136th Preakness Stakes
Pimlico Race Course, May 21, 2011
Order of finish:
1. Shackleford
2. Animal Kingdom
3. Astrology
4. Dialed In
5. Dance City
6. Mucho Macho Man
7. King Congie
8. Mr Commons
9. Isn't He Perfect
10. Concealed Identity
11. Norman Asbjornson
12. Sway Away
13. Midnight Interlude
14. Flashpoint
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Since the first two starts of his career – both solid Polytrack performances - Workin for Hops has been a grass horse, and the question in the Hanshin Cup on Saturday at Arlington was whether Workin for Hops’s superior turf form would hold up on Arlington’s all-weather main track. The answer was yes - most assuredly yes.
The only luck that jockey Chuck Lopez had throughout most of Saturday’s card at Monmouth Park was all bad. Three of his horses finished last and another, a maiden filly named Ejazaat, tried to bolt through a gap on the backstretch and dumped him.
Fortunately, Lopez was uninjured and he came back to guide Successful Mission ($11) to an emphatic wire-to-wire victory in the $75,000 Elkwood Stakes.
Fugitive Angel used a ground-saving trip under jockey Mario Pino to take the $74,625 Ambassador of Luck for female Pennsylvania-breds at Presque Isle Downs on Saturday.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Queen’splatekitten ($3.30) prepped for the $1 million Queen’s Plate with an impressive score Saturday at Woodbine in the $171,600 Marine Stakes.
Queen’splatekitten rated kindly off a moderate pace in the 1 1/16-mile route for 3-year-olds. He trailed the six-horse field heading into the far turn, before launching an eye-catching four-wide bid at the three-eighths pole.
BALTIMORE - The first stage of trainer Dale Romans’s revised three-phase plan for his turf star Paddy O’Prado went to expectations Saturday at Pimlico, as the heavily favored gray 4-year-old colt rallied from last under Kent Desormeaux to win the Grade 2, $200,000 Dixie Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths over Baryshnikov.
Baryshnikov finished two lengths ahead of Bim Bam, who was followed in the order of finish by Pocket Patch, Slews Answer, Lonely Whistle and Eighttofasttocatch.
When Saturday’s Pine Creek Stakes was moved from 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf course to one mile on the main track, seven of the 11 3-year-old fillies scheduled to run were scratched, including trainer Mike Stidham’s horse Cryptocandiac.
Stidham, however, still had Snow Fall left in the four-horse field and she proved a more than adequate back-up plan.
BALTIMORE – It was same time, next year on Saturday at Pimlico for trainer Al Stall Jr. and owner Adele Dilschneider. One year after winning the William Donald Schaefer Stakes with Blame, the eventual Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, they struck again Saturday at Pimlico with Apart, who tenaciously outfought Colizeo for a neck win in the Grade 3, $100,000 race for older horses.
BALTMORE – A six-month layoff, a demanding turf course and an exorbitant weight spread proved too much for defending Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Shared Account to overcome Saturday as she could manage no better than a fourth-place finish behind No Explaining in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Gallorette Handicap at Pimlico.
