Small Preakness field on tap; Carpe Diem waiting for Belmont

With five of the top six finishers from the Kentucky Derby – including the first three – all under consideration for the Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico, very few are willing to take them on, which could result in the smallest Preakness field since 2000.

American Pharoah, Firing Line, and Dortmund – the first three across the line, in that order, at Churchill Downs – are all expected for the Preakness, as is fifth-place finisher Danzig Moon. Materiality, who was sixth, also could run. As of Monday, the only non-Derby runners set to challenge them were Bodhisattva, Divining Rod, and Tale of Verve, meaning as few as eight could be entered Wednesday, the day posts will be drawn for the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Todd Pletcher, who trains Materiality, also had kept Carpe Diem under consideration for the Preakness, but on Monday Carpe Diem was officially removed from consideration. Elliott Walden, chief executive of WinStar Farm, a co-owner of Carpe Diem, said Carpe Diem would await the Belmont on June 6.

Pletcher said no decision would be made on Materiality’s Preakness status until Tuesday. Pletcher is pondering whether to run Materiality back in two weeks or wait until the Belmont, thus giving him five weeks between starts.

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That decision will impact the jockey situation for the Preakness as both Javier Castellano and John Velazquez are the leading candidates to ride Materiality as well as Divining Rod. If, for instance, Velazquez rides Materiality, Castellano is expected to ride Divining Rod.

American Pharoah will try to keep his Triple Crown hopes alive in the Preakness. Since the Derby, he has remained at Churchill Downs, where trainer Bob Baffert saw both him and Dortmund on Monday for the first time in a week.

American Pharoah and Dortmund both went through vigorous exercise routines Monday morning following the regularly scheduled mid-morning renovation break.

Baffert expressed delight afterward in how both horses looked.

“They’re both traveling really well over it,” he said. “You can tell by their brightness and the way they carry themselves over the track.”

American Pharoah and exercise rider Jorge Alvarez were the first to step onto the 5 1/2-furlong gap over a freshly harrowed track, with Dortmund and exercise rider Dana Barnes right behind.

After jogging around the clubhouse turn to the wire, both horses got right to it, turning around to gallop. American Pharoah, as usual, was eager, and when he came around for a second time he was going at a two-minute clip, if not faster.

Pretty much the same held true for Dortmund, who was in a full gallop by the time he passed under the wire and went out around the clubhouse turn.

Both colts eventually pulled up midway down the backside, turned around, and went home, American Pharoah going first. Their gallops measured about 1 3/8 miles.

American Pharoah “always wants to do more, which is good,” Baffert, who watched both horses train from the grandstand, said after returning to Barn 33. “The riders both let them pick it up pretty good in the last half of their gallops. They’re both doing super.”

While the Baffert horses were training after the break, so, too, was Derby runner-up Firing Line. His gallops have been spirited and a little quicker by design.

American Pharoah, Firing Line, Dortmund, and Danzig Moon are all scheduled to fly to Baltimore on Wednesday.

Entries for the Preakness – as well as the entire Saturday card – are due Wednesday morning, but posts for the Preakness will not be drawn until Wednesday evening.

Cool temperatures will greet the arriving horses. The high temperatures in Baltimore on Wednesday and Thursday are forecast to be in the upper 60s and low 70s, according to The Weather Channel. Saturday’s forecast, however, is not encouraging – an 80 percent chance of rain, afternoon thunderstorms, and a high of 84 degrees.

– additional reporting by David Grening and Marty McGee