By the time the George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan Stakes is run Saturday at Pimlico, trainer Brad Cox and jockey Florent Geroux will be completing a sensational day, or one of great disappointment. They are in seven of the day’s stakes, five graded, with strong chances in every one, and their filly Bonny South, the Black-Eyed Susan favorite, is the anchor leg. The Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan, for 3-year-old fillies, is race 10 on the card. It immediately precedes the Preakness Stakes, and, like the Preakness offers a late-season chance for 3-year-olds to stay in their division going two turns on dirt rather than take on elders. The Black-Eyed Susan, at 1 1/8 miles, is usually run in the spring, on the day preceding the Preakness. But this year it essentially is the division’s stand-in for the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion, run up I-95 at Parx but canceled this year, another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I wish it had the purse of the Cotillion,” Cox mused. True that, especially with a filly who is 7-5 on the morning line of Pimlico’s Keith Feustle. Bonny South comes off a second-place finish to the high-class Swiss Skydiver in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes on Aug. 15, recording a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 98. The Black-Eyed Susan is her third start following a 3 1/2-month break owing to the pandemic, and she is reunited with Geroux, who rode her to a late-running victory in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks in March. Swiss Skydiver came out of the Alabama to run second in the Kentucky Oaks. Cox bypassed the Kentucky Oaks with Bonny South, believing it wasn’t in her best interest to jam her back in three weeks. He and Geroux won the Oaks anyway with Shedaresthedevil, and now their divide-and-conquer approach brings Bonny South to Pimlico. “She ran a big race in the Alabama going a mile and quarter over a demanding track,” Cox said. “She’s lightly raced, so we just wanted to take our time. It would have been a lot to ask her to run back in 20 days after going a mile and a quarter. We’ve been pointing for this since they put it up on Preakness Day.” Eleven 3-year-old fillies entered the Black-Eyed Susan. Landing Zone and So Darn Hot, the top two finishers in an allowance race on a sloppy track at Delaware Sept. 10, are the co-second choices at 6-1 on Feustle’s line, but neither looks any better than several others in here, so a couple of 12-1 shots might be worth embracing in the gimmicks. Mizzen Beau was a front-running winner of the Bison City at Woodbine Sept. 12, and though that was on synthetic, she’s 2 for 4 on dirt, one of those losses a second-place finish to Shedarestehdevil in an allowance Churchill Downs June 5. “She’s been better going two turns,” said her trainer, Norm Casse. “Let her get into the race, don’t get in her way, let her get comfortable.” He has the right rider for that in Brian Hernandez Jr. Miss Marissa is seeking her third straight win, all going two turns on dirt. She comes off an allowance victory at Saratoga against elders in which she got a career-best Beyer of 91. “I thought it was an outstanding race,” said her trainer, Jim Ryerson, “I didn’t really want to run her in the Alabama, and then that race came up. It was a small field, but she faced some nice older mares. “She had things her own way, but she ran fast and validated that she wants to go two turns. She’s a classic example of pace makes the race. The pace going short is too quick for her. She can hold her speed better going long.” Hopeful Growth won the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks with a career-best 89 Beyer before finding the Kentucky Oaks, in which she finished sixth, too steep. Dream Marie also gets class relief after finishing last of nine in the Kentucky Oaks. Project Whiskey beat Dream Marie in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks and was second in the Monmouth Oaks, but flopped last time, finishing last of nine in the Weber City Miss at Laurel. Perfect Alibi, who often gets support, adds blinkers, but doesn’t appear to have progressed from 2 to 3. Sharp Starr and Truth Hurts complete the field.