BALTIMORE – While Stonestreet Stables has yet to win the Kentucky Derby, it has twice enjoyed success in the Preakness at the expense of a Kentucky Derby winner.
On Saturday at Pimlico Racecourse, when the Preakness is run for the 143rd time, Stonestreet, along with its partner Bob Edwards, will seek its third victory in this race while hoping to spoil the Triple Crown hopes of undefeated Derby winner Justify.
BALTIMORE – In the giddy first moments of a post-race press conference following Justify’s victory in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago at Churchill Downs, Bob Baffert looked over at Elliott Walden and said, “Elliott cost me a Triple Crown, so you’re off the hook, Elliott.”
“You cost me a Derby,” Walden quickly replied.
BALTIMORE – The 14-race Preakness Day 143 card at Pimlico on Saturday includes seven undercard stakes. First post is 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
The Preakness, which is race 13, will be the final leg of an all-stakes pick five with a $1 million pool guarantee. A $2 million-guaranteed pick four also will end on the Preakness.
The late pick five consists of the Grade 3 Gallorette (8 horses), Grade 3 Maryland Sprint (9), The Very One Stakes (14), the Sir Barton (11), and the Preakness (8). The pick four begins on the Maryland Sprint.
Since the turn of the century, four horses have won the Preakness Stakes as fresh horses after bypassing the Kentucky Derby two weeks prior. In the same span, four horses who were unstarted as juveniles were victorious in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen has saddled a Preakness winner from each of those groups – and his representative Saturday fits in both boxes. Tenfold is among four colts in the Preakness field of eight who are new challengers to Kentucky Derby hero Justify, along with Diamond King, Quip, and Sporting Chance.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The 21-year-old jockey Harry Hernandez had just gotten to Finger Lakes, where he was ready to settle in for another summer of riding. Two mounts into his meet, he got a call from jockey Jose Ortiz that totally changed his plans.
“He told me that my agent here at Arlington, Ben Allen, had a lot of business and was a good agent, and he needed a rider, if I wanted to try it out,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez didn’t think twice. He hightailed it out to Arlington, and Allen already has put him on four winners after five racing days at this meet.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Tabulator took his West Coast tour last fall. Now, he is ready to check out New York.
The Tabulator aced his 3-year-old debut, winning the $50,000 Golden Circle Stakes on May 3 at Prairie Meadows by more than six lengths, and he will be given a sterner test June 9 at Belmont Park in the Woody Stephens Stakes on the Belmont Stakes card.
“The Woody Stephens seems like a good spot,” said Larry Rivelli, who trains The Tabulator for Carolyn Wilson. “Hopefully, that race, then the Indiana Derby.”
BALTIMORE – If you liked the weather for the Kentucky Derby, you’ll love it for the Preakness. The forecast for the rest of the week here at Pimlico, according to The Weather Channel, is for daily rain or showers, the chances ranging from a low of 90 percent on Thursday and Saturday to 100 percent on Friday. It’s a mud, mud, mud, mud world.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Greyvitos, a two-time stakes winner who finished 13th in the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs on May 5, will be rested for the remainder of the spring, trainer Adam Kitchingman said on Wednesday.
Greyvitos emerged from the Pat Day Mile with minor injury to a hind leg when he made contact with another runner, Kitchingman said.
“We’ll back off on him right now,” Kitchingman said. “We’ll give him some time. He was pretty banged up.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – Geovanni Franco, the second-leading rider at the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting, has been suspended four racing days, from Friday through May 24, for his role in a disqualification in the eighth race on May 10.
Franco, 27, was cited for his ride on South Boot Shirley who finished third but was demoted to seventh after Franco crossed to the inside without clearance going into the first turn of the one-mile turf race for California-bred maiden fillies and mares.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Miss Sunset has won two stakes for California-breds this year, but she will not start Saturday in the $100,000 Fran’s Valentine Stakes for statebred fillies and mares. Trainer Jeff Bonde said on Wednesday that Miss Sunset will be pointed for the Grade 3 Desert Stormer Stakes, a $100,000 race for fillies and mares at six furlongs on May 27.
