California Chrome, the Kentucky Derby winner, left Kentucky on Monday bound for Baltimore, where on Saturday he will attempt to keep his Triple Crown hopes alive in the 139th Preakness Stakes. It appears he will face nine rivals, exactly half of what he met in the Derby.
The belief that horses need lengthy rest between races has become part of the orthodoxy of the sport.
Showing no lingering effects from a foot bruise that forced him to be scratched from a Gulfstream stakes race May 3, Social Inclusion worked a fast, strong four furlongs with a powerful gallop-out Monday morning at Pimlico in a prep for the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.
Trainer Tom Amoss confirmed early Monday that the filly Ria Antonia will race in the Preakness and will have Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel aboard.
With white hooves on all four feet, Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome always has needed a little extra attention to hoof care, and his trainer, Art Sherman, said blacksmith Judd Fisher came up with a unique solution. California Chrome races in glue-on shoes, but the shoes are not glued on, they are affixed with nails.
Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome came onto the track for his daily routine early Sunday morning.
Ria Antonia breezed a half-mile in 47.60 seconds early Sunday at Churchill Downs in preparation for a possible run against males in the Preakness.
Pablo Del Monte, scratched off the also-eligibles list in the Derby to await the Preakness, breezed six furlongs Saturday in 1:12.20 over the Polytrack surface at Keeneland.
Neither rain nor mud nor a slightly altered schedule could keep Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome from his appointed rounds early Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Because General a Rod came out of the Kentucky Derby so well, he is being wheeled back in two weeks for the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 17.
