Caracortado eyes Affirmed

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Caracortado, who finished seventh in Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, has returned to Machowksy's stable at Santa Anita and could start in the current Hollywood Park meeting.

Machowsky said the $100,000 Affirmed Handicap over 1 1/16 miles on June 19 is a possibility.

Caracortado finished 10 1/2 lengths behind winner Lookin At Lucky in the Preakness. Ridden by Paul Atkinson, Caracortado was racing with Lookin At Lucky on the turn, but could not sustain the rally and faded from contention in the final furlong.

"He might have gotten a little tired on me," Machowsky said.

The Preakness Stakes was Caracortado's first start since a troubled fourth in the Santa Anita Derby on April 3. He did not have sufficient graded stakes earnings to gain a place in the Kentucky Derby.

Ascanio pair point to Del Mar

Midships and Fluke, Grade 1 winners in 2009, will miss the spring-summer meeting and are likely to start at Del Mar this summer, trainer Humberto Ascanio said.

Midships, the winner of the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Handicap here last June, has not started since finishing ninth in the Man o' War Stakes at Belmont Park last July. In 2009, Midships was trained by Bobby Frankel, who died in November. Ascanio was a longtime assistant to Frankel.

Ascanio had hoped that Midships could start in the Whittingham on June 6, but the race will arrive too soon. "We won't make it," he said.

Fluke, the winner of the Grade 1 Citation Handicap here in November, is being given a month-long break, Ascanio said. Fluke was second in two stakes at Santa Anita earlier this year - the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile and Grade 2 Arcadia Handicap. The Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on May 31 had been a goal.

"I didn't like the way he worked and I'll pass that race," Ascanio said. "We'll freshen him and give him a month off."