When trainer Robert “Butch” Reid, jr. ventures to Pimlico this Friday and Saturday for the pinnacle of racing in Maryland, the Parx-based conditioner will arrive with, he hopes, enough horses to make a big impression in the lucrative stakes.

Reid has five horses entered at Pimlico on the Friday and Saturday cards, each of them in a stakes race and all five of them Pennsylvania-breds. Among the handful of horses that Reid is shipping to Pimlico this weekend is Uncle Heavy, who will head into the Grade I, $2 million Preakness as a 20-1 outsider on the morning line despite the services of jockey Irad Ortiz, jr., the multiple Eclipse Award-winning rider who is certainly no stranger to success in many of the sport’s most coveted events.

Ortiz has finished second in two of the last three runnings of the Preakness, last year with Blazing Sevens and in 2021 with Midnight Bourbon.

Two starts back, Uncle Heavy captured the Grade III Withers Stakes at Aqueduct and then was an unlucky fifth in the Grade II Wood Memorial in his final possible Kentucky Derby prep. Reid thought that effort was better than it appears on paper.

“He was really unlucky in the Wood,” Reid said. “He had the 13-hole and he was four-wide on both turns. Then when it looked like he might be able to make up some ground, a horse fell in front of him. He came out of the race okay and he’s had two excellent works [at Parx since then]. He went a half in 48 flat, and then he came back and worked a half in 47 flat and he did both so easily. He’s coming into this race better than any of his previous races.”

Uncle Heavy sports three wins in five starts and nearly $325,000 banked for owners Michael Milam and LC Racing, and his last two victories have come against stakes company. Dismissed at 9-1 while capturing the Withers and again in the Wood off of that Grade III score, Uncle Heavy is likely to assume long shot status again this Saturday while facing the likes of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan and Bob Baffert trainee Imagination, the beaten favorite in the Grade I Santa Anita Derby last out.

“There are some really nice colts in there and a lot of the top trainers have horses in the race,” Reid said, referring to Baffert, Brad Cox (Catching Freedom), D. Wayne Lukas (Just Steel and Seize The Grey) and Chad Brown (Tuscan Gold). “I began working for Dickie Dutrow back in the 70’s when Maryland racing was in its heyday, so I’m looking forward to representing the state well in the Preakness. Both me and my brother [Mark Reid, for whom Uncle Heavy is named] are University of Maryland graduates, so having a horse in the Preakness is definitely special.”

Two races prior to the Preakness, Reid will saddle Smooth B in the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint at five furlongs. A nine-year-old Weigelia horse that Reid trains for LC Racing, Smooth B was a nondescript sixth in his seasonal debut on the dirt at Parx last month, but he sports a solid 10-13-8 slate and nearly $820,000 banked from 57 career tries. 

Also Saturday, Reid will send out Disco Ebo in the $100,000 Skipat Stakes for fillies and mares. Disco Ebo,seeking her third win in four seasonal outings, already sports 11 wins and over $650,000 banked from 22 career tries.

One day earlier Reid will saddle Jeanne Marie in the Grade II, $300,000 George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan Stakes for three-year-old fillies, the annual sister race to the Preakness. A sophomore daughter of Speightster co-owned and co-bred by Cash Is King LLC and LC Racing, Jeanne Marie was second in the Weber City Miss Stakes at Laurel Park last out after winning a minor stake at Parx in her seasonal debut. She sports two wins and two second-place finishes from four career outings.

“I thought she ran really well in the Weber City Miss,” Reid said. “It was only her second start back, and she was coming off a win, so I thought she might regress a little. But she ran an excellent race. She came out of it well and then she had a decent work last week.”

Then several races earlier on the Friday card, Reid will saddle Carmelina in the Grade III, $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes for three-year-old fillies traveling the sprint distance of six furlongs. Carmelina finished seventh in the Grade III Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct last out while attempting the two-turn distance of nine furlongs, so Reid has opted to return to his initial game plan with the sophomore Maximus Mischief and return to sprints.

“I wanted to give her a chance going long,” Reid said. “She didn’t like that, so I’m going to put her in sprints from now on. All along, I thought her best distance was going to be six furlongs or seven furlongs. She won a couple of stakes races sprinting last year. When she turned three, I wanted to give her a chance to see if she could go long. It looked like the nine furlongs was just too far for her, so I will keep her sprinting from now on.”

CHECK OUT THE LATEST OFF TO THE RACES RADIO!