominguez, 122, Mark Shuman;

3. Peisinoe (Yes It's True), Alex O. Solis, 116, Patrick Gallagher;

4. Palanka City (Carson City), Christopher A. Emigh, 122, Terry Gestes;

5. Passion (Came Home), John R. Velazquez, 122, Todd A. Pletcher;

6. Beau's Valentine (Alphabet Soup), no rider, 116, James K. Chapman;

7. Kosmo's Buddy (Outflanker), Eric Camacho, 116, Timothy E. Salzman; and

8. Story of a Lion (Lion Hearted), J. D. Acosta, 16, Charles L. Frock