LAUREL, MD - From the start, trainer Arnaud Delacour thought good things were ahead for a filly named After Eight.

“I have always been very high on her,” Delacour said.

It’s just that, initially, he didn’t anticipate After Eight would become a player on the grass.

That’s the game plan for Friday when the lightly raced daughter of Into Mischief runs in the 51st running of the one mile $100,000 Hilltop Stakes on the grass at Pimlico Race Course.

The Hilltop, for 3-year-old fillies, is one of six stakes races on the 14-race card on the eve of the 148th Preakness Stakes (G1). The main event on the Friday program is the 99th running of the $300,000 George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Stakes.

After Eight, owned by Burning Daylight Farm and Rebecca Galbraith, was a $425,000 purchase at the Keeneland 2021 September Yearling Sale. Because of her pedigree – she is out of the Classydame mare (Blame) – Delacour thought she would have her finest moments on the main track.

A fourth place finish in her career debut on the dirt at Delaware Park last August did nothing to inspire and a minor setback put After Eight on the sidelines.

She returned to the races on April 23 and went gate-to-wire to break her maiden on the grass at Keeneland. Now she is here to take on 11 rivals in the Hilltop, which is named in honor of Pimlico’s nickname. Jose Ruiz will ride After Eight.

“There was nothing really wrong with her,” Delacour said of the break last year. “The owners just wanted to give her more time. She was showing a lot on the dirt last year and, with her pedigree and what she was showing in the mornings, I thought she could be a good dirt filly. But, as soon as we switched her to turf, she showed another dimension.”

After Eight’s maiden win at Keeneland came at a mile in 1:36.30. Jose Ruiz will ride the filly for the first time.

Trainer Christophe Clement won the Hilltop last year with Pizza Bianca. He is sending the sharp Breath Away, owned by Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Steven Rocco and Tango Uniform Racing LLC to this Hilltop edition.

Breath Away has won two of her three career starts and is a nose away from being undefeated. The daughter of Bated Breath, who will be ridden by Joel Rosario, won the listed Sanibel Island Stakes at Gulfstream Park at 7 ½ furlongs on April 1 in her last start.

Breath Away rallied to win by 21/2 lengths.

“She keeps improving,” Clement said. “She was very impressive in the last race. The Hilltop is always a competitive race. She has always trained very well.”

Trainer Michael Stidham is hoping his filly Hang the Moon gets a better turf course than the one she got in her last start at Fair Grounds when she was fourth in the one-mile LaCombe Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds on March 11.

“That was a real tricky course,” Stidham said. “They were all running on the outside of the course and the riders were almost on the outside fence, trying to pick the best spot on the track. It was just a difficult course that was hard to navigate on. (Hang the Moon) did not get a very good trip. She ran a decent race, but I think she is a little better than that.”

Chad Brown, who has won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s top trainer four times (2016-19) and won the 2019 Hilltop with Dogtag, has entered two fillies for this race.

Aspray, owned by Ran Jan Racing Inc. and Head of Plains Partners LLC’s Up and Down will represent the powerful Brown barn. Both fillies have had two career starts. Aspray, who will be ridden by Flavien Prat, won twice at Tampa Bay Downs, the most recent at a mile on the grass on March 22. Up and Down, to be ridden by Manny Franco, broke her maiden at Keeneland at a mile on April 19 in her second career start.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher will send WinStar Farm LLC’s Aunt Shirley to the post with jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. The daughter of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify was fifth in the Sanibel Island in her first start of 2023.

Jockey Luis Saez will be aboard the Jonathan Thomas-trained Well Into for the first time. Owned by Augustin Stable, the daughter of Into Mischief has won twice going 11/16 miles in gate-to-wire fashion. In her last start, the one-mile Appalachian Stakes (G2) at Keeneland April 8, she was fourth on a course labeled “good.”

SJB Stable’s Thirty Thou Kevin will make her eighth career start, fourth on turf, in the Hilltop for trainer Jonathan Thomas and jockey Feargal Lynch. She has a win in three starts this year.

Miss New York, trained by Jorge Delgado and will be ridden by Paco Lopez, was last seen running third in the Bourbonette Oaks on Turfway Park’s synthetic track on March 25. Owned by AMO Racing USA, Miss New York has finished third in three of her four turf starts.

Also running are a group of fillies making their first starts on grass: Gerald L. Burns’ Ice Cube Baby (with jockey Jeiron Barbosa) for Laurel-based trainer Charles Frock; Lugano Racing Stable LLC and J R Sanchez Racing Stable’s Lil Spinner (no rider named) for Laurel’s Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon and Parx-based Majestic Creed (Andy Hernandez), owned by Cheryl A. Rickards.