Diamond King's win in Tesio earns Preakness shot

In 2004, John Servis trained Preakness Stakes winner Smarty Jones. In 2005, Afleet Alex carried the colors of the Cash is King Stable to victory in the Preakness.

Now Servis and Cash is King are in on the same horse, Diamond King, and after winning the $150,000 Federico Tesio Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park, Diamond King could be headed to a Preakness start.

Pressing moderate splits of 23.93, 48.33, and 1:13.27 under Frankie Pennington, Diamond King collared pacesetting Noble Commander at the quarter-pole and went on to a three-quarter-length win over Holland Park. Noble Commander held third, while American Lincoln faded late and finished fourth.

Diamond King, who paid $6.60 as the favorite, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.31, and since the Maryland Jockey Club guarantees the Tesio winner a slot in the Preakness, and Diamond King is Triple Crown nominated, the colt is in Maryland’s biggest race if his connections desire.

“We’ll sit down with the owners and see what we want to do,” Servis said.

Servis has trained Diamond King for only two starts and about three months after the colt started his career with trainer Butch Reid. Cash Is King owns him in partnership with D.J. Stables and L C Racing.

Diamond King, by Quality Road out of Akron Moon, by Malibu Moon, was a sharp winner of his first two starts last fall at Parx Racing, but he found heavy traffic into the first turn of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill in November, and Pennington was unseated. Diamond King came back to win the Heft Stakes over seven furlongs Dec. 30 at Laurel, but was not thriving, Servis said, when he finished third Feb. 3 in the seven-furlong Swale Stakes at Gulfstream.

Compounding the challenges Diamond King faced Saturday, he had to be scratched with a minor illness from the March 17 Private Terms Stakes at Laurel, and thus was making his first actual two-turn start in a nine-furlong race following a 10-week layoff and a bout with a virus.

But Diamond King was up to the task.

“He did it very nicely, settled in nicely going the mile and an eighth, which was the test for him,” Pennington said. “When it was time to go and I asked him, he gave it to me.”

“I was really glad to see when he got the lead in deep stretch he was pricking his ears,” Servis said. “I thought there was a little more left.”

Holland Park, making his stakes debut off a Feb. 15 Aqueduct maiden win, ran well in defeat. Breaking from the outside post in a field reduced to nine by the scratches of Navy Commander and Split Verdict, Holland Park bore out into the first turn before settling down in mid-pack.

He moved wide for the stretch run but found his best stride too late to catch the winner. Noble Commander got away with a comfortable pace in his two-turn debut and did not quite see out the trip, while American Lincoln just wasn’t quite good enough. Still Having Fun, the 5-2 second choice, had good position into the far turn but probably needs a turn back to sprints.