BALTIMORE - A field of 11 was entered on Wednesday morning in the Preakness, which will be run for the 137th time on Saturday at Pimlico.
Posts will be drawn Wednesday night at 6 p.m. Eastern. The draw can be seen live on HRTV.
The entrants are Bodemeister, Cozzetti, Creative Cause, Daddy Nose Best, I'll Have Another, Optimizer, Pretension, Teeth of the Dog, Tiger Walk, Went the Day Well, and Zetterholm.
Coyote Legend could have advanced to the upcoming Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap off his fourth-place finish in last month’s Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile. But his connections instead have chosen to spot him more conservatively, returning him to the overnight ranks for Friday night’s featured fifth race at Lone Star Park.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The 3-year-old filly Ann of the Dance doesn’t tower over her opponents in Arlington’s featured first race on Friday.
Figuratively, she’s a 3-year-old facing older foes for the first time, and her most recent race, in March at Gulfstream, might have been the worst of an eight-start career.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Corner Office and Real Conundrum were fourth and fifth in the $300,000 Snow Chief Stakes for 3-year-old California-breds on April 28. The Snow Chief was run over 1 1/8 miles and is the richest race of the year for the division, which made taking a chance worthwhile.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – For the first time in many years, Canterbury Park will begin its racing season Friday evening amidst optimism regarding the future of racing in Minnesota. The track has joined forces with the state’s Native American casinos in an accord that would allow changes in the betting structure and table game numbers at the racetrack while providing simulcasting at the Native-owned casinos.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Wednesday morning Ken Ramsey announced the retirement of Dean’s Kitten, winner of the Grade 2 Lane’s End in 2010 and runner-up by a nose to Cape Blanco in the Grade 1 Turf Classic last fall.
Retirement with an injured tendon – such news would be enough to devastate most owners, who might only dream of owning a horse such as Dean’s Kitten, a horse who made more than $800,000 for trainer Mike Maker.
There may be only seven entrants in Friday’s $100,000 Skipat Stakes at Pimlico, but the six-furlong event certainly has more than its share of early speed horses.
Red’s Round Table had a clear lead at the first call in three of her last five starts, and a bad stumble at the start is the only reason she wasn’t on the pace in another. Valiant Passion had control of the pace at the first call in her last two starts. And Afleet Lass was in front at the first call in her last eight starts, twice in sub-22 second opening quarter-miles.
OPELOUSAS, La. – It’s all about speed Friday night at Evangeline Downs as some of the quickest sprinters in the region will go postward in the Need for Speed Stakes. The five-furlong dash on the turf drew a field of seven and carries a $50,000 purse.
Graham Motion has three of the 10 3-year-old fillies entered in the Friday finale at Pimlico, the $100,000 Hilltop Stakes, but the English-born trainer said he may wind up running just one of them. Coup, part of an Augustin Stable duo with Appealing Cat, definitely will start to the exclusion of her stablemate, said Motion, while the third filly, Proud Pearl, will start only in the unlikely event of the 1 1/16-mile turf race being transferred to the main track.
BALTIMORE – All the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes did last year was produce the 3-year-old filly champion. Royal Delta rolled home by 2 1/2 lengths in the Preakness eve fixture for her first career stakes victory in a 2012 campaign that ended in a Breeders’ Cup win and a divisional Eclipse Award.
