ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Alternation, winner of Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont, worked a solid six furlongs on Friday morning at Arlington Park, trainer Donnie Von Hemel’s summer base. Von Hemel said later in the morning that he and Alternation’s owner, Josephine Abercrombie’s Pin Oak Stable, won’t firm up plans for the colt’s next race until sometime this weekend. Alternation is being considered for a return trip to New York for the Belmont Stakes.

LEXINGTON, Ky. − At 10 minutes to post last Saturday, many spectators and handicappers didn’t think Shackleford looked like a horse who could win the Preakness Stakes. The Forestry colt had been bucking in Pimlico’s infield saddling enclosure, and on his way to the starting gate he appeared washed out, wet with sweat and lather. Even experienced horse observers thought Shackleford was too tense to run his race. Of course, he won at odds of nearly 13-1.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dale Romans and Tammy Fox were in Las Vegas with friends when they were walking in the direction of a wedding chapel.

“I said, ‘Come on, Dale, let’s get married,’ ” Fox recalled. “He literally took off running the other way.”
Some 17 years later, still unwed, Romans and Fox are the unofficial king and queen of the racing world. Their teamwork as trainer and exercise rider was critical in the way Shackleford came into the 136th Preakness, which he captured last Saturday in dramatic fashion over Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The rematch is on – maybe.

While trainer Graham Motion said Thursday from his Fair Hill Training Center base in northeastern Maryland that he would like to run Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom back in the Belmont Stakes, neither he nor Dale Romans, trainer of Preakness winner Shackleford, is ready to commit to the third leg of the Triple Crown on June 11 at Belmont Park in New York.

While the upset victory by Shackleford in the 136th Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico denied Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom a chance to shoot for the Triple Crown, there is a good chance that the final leg of the Triple Crown, the June 11 Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, will feature a showdown between the Derby and Preakness winners, a matchup that has not taken place in the Belmont since 2005.

Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom came out of his second-place finish in Saturday's Preakness at Pimlico tired, but otherwise in good shape and will be under strong consideration to run back in the Belmont Stakes on June 11, trainer Graham Motion said Sunday.

Animal Kingdom, under John Velazquez, rallied from 13th position in the 14-horse field to finish within one-half length of Shackleford at the finish of the Preakness, thus ending his chances at a Triple Crown opportunity in the Belmont.

BALTIMORE – Shackleford, who won the 136th Preakness Stakes on Saturday, came out of the race well, and his chances of running in the Belmont Stakes on June 11 are “better than 50-50,” his trainer, Dale Romans, said Sunday morning here at Pimlico.

PREAKNESS REPLAY AND CHART »

ELMONT, N.Y. – Alternation, the determined head winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes, was expected to arrive in Chicago on Wednesday morning, and his connections will wait for at least a week before they decide whether to ship the horse back to New York for the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 11.

“It’s something certainly to consider, I think we’ll probably watch the Preakness with great interest then probably sometime in the middle of next week try to come up with the plan,” trainer Donnie Von Hemel said Monday morning by phone from Chicago.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Awesome Patriot ran the best race of his career in Sunday’s $72,960 Alydar Stakes at Hollywood Park, a performance likely to lead to a graded stakes in coming weeks.

Awesome Patriot led throughout the Alydar Stakes over 1 1/8 miles, holding off Uncle Sam to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:50.52, his first stakes win. The first two finishers are trained by Bob Baffert, who was absent from Hollywood Park on Sunday, remaining at Churchill Downs following Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

If New York Racing Association officials were looking for an unequivocal reason to celebrate after a difficult six months, the financial results of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday will keep them looking.