BALTIMORE – Kentucky Derby runner-up Epicenter remained the Preakness Stakes favorite in early wagering Friday for Saturday's middle jewel of the Triple Crown.

Advance wagering for the Preakness began when the windows opened for the 14-race Friday card at Pimlico. Epicenter, who Pimlico oddsmaker Keith Feustle made the 6-5 morning-line favorite at the post position draw on Monday, remained at 6-5 about 6:30 p.m. Friday, following the last race of the day.

BALTIMORE – Kentucky Derby runner-up Epicenter remained the Preakness Stakes favorite as early wagering numbers began to come in midway through Friday's card at Pimlico.

Advance wagering for the Preakness began when the windows opened for the Friday card. Epicenter, who Pimlico oddsmaker Keith Feustle made the 6-5 morning-line favorite at the post position draw on Monday, had been bet down to 3-5 as of 2:15 p.m. Friday, through six of 14 races on the Friday card.

Brickyard Ride, unbeaten in four stakes this year, worked five furlongs in a rapid 59 seconds at Santa Anita on Friday for an undetermined race later this month.

Brickyard Ride had the fastest of 19 works at the distance.

Jockey Joe Bravo plans to ride at Monmouth Park and other Eastern tracks during the month-long gap between the conclusion of the Santa Anita meeting on June 19 and the start of the Del Mar summer season on July 22.

On Friday, Bravo described the forthcoming trip as a “working vacation,” and a temporary departure from Southern California.

“I’ll definitely be there for the start of Del Mar,” he said.

A last-gasp victory by Cadillac Candy at even-money in the first race Thursday evening at Churchill triggered mainstream sports-media coverage that it would not have otherwise gotten. That’s because the 2-year-old colt represents the first-ever Thoroughbred winner owned by Alex Bregman, the All-Star third baseman for the Houston Astros.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Bregman said in a locker-room interview posted shortly after the race on Twitter. “My whole family is fired up. Going back to when my grandfather used to take me to the races, it’s just exciting.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Cherie DeVaux has set a high bar for herself. A resounding victory by a 4-year-old filly named Bout Time last Sunday on the Churchill Downs turf might have had another trainer speaking in superlatives, but DeVaux took a more clinical approach.

“She’s a nice filly, really pleasant to train,” said DeVaux. “We’ll probably just go back in a ‘two-other-than’ allowance, either here or in New York, depending on what comes up for her.”

BALTIMORE, Md. -- There were only a handful of scratches out of the main fields on Friday's stakes-loaded card Friday at Pimlico. The 14-race program begins at 10:30 a.m.

The most key of scratches out of the day's six stakes races as of 10 a.m. was Lil Kings Princess out of the Grade 3, $150,000 Allaire duPont Distaff. Not only does that leave a field of just five fillies set to contest the race, it removes a key pace opponent for morning-line favorite Super Quick.

Also in the duPont, Click to Confirm is a four-pound overweight.

BALTIMORE – Trainers and officials at Pimlico were preparing Friday morning as best they could for the blazing heat forecast to descend on this area both Friday and Saturday, when temperatures were predicted to rise to the low-90s for the Black-Eyed Susan card on Friday and as high as 97 for the Preakness card on Saturday.

Sean McCarthy, who trains Black-Eyed Susan favorite Adare Manor, said he had given Adare Manor electrolytes on Thursday, and on Friday would give her “water like normal.”

Jockey Umberto Rispoli is returning to California to ride on a full-time basis after having moved to Kentucky earlier this spring.

Rispoli is booked on two mounts at Santa Anita on Sunday. He will be represented by Tony Matos, who will continue to book mounts on behalf of Edwin Maldonado. Rispoli was previously represented in California by Scotty McClellan.

BALTIMORE – Two weeks after making his first Kentucky Derby walkover as a trainer of record, Tim Yakteen is back for the Preakness Stakes.

He brings in new a face in Armagnac while his Derby starters, Messier and Taiba, rest from their efforts.

"I'm exhausted," Yakteen said. "It's been exciting for the whole team."