Preakness: Nyquist punches in at Pimlico

In his first training session since winning the Kentucky Derby, Nyquist stretched his legs over the Pimlico racing surface Wednesday morning, jogging one lap clockwise around the one-mile strip.

Nyquist’s exercise came four days after he gave trainer Doug O’Neill, owner J. Paul Reddam, and jockey Mario Gutierrez their second Derby victory, and 10 days before he will attempt to win the middle jewel of the Triple Crown in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness on May 21.

I’ll Have Another won the 2012 Derby and Preakness for O’Neill, Reddam, and Gutierrez.

“He has settled in at Pimlico,” O’Neill said of Nyquist by phone Wednesday. “The crew couldn’t be happier with his appetite, his energy, or his soundness.”

O’Neill said he would fly to Baltimore on Thursday and stay through the 141st Preakness. O’Neill does not plan on working Nyquist between the Derby and the Preakness but instead will stick with an alternating pattern of gallops and jogs, as he did in the run-up to the Derby. Nyquist was scheduled to jog clockwise again Thursday.

“He’s going to jog two miles Thursday, and then we’ll let him gallop on Friday,” O’Neill said.

Nyquist is bedded down in stall 24 in Barn D at Pimlico, the same stall I’ll Have Another resided in prior to his Preakness victory.

Romans may run two

Dale Romans, back at his Churchill Downs barn Wednesday for the first time since being involved in an auto accident Saturday evening, said he was “beat up but okay.”

Cherry Wine, the third-place finisher in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and an also-eligible for the Derby before failing to draw into the race, will run in the Preakness Stakes, and Robby Albarado will ride, Romans said.

Romans said he would make a Preakness decision on Brody’s Cause “in a day or so,” and that Corey Lanerie would have the mount if he starts.

Brody’s Cause, the seventh-place finisher in the Derby, jogged Wednesday for the first time since the Derby.

“He looked good, felt good,” Romans said.

Von Hemel biding his time

Trainer Donnie Von Hemel said Wednesday he likely would not decide on Suddenbreakingnews’s status for the Preakness until this weekend.

Suddenbreakingnews, the winner of the Southwest Stakes and the runner-up in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, closed from 19th to finish fifth, beaten 4 3/4 lengths, in the Kentucky Derby. Suddenbreakingnews is stabled at Churchill Downs.

“I want to keep all of my options open until I have to make a decision,” Von Hemel said. “I’m very proud of the horse.”

Sharp Azteca to skip Preakness

Trainer Jorge Navarro said Wednesday that Sharp Azteca would not run in the Preakness following his blowout victory in the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard.

Both Sharp Azteca, who earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure for winning the Pat Day, and his stablemate Catalina Red, the winner of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes, are at Monmouth Park, where Navarro has 65 stalls for the meet, which begins Saturday.

“He is a definite no,” Navarro said of Sharp Azteca. “Today was his first day back at the track, and everything went perfect. We are going to go to the Pegasus and then the Haskell with him. We want to do the right thing for the horse. It’s a long year, and we know he’s a good horse.”

– additional reporting by Marty McGee