BALTIMORE — Gun Song won the Black-Eyed Susan on Friday, finishing comfortably ahead of Corposo and Call Another Play over 1⅛ miles at Pimlico Race Course.

Longshot Jeanne Marie showed early speed and was still challenging for the lead around the second turn, but after she finally weakened, nobody else provided much of a challenge for Gun Song. With John Velazquez aboard, she won by 3¼ lengths in the race for 3-year-old fillies that takes place the day before the Preakness Stakes.

Gun Song, trained by Mark Hennig, paid $6.60, $3.80 and $2.80.

Other stakes winners Friday at Pimlico included Shotgun Hottie in the Allaire Dupont Distaff, She Feels Pretty in the Hilltop and Mystic Lake in the Miss Preakness. Future Is Now took the The Very One Stakes, and Pyrenees prevailed in the Pimlico Special.

The bodies of three Israeli hostage taken by Hamas have been recovered in Gaza.

The remains were discovered in an overnight operation carried out by Israel’s military and intelligence agency Shin Bet, said chief military spokesman Daniel Hagari.

Itzhak Gelerenter, 56, Amit Buskila, 28, and Shani Louk, 22, were killed at the Nova music festival on 7 October, with their bodies then taken into Gaza by Hamas militants.

Ms Louk’s body was seen face-down in a pick-up truck travelling through Gaza in a video that was shared widely on social media after the hostages were taken.

Israel-Gaza war latest updates

“They were celebrating life in the Nova music festival and they were murdered by Hamas,” said Mr Hagari.

He said their families have been notified.

“Our hearts go out to them, to the families at this difficult time. We will leave no stone unturned, we will do everything in our power to find our hostages and bring them home.”

The military did not give immediate details on where their bodies were found.

Ms Louk’s father has said the return of his daughter’s body to her family has been a form of closure.

Nissim Louk told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz his daughter “radiated light, to her and those who surrounded her, and in her death she still does”.

He added: “She is a symbol of the people of Israel, between light and darkness. Her inner and outer beauty that shone for all the world to see is a special one.”

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In November, the brother of Ms Louk told Sky News of their last phone call as his sister tried to escape Hamas.

Speaking about the video that was circulated online after she was taken, Amit Louk said: “I never thought I was going to be in contact with this type of video, seeing my sister in that brutal position.

“And just in that moment, the whole family just crashed.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deaths “heartbreaking”, saying: “We will return all of our hostages, both the living and the dead.”

Meanwhile, Professor Hagai Levine, a member of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, has said the recovery of the bodies is a “painful reminder” of those who are still in captivity.

“We do not lose hope. We are preparing for the return of the hostages that are alive,” he added.

Israel has been operating in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah, where it says it has intelligence that hostages are being held.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others in the 7 October attack.

Around half of those have since been freed, most in swaps for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a ceasefire in November.

Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza since the attack has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

Mr Netanyahu has vowed to both eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back.

He faces pressure to resign, and the US has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Israelis are divided into two main camps: those who want the government to put the war on hold and free the hostages, and others who think the hostages are an unfortunate price to pay for eradicating Hamas.

PRAGUE — Brady Tkachuk scored a goal and added three assists, Cole Caufield scored twice and the United States clinched a playoff-round berth with a 4-1 win over Poland in preliminary round play at the men’s world hockey championships on Friday.

Michigan State goalie Trey Augustine stopped 20 shots, including all 11 he faced in a scoreless first period. Michael Kesselring also scored for the Americans, who improved to 3-1-1 and moved into second place in the Group B standings.

John Murray, who has Polish roots and is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, stopped 53 shots, including 34 of the first 36 he faced through two periods to keep the score tight. Grzegorz Pasiut scored Poland’s lone goal, briefly cutting the U.S. lead to 3-1 with 13:38 left in the third period.

Poland dropped to 0-4-1 and is in jeopardy of facing relegation.

Kesselring, a defenseman for NHL Utah, was set up by Tkachuk on a 3-on-1 rush to open the scoring 9:49 into the second period.

Tkachuk, the U.S. and Ottawa Senators captain, then made it 2-0 with 42 seconds left in the frame on a 2-on-1 break. Murray made the initial stop on Shane Pinto, and the puck got caught up in Tkachuk’s skate and went in as the forward was pushed from behind and crashed into the net.

The Americans close preliminary round play facing Kazakhstan on Sunday and Latvia on Tuesday.

In Group A play, Dominik Kubalik and Jakub Flek scored second-period goals 64 seconds apart, and the Czech Republic beat Austria 4-0. Petr Mrazek, who plays goal for the Chicago Blackhawks, picked up the shutout with 21 saves, and the host Czechs improved to 3-1-1 to take over first place in their pool.

Austria dropped to 1-3-1.

Earlier in the day, JJ Peterka had a goal and three assists, Wojciech Stachowiak set up four goals, and Germany clinched a Group B playoff berth with an 8-2 rout of Kazakhstan.

Philipp Grubauer, who plays for the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, stopped 18 shots. Peterka, a member of the Buffalo Sabres, scored the eventual game-winning goal in putting the Germans ahead 3-1 at the 1:11 mark of the second period.

Roman Starchenko and Artyom Korolyov scored for Kazakhstan, which is in jeopardy of facing relegation after dropping to 1-4. Andrey Shutov allowed three goals on 10 shots before being replaced by Nikita Boyarkin, who stopped 20 of 25 shots.

In Group A preliminary round play, Christian Wejse scored the decisive goal with 7:59 left in regulation of Denmark’s 4-3 win over winless Britain.

Mikkel Aagaard scored twice and Phillip Bruggisser had a goal and assist for the Danes, who snapped a three-game skid to improve to 2-3. Frederik Dichow made 28 saves in the victory.

Liam Kirk, Cade Neilson and Nathanael Halbert scored for Britain, which dropped to 0-4. Jackson Whistle finished with 24 saves for a team that’s been competitive despite its record, and opened the worlds with a 4-2 loss to Canada.