The unbeaten Faiza drew post 9 for Friday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes for 3-year-old fillies traveling 1 1/8 miles at Pimlico.
The Black-Eyed Susan is one of three graded stakes on the 14-race program, with the Grade 3, $250,000 Pimlico Special for 3-year-olds and up at 1 3/16 miles and the Grade 3, $150,000 Miss Preakness for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs. First post is 11:30 a.m.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Perform, the Federico Tesio winner, completed his serious preparations for next Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico by working a half-mile in 48.16 seconds on Sunday morning at Belmont Park.
Under exercise rider Noemie Pauquete, Perform started about a length behind the 3-year-old maiden Weyhill Road. Perform went his opening quarter in 24.63 and got his last quarter in 23.53, while finishing basically on even terms with his workmate. The pair galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.26 and six furlongs in 1:14.76.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Arcangelo's connections haven’t been in a hurry with their 3-year-old thus far, and that’s not going to change as they map out a plan for where the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes winner will make his next start.
While the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 10 will definitely be in the conversation, it will be a little while before trainer Jena Antonucci and owner Jon Ebbert make a decision.
Confidence Game, the 10th-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, was removed from consideration for the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.
The colt’s trainer, Keith Desormeaux, didn’t immediately reply to a text message but told publicity for 1/ST, owner of Pimlico Racecourse, that Confidence Game hadn’t trained to his satisfaction Saturday morning at Churchill Downs.
On the day Kentucky Derby winner Mage was confirmed as a starter for the Preakness so too was potentially one of his sternest challengers in National Treasure.
After working Friday morning at Santa Anita, National Treasure was declared a "go" by Bob Baffert, the seven-time Preakness-winning trainer who returns to the Triple Crown stage for the first time in two years.
Officially, National Treasure was credited with a half-mile in 47.40 seconds, though Baffert said it was a five-furlong drill from the half-mile pole. Baffert said he had 59.60 on his watch.
Kentucky Derby winner Mage has been confirmed by his connections as an intended participant in next Saturday's Preakness Stakes.
Mage, who returned to the track Tuesday at Churchill Downs for trainer Gustavo Delgado, went for another gallop Friday morning that his connections had indicated would be key in assessing his status for the second leg of the Triple Crown. Following the gallop, members of his ownership team confirmed their intent to enter the Pimlico classic.
Trainer Todd Pletcher has been suspended 10 days by the New York stewards due to a positive test for meloxicam, a regulated anti-inflammatory drug, in the post-race sample of Forte after the horse won the Sept. 5 Hopeful Stakes last year at Saratoga Racecourse, the trainer and his legal representatives said.
There are not many trainers who are excited at the prospect of running their horses back in the Preakness two weeks after they were beaten by Mage in the Kentucky Derby.
Keith Desormeaux is one trainer who does want to run back. He just wants his horse Confidence Game to share that enthusiasm.
“I definitely want to run,” Desormeaux said. “We’re going to wait and make that final decision after we train him this weekend. I’ll have a final decision by Saturday or Sunday. I just want to see some vibrance in his training, a good appetite and all the typical things you know.”
Trainer Eric Reed has resigned as the trainer of 2022 Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike due to differences with the colt’s owner, Rick Dawson, over a media deal to document their underdog story.
“We are all very sad – we love Richie,” Reed said in a text message Thursday morning. “But I was given an ultimatum and had no choice but to resign.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer John Campo Jr., who worked as an assistant to his father for many years including when he conditioned Pleasant Colony to victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 1981, passed away May 4 due to liver failure, according to his brother P.J. Campo.
John Campo Jr., 56, received a liver transplant, but it didn’t take, P.J. Campo said.
John Campo Jr. trained on his own and, according to Equibase, trained 112 winners from 1,982 starters. His horses earned $3.2 million in purse money.
