American Pharoah punches in for Preakness

Five days after his victory in the Kentucky Derby, American Pharoah returned to the track for training on Thursday morning at Churchill Downs as he began the quick turnaround for the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 16.

American Pharoah was joined by his Bob Baffert-trained stablemate Dortmund, who finished third in the Derby and is also under consideration for the Preakness.

They hit the track at 6:18 a.m., with regular exercise rider Jorge Alvarez aboard American Pharoah and regular exercise rider Dana Barnes on Dortmund. Both 3-year-olds took barely more than five minutes to jog the wrong way once around the one-mile oval, stopping for nothing. They walked right back to their Barn 33 headquarters and were being prepared for their baths by 6:30.

“Good,” said Jim Barnes, the longtime Baffert lieutenant who is overseeing the stable with the boss back in California. “I wanted to get them out earlier than normal this morning because they’ve been off four days, and I didn’t want them on the muscle in their stalls. We’ll probably start taking them out after the break after this, although I’ll just do whatever Bob tells me.”

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The midmorning renovation break ends around 8:30.

“Jimmy told me they were full of themselves,” Baffert said later Thursday on a national teleconference. “I was going to jog them two days, but they’ll gallop [Friday].”

American Pharoah, owned by Zayat Stables, figures as a heavy favorite in the Preakness, with Dortmund vying for second-choice status with the Derby runner-up, Firing Line. If those three run, a field of perhaps eight to 10 would be entered on Wednesday.

Baffert said he will return Sunday evening to Louisville to oversee training Monday and Tuesday. He said owner Kaleem Shah has left the decision on running Dortmund up to him, and Baffert said, “I haven’t seen anything” to keep him out.

“As long as he looks good Monday and Tuesday, I don’t see why not,” Baffert said.

A charter flight carrying the Baffert horses and other Preakness-weekend runners to Baltimore is booked for Wednesday morning. Baffert on Thursday said he was leaning against working either of his horses prior to the Preakness.

Firing Line, trained by Simon Callaghan, had his first day back to training on Wednesday at Churchill. He is among the other horses on the Wednesday charter.

The list of likely challengers for the Derby’s top three grew shorter on Thursday when trainer Todd Pletcher said Competitive Edge, the winner of the Pat Day Mile last Saturday on the Derby undercard, likely will skip the Preakness and is “more likely” to run in either the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap or the Grade 2 Woody Stephens on the undercard of the Belmont Stakes on June 6.

Competitive Edge is undefeated. Running in the Preakness would mean running at 1 3/16 miles and around two turns for the first time for a horse who has yet to run beyond a one-turn mile. It also would mean running back in two weeks.

“We’ve taken the patient approach with him so far,” Pletcher said Thursday at Belmont, where Competitive Edge galloped. “It’s a long year, a lot of big races down the road.”

The Met Mile would be an interesting target for Competitive Edge because it would mean running against older horses for the first time, as well as possibly having to face stablemate Palace Malice, the defending winner of the Met Mile. The Woody Stephens is restricted to 3-year-olds and run at seven furlongs. Bayern won the Woody Stephens last year and went on to win the Haskell Invitational and Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Pletcher said no decision has been made on two other 3-year-olds he is considering for the Preakness – Materiality, sixth in the Kentucky Derby, and Carpe Diem, 10th in the Derby. Pletcher said both “galloped well” Thursday.

– additional reporting by David Grening and Marty McGee