Jevian Toledo and J.D. Acosta will have their first mounts in a Triple Crown race Saturday at Pimlico. Toledo, 21, will ride Awesome Speed in the Preakness for trainer Alan Goldberg. Acosta, 34, will be aboard Abiding Star for Ned Allard.
Fellowship arrived in trainer Mark Casse's Kentucky barn three weeks before entry day for the Kentucky Derby – and, somewhat remarkably, his name was not in the entry box for the first of the spring classics when the deadline rolled around. On Saturday, Fellowship will get his chance in the Preakness.
Last year at this time, officials of Pimlico Race Course were openly discussing the possibility of moving the Preakness Stakes from its traditional Saturday date two weeks after the Kentucky Derby to the next day, a Sunday. Those discussions are no longer taking place
Pimlico will offer guaranteed pools on two pick fives, three pick fours, and the Rainbow 6 for both Black-Eyed Susan Day on Friday and the Preakness card Saturday.
Lani, the ninth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, worked five furlongs in 1:01.40 Wednesday morning over the Belmont Park main track in preparation for Saturday's $1.5 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.
For the embattled racing industry in Maryland five years ago, there was probably nowhere to go but up.
Stradivari will be giving up both significant experience and months of age to his competitors when he enters the Preakness Stakes as a new shooter, but the colt, who has won his past two starts by a combined 25 3/4 lengths, sure doesn't behave like it.
They have each won a Kentucky Derby and two runnings of the Belmont Stakes. When it comes to the Preakness, however, trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez have been blanked. Saturday, Pletcher and Velazquez will team up in the 141st Preakness with Stradivari, a lightly raced, but seemingly talented colt who will be making his stakes debut in the race.
The equine herpesvirus quarantine at Parx Racing was lifted by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture on Tuesday after all of the horses in a quarantined barn and an ontrack isolation area tested negative for the disease. The quarantine had been in place since April 1.
Although rain is in the forecast for Saturday, trainer Doug O’Neill certainly doesn’t see an off track as a disadvantage to Nyquist.
