Recent stakes winner Daring Do and her multiple stakes-placed stablemate Spicy Marg give trainer Wesley Ward a strong hand going up against All That Magic, riding a four-race win streak, in Sunday’s $100,000 Sensible Lady Turf Dash at historic Pimlico Race Course.

The sixth running of the five-furlong Sensible Lady for fillies and mares 3 and up, carded as Race 8, is the second of three stakes worth $275,000 in purses during a 10-race program on opening weekend of Pimlico’s boutique nine-day fall meet.

Also on the card are the $100,000 Polynesian for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles in Race 9 and the $75,000 Challedon for 3-year-olds and up which have never won an open sweepstakes sprinting six furlongs in Race 5. First race post time is 12:25 p.m.

Ward brings Wayne G. Lyster III, W. Gray Lister IV and Bryan Lyster’s Spicy Marg back to Pimlico for the third time in the Sensible Lady, a race where she ran fourth by a length last fall. The 5-year-old Into Mischief mare was second, 1 ¼ lengths behind Train to Artemus, in the May 19 The Very One on the undercard of the Black-Eyed Susan (G2).

“She’s a tryer,” Ward said. “The Lysters have been very patient with her. We had her spotted for a race at Saratoga, a three-other-than allowance, but unfortunately it didn’t go. She’s more effective at five [furlongs] anyway. She’s going to take them, hopefully, from start to finish. That’s her game.”

Five of Spicy Marg’s last seven defeats have come by two lengths or less, and she has been third or better in nine of 14 career starts including a runner-up finish in the 2020 Tyro at Monmouth Park, her career debut. Most recently she was third by a length after drifting late in a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance June 16 at Ellis Park.

“She’s an older mare now, lightly raced, and she fires every time you lead her over there,” Ward said. “If the conditions are fast and firm, she’ll be leading them right down to the dirty dollar.”

Daring Do, a 3-year-old daughter of Into Mischief bred and owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stables, became a stakes winner last time out in the 5 ½-furlong Pea Patch July 16 at Ellis Park. Though fast in her own right, Daring Do settled behind the speed and came with a late burst to get up by a length.

“She’s been an awesome filly to train, just beautiful to be around. She’s a barn favorite. She always showed promise since she came in,” Ward said. “We’re glad to get a stakes win in her, being bred the way she is. As fast as she is, she’s learned how to settle and come from off the pace so that makes her even more dangerous.”

Out of the Blame mare More’n Likely, Daring Do went unraced at 2 and has three wins and two seconds in five starts this year including a previous victory over her elders in an open 5 ½-furlong allowance on the Keeneland turf April 20, her first time facing winners.

“I think what’s good is that she can settle and rate to where she can have that punch at the end. I think that’s been the biggest key for her. The other one I have in there is the opposite. She’s just all go,” Ward said. “We’ve always liked her and she’s bred in the purple, so to get a stakes win out of her and have that black type for the Jacksons just makes it fantastic.”

Walter Rodriguez is named to ride both Spicy Marg (Post 3). Ward has not named a rider for Daring Do (Post 9) in a full field of 12.

Other contenders include All That Magic (3-1) for trainer Kathleen Demasi, Goin’ Good (2-1) for Brad Cox, Can’t Buy Love (5-1) for Mike Trombetta, and Self Isolation (8-1) for David Jacobson.

Turf sprinter Sensible Lady took consecutive runnings of Pimlico’s The Very One in 2012 and 2013, two of her seven wins in 14 starts at 3 and 4. The Street Sense filly was trained by Tim Salzman for Three Lyons Racing, who purchased her for $9,500 as a 2-year-old at Ocala’s April sale. She went on to earn $436,640 from 22 starts. From May 2012 to June 2013, the filly won six stakes while racing at Pimlico, Colonial Downs, Penn National and Saratoga and placed in three others during the 10-race streak.

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