Creative Minister did not get to the races until March, well after the first Triple Crown nomination deadline in January, when he could have been made eligible for just $600. That debut, in which he finished second, came only three weeks before a second Triple Crown deadline, for $6,000. As he was still a maiden, with one start to his credit, that a sprint, there seemingly was no need to make him eligible then, too.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Epicenter had his final pre-race workout before heading to Baltimore as the solid Preakness favorite when going an easy half-mile in 50.40 seconds as dawn was breaking Monday morning at Churchill Downs.
Epicenter, second by three-quarters of a length behind Rich Strike as a lukewarm 4-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby on May 7, went solo with Wilson Fabian aboard under the Churchill lights. Following overnight rain, the track clearly held a considerable amount of moisture but was fast enough to be harrowed.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Tom’s Regret, the undefeated filly who beat males in the Kentucky Juvenile Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 5, will have her next start in the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga on July 14, if she does not sell in a digital auction that concludes Tuesday morning.
Trainer Jorge Periban said a reserve price has been placed on Tom’s Regret in the Fasig-Tipton May Digital Selected Sale.
“If we don’t sell the filly would run at Saratoga,” Periban said.
Adare Manor, the beaten favorite in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks, was one of 13 3-year-old fillies entered Sunday for Friday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes going 1 1/8 miles at Pimlico.
Post positions for the Black-Eyed Susan were not scheduled to be drawn until Monday, when posts for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.5 million Preakness Stakes were to be drawn at a 4 p.m. event to be held at Citron, a waterfront restaurant in Baltimore.
First post for Friday’s 14-race card will be 11:30 a.m.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Highland Chief and Gufo, the one-two finishers from Saturday’s Grade 1, $700,000 Man O’ War at Belmont Park, are likely to meet again in next month’s Grade 1, $1 million Manhattan Stakes on the June 11 Belmont Stakes card, their connections said.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The LNJ Foxwoods stable of Larry, Nanci, and Jaime Roth of New York is pulling most of its runners from California, Jaime Roth said in a message published on Twitter on Sunday.
The Roth family had approximately eight horses in Southern California, notably United, who has been retired after a career that included seven graded stakes wins and a second in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita.
United sustained an injury in the days before the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar last November and will be retrained as a riding horse, according to Jaime Roth.
Armagnac, who won a first-level allowance at Santa Anita last Sunday, on Saturday became the latest horse to jump into the field for the May 21 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, according to trainer Tim Yakteen, who said Irad Ortiz Jr. would have the mount.
The Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, currently has 12 horses under various levels of consideration for the race, but Zandon, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, is highly unlikely to run, and Creative Minister, Rattle N Roll, and Shake Em Loose are only possible.
The status of potential Preakness entrant Shake Em Loose will likely be determined following the gelding’s scheduled workout at Laurel Park on Sunday morning.
Reached by telephone on Saturday, trainer Rodolfo Sanchez-Salomon mentioned that Shake Em Loose will breeze five furlongs on turf, possibly in company with stablemate Can the Queen, a 6-year-old mare best known for winning the Sensible Lady Turf Dash last summer at Pimlico. Can the Queen finished fourth against males in the King T. Leatherbury Stakes at Laurel on April 23.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Rich Strike won’t be 80-1 in the Preakness like he was in winning the Kentucky Derby – but he won’t be among the program favorites, either. Pimlico oddsmaker Keith Feustle said this week that Rich Strike will be 8-1 “or maybe even a touch higher” on his morning line, depending on who’s in and who’s out when entries are drawn Monday for the May 21 Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore.
“From the public’s perspective, I think Rich Strike will fall through the cracks again a little, even as the Derby winner,” Feustle said.
