Field for Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on May 19, 2012. Watch the race live and bet with DRF Bets. Click horse names to access contender profiles.
Purse: $1,000,000; 1 3/16 miles
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - After missing a scheduled start because of concern over soundness last month, Acclamation, the champion older male of 2011, may finally make his 2012 debut in the $250,000 Charles Whittingham Handicap on June 9.
Acclamation was entered for the Grade 3 Inglewood Handicap on April 27, but was scratched after trainer Don Warren expressed concern about the 6-year-old’s ankle. Subsequent tests revealed no damage and Acclamation resumed training last weekend.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Fans hungering for the return of Stay Thirsty to the races will get their fill on Thursday when last year’s Travers winner makes his 4-year-old debut in the $90,000 Vanlandingham Stakes at Belmont Park.
The Vanlandingham, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the main track, also drew Trickmeister, who suffered his first loss in six career starts when he was sixth in the Grade 1 Donn at Gulfstream in February.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Zazu was taken out of training at a dreadful time last fall, weeks before the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Churchill Downs.
The filly, then 3, had won 2 of her 3 preceding starts, including the Grade 1 Lady’s Secret Stakes at Santa Anita, and appeared to be a top contender for the Ladies’ Classic when a shoulder problem surfaced.
“It was a major disappointment,” trainer John Sadler said.
ELKTON, Md. – The question didn’t have to be asked. Just listening to Michael Matz talk about the seventh-place finish by Union Rags in the Kentucky Derby it was easy to tell the trainer hasn’t gotten over the disappointment yet.
Tuesday morning, with showers alternating between heavy and heavier at the Fair Hill Training Center where he is based, Matz discussed the frustrations over having a horse primed and ready for the biggest race of his life only to have it lost two jumps out of the gate.
Five new names will join the New England horse racing Hall of Fame later this summer with the New England Turf Writers Association inducting star sprinter Concorde Bound, jockey Joe Hampshire, trainer Maurice “Junie” Bresnahan, owner Frank Bertollino, and executive Bob O’Malley.
After dominating the trainer standings during the 2011 Calder meet and following up by also taking the Tropical at Calder title in just his second full season locally, Antonio Sano is off to a slow start thus far this spring. Five weeks into the new session, Sano, 49, a native of Venezuela, is tied for sixth in the standings with just 6 wins from 61 starters but still remains within easy striking distance of the leader, Giuseppe Iadisernia (11 winners), with obviously plenty of time left to defend his crown with the meet not ending until Aug. 31.
Jockey Luis Quinonez, who won five races Saturday at Lone Star Park, including both $75,000 divisions of the Texas Stallion Stakes, is riding at Pimlico on Thursday and Friday, said his agent, Monty Penney. Quinonez was in Maryland on Tuesday to breeze Alternation, his mount in Friday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Pimlico Special. Quinonez is to resume riding at Lone Star on Saturday.
◗ The stakes winners Southern Vintage, Gold Coyote, and Deliverer meet Thursday night at Lone Star in an optional $30,000 claiming sprint for horses bred in Texas.
Jockey Alex Beitia, who went down in the seventh race Saturday at Louisiana Downs, sustained two broken bones in his left arm and had surgery on Sunday, said his agent, Rob Roberson. Beitia, 44, was thrown when his mount, who was dueling between rivals, clipped heels. An oncoming rival hit Beitia.
Beitia was recovering at a local hospital on Tuesday, and was hopeful doctors would release him later in the day, said Roberson.
“It will be about three months before he comes back,” said Roberson. “He’s going to be fine. It will just take a little while.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bottom line is, Derby Day just wasn’t their day.
For a not-insignificant number of Preakness winners, the disappointment of their efforts two weeks beforehand in the Kentucky Derby sometimes has been difficult to rationalize. Some, such as Snow Chief (1986), Point Given (2001), and Lookin At Lucky (2010), were victimized by pace or trip. Others, such as Hansel (1991) and Tabasco Cat (1994), supposedly didn’t care for the Churchill Downs surface. Still others, such as Tank’s Prospect (1985) and Shackleford (2011), just plain weren’t good enough.
