His one shot – filly Future Is Now against the boys – didn’t work out, as she finished fifth as the 3-1 second choice. But his longshot, Call Another Play, got bet down to 5-1 and delivered a solid 3 ½-length victory for her first win in stakes company.

Oddly enough, the two fillies, Future Is Now, by Great Notion, and Call Another Play, by Audible, are half-sisters.

“A five-eighths turf sprinter to a big rangy chestnut filly that needs a mile and an eighth,” Johnson said with a laugh afterwards. “They’re sisters, for Christ’s sake.”

Call Another Play’s win in the Weber City Miss secured her a free spot in next month’s Grade 2, $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes the day before the Preakness. But Johnson was uncertain about that spot.

“That’s a big ask,” Johnson said. “I guess I’d have to look at it; it’s free. But historically, going from that race to this race hasn’t generally worked out all that well.”

The future, of course, will take care of itself. But the present looks pretty promising for a filly who, as recently as Feb. 16, was running in claiming company. In fact, her start that day was her third straight at the $40,000 level, and in her first two tries, she’d finished ninth and third.

It was a puzzling comedown for a horse who had run second on debut behind the talented stakes winner Determined Driver and then graduated at second asking.

“After her first two races, I was very encouraged,” Johnson said. “And then it was like, what the hell? I mean, she can’t be that bad. And then we sprinted her, and she doesn’t want to sprint.”

Stretched out to a mile in that February contest, she responded with a 4 ½-length win. Johnson and Trombetta then moved her back up into allowance/optional claiming company, and she won by 6 ½ in her strongest outing to date.

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“And then she wins by five, and then we move her up and she wins by six,” Johnson said. “And that’s when I said, she deserves to be in [the Weber City Miss].”

The Weber City Miss scratched down to five runners, but the Kenny McPeek-trained Shimmering Allure, a stakes winner who is Grade 2-placed, remained in and went off as the 3-5 favorite.

When the gates opened, the speedy multiple stakes winner Miss Harriett zoomed to the early advantage, holding a one-length lead after a half-mile in 47.66 seconds and a half-length advantage after three quarters in 1:13.00. Meanwhile, Call Another Play, with top local pilot Jaime Rodriguez up, was last early  and still fourth, five lengths back, after a half-mile.

But Rodriguez and Call Another Play began to rev up a run while three wide rounding the turn, dispatched Miss Harriett in the lane, and drew away to win by 3 ½ lengths in 1:46.66  for 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track. 

“They started off slow. We figured there would be quite a pace in front of us and it took a while before they started really putting it together, but when they all got halfway down the backside and started getting near each other, then the tempo picked up,” Trombetta said. “Jaime rides this horse brilliantly. Him and her seem to get along really well.”

The Butch Reid-trained Jeanne Marie grabbed second, while Miss Harriett held on to be third. Shimmering Allure finished fifth. Call Another Play paid $12.80 to win, with the exacta returning $43.90 for a one-dollar wager.

Call Another Play now has four wins from nine career starts and earnings of $208,625.

NOTES Trainer Graham Motion and jockey Jorge Ruiz won two turf stakes on the day, scoring with 2-1 Five Towns in the one-mile Dahlia for fillies and mares and with 5-1 Dataman in the one-mile Henry S. Clark for older runners. Dataman was particularly impressive, completing the course in a sharp 1:33.94 for his second career stakes win. “It’s great to be back on the grass,” Motion said…. Local favorite Witty, bred, owned, and trained by Elizabeth Merryman, rallied from well back to win the King T. Leatherbury Stakes in his first start of the year. It was Witty’s eighth career victory…