Castellano will ride Diamond King in Preakness

Javier Castellano will ride Diamond King in the Preakness Stakes, trainer John Servis confirmed Saturday morning.

Castellano takes over the mount from Frankie Pennington, who has won the last four riding championships at Parx Racing and has won five titles overall at the Bensalem, Pa., track where Diamond King is based.

Pennington has ridden Diamond King in all six of his starts. Diamond King has won four of those races, with his only losses coming when he clipped heels and unseated Pennington in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club last fall and when he finished third in his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Swale at Gulfstream Park.

The Swale was his first race following a partial sale, and his first after being transferred from the stable of Butch Reid to Servis.

"Frankie has done nothing wrong," Servis said. "He's ridden this horse great and is still a big part of the team.

"It was a business decision. At this stage of the horse's career, the owners just feel he needs everything possible going in his favor coming into this type of race."

Castellano was voted the Eclipse Award as the outstanding rider in North America four straight years from 2013 to 2016. He won his second Preakness last year aboard cloud Computing. He also won the race in 2006 on Bernardini.

Diamond King was entered and scratched with Castellano named to ride from Saturday's Peter Pan at Belmont Park. Castellano's agent, Mike Lakow, officially accepted the Preakness mount Saturday morning, according to Servis.

Diamond King, who will be a longshot in the Preakness, has won the 1 1/8-mile Federico Tesio and seven-furlong Heft Stakes at Laurel Park.

The Tesio was a Win and You're In for the Preakness and assures him a fees-paid berth in the field. He started his career with maiden and allowance wins at Parx.

The track at Parx was sloppy Saturday morning with rain and drizzle forecast again for Sunday. Servis decided not to work Diamond King Saturday and is hoping to instead work him Sunday or Monday.

Diamond King is not an energetic work horse and Servis generally exercises him in company when he wants a sharp effort. Last Saturday, Diamond King breezed a half-mile from the gate at Parx in 50.20 seconds.

"When I breezed him last week it was just a maintenance work, so I sent him out alone," Servis said. "I knew he might have trouble breaking 50.

"I'll probably put another horse with him or in front of him for this work."

Diamond King has yet to earn a Beyer Speed Figure higher than 84, but has appeared to pull himself up after making the lead in some of his races.

"Even in the Tesio, when he made the lead, his ears went straight up," Servis said. "I think there's a lot of upside to him and that we haven’t seen his best race. He's doing great."

Servis said Diamond King was likely to ship to Pimlico on Friday.