Preakness card features World Approval's repeat bid in Dixie Stakes

BALTIMORE – The 14-race Preakness Day 143 card at Pimlico on Saturday includes seven undercard stakes. First post is 10:30 a.m. Eastern.

The Preakness, which is race 13, will be the final leg of an all-stakes pick five with a $1 million pool guarantee. A $2 million-guaranteed pick four also will end on the Preakness.

The late pick five consists of the Grade 3 Gallorette (8 horses), Grade 3 Maryland Sprint (9), The Very One Stakes (14), the Sir Barton (11), and the Preakness (8). The pick four begins on the Maryland Sprint.

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There also will be a $250,000-guaranteed pick five beginning on race 2. All pick fives in Maryland have a 12 percent takeout.

Additional pick fours start on races 3 and 6. The pick four that begins on race 6 has a guaranteed pool of $500,000.

The Grade 2, $250,000 Dixie Stakes, which has a field of eight, is carded as race 7. World Approval, last year’s champion turf male and the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile, will be gunning for a repeat victory in the race for trainer Mark Casse. John Velazquez has the mount.

“Things were a little different last year,” Casse said. “He wasn’t the Breeders’ Cup winner or a champion a year ago.”

World Approval’s chief rival looks to be two-time Grade 1 winner Divisidero, who will be making his 6-year-old debut and his first start for trainer Kelly Rubley.

Trainer Christophe Clement is sending in two-time graded stakes winner Frostmourne. Shug McGaughey will be represented by Fire Away.

The Baltimore region had more than two inches of rain Tuesday evening, and more precipitation is expected Friday, with the possibility of showers Preakness morning. The turf course likely will be less than firm.

World Approval won the Fourstardave over yielding ground last summer and the 2017 Dixie over a “good” course.

The $200,000 Chick Lang, a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds, has attracted the promising Mitole, trained by Steve Asmussen. Mitole earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Bachelor Stakes at Oaklawn Park in April.

The Grade 3, $150,000 Maryland Sprint at six furlongs will match Lewisfield, Switzerland, Long Haul Bay, and Laki.

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Lewisfield has won five of seven starts and his last two races for Jeff Runco. Switzerland is on a three-race winning streak, including his last two races at Oaklawn for Asmussen.

Long Haul Bay, the winner of last year’s Bay Shore, returned from a 10-month layoff to win an optional-claiming race at Aqueduct for Chad Brown.

Laki will be carrying the local hopes. A winner of five of nine starts, he is trained by Damon Dilodovico.

Cambodia will try to double up in the Grade 3, $150,000 Gallorette, a 1 1/16-mile turf race that she won by two lengths a year ago. Cambodia went on to win a pair of Grade 2 Stakes at Del Mar for trainer Tom Proctor, the Yellow Ribbon and the John C. Mabee. Julien Leparoux rides.

Elysea’s World comes into the Gallorette off a Feb. 10 victory in the Grade 3 Suwannee River at Gulfstream Park for Brown. Javier Castellano is back aboard.

The other three stakes on the card all have $100,000 purses. They are the James W. Murphy, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds; The Very One, a five-furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares; and the Sir Barton, a restricted stakes at 1 1/16 miles.