LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dale Romans has an incredible knack for making news, even when it doesn’t involve him winning a Preakness or a Dubai World Cup or a Breeders’ Cup race or upsetting a Triple Crown champion.
The latest news cycle involving Romans came when he and several passengers were injured in a frightening automobile accident in the Churchill Downs neighborhood just a few hours after the Kentucky Derby on May 7.
BALTIMORE - Kentucky Oaks runner-up Land Over Sea and Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist will be solid favorites in their respective legs of the Black-Eyed Susan/Preakness daily double this weekend at Pimlico. On Sunday morning, trainer Doug O'Neill let them both open up a bit in their training as they prepare to come back on two weeks' rest for the first time in their careers.
Like many folks, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Preakness over the last few days. And no matter which way I look at the race, I’m having a difficult time right now coming up with anything other than this: If Nyquist runs his typical race, and certainly if he duplicates his Kentucky Derby, no one is going to beat him in the Preakness.
BALTIMORE – The equine herpesvirus quarantine at Parx Racing could end as soon as Tuesday, and if it does, the field for the 141st Preakness next Saturday will grow by one runner.
Trainer Ned Allard and owner-breeder Gil Campbell are making preparations to send Abiding Star, a winner of five straight races, to the Preakness if the quarantine is lifted. Officials of The Stronach Group, which operates Pimlico, are in the process of putting safety protocols into place that will keep Abiding Star and another horse Allard plans to send segregated from the general horse population.
BALTIMORE – Nyquist, the undefeated Kentucky Derby winner, had a very easy morning at Pimlico on Saturday, jogging two miles the wrong way around the track while being led by a pony.
Trainer Doug O'Neill, who watched Nyquist's exercise from the press-box balcony, said Nyquist on Sunday would jog a mile and then gallop a mile.
O'Neill has followed an alternating system of jogs and gallops with Nyquist since he was a 2-year-old.
At Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., Preakness hopeful Cherry Wine breezed five furlongs in 1:01.60 on a windy and unseasonably chilly Saturday morning.
Churchill clocker John Nichols caught Cherry Wine and exercise rider Faustino Aguilar in splits of 24.80 and 49.20 seconds, then out six furlongs in 1:14 over a fast track.
Trainer Dale Romans said afterward he is very happy with how Cherry Wine has trained since the colt finished third in his last race, the April 9 Blue Grass Stakes.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Three horses with designs on stopping Nyquist’s bid for the Triple Crown in next Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico put in their final serious workouts for the race Friday morning at three different locations.
At Belmont Park, the lightly raced Stradivari drilled five furlongs in 59.51 seconds as his connections tighten the screws on an extremely talented colt.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There will be no Preakness for Brody’s Cause, nor for Suddenbreakingnews. Now all that remains from those conquered by Nyquist in the Kentucky Derby are Exaggerator and Lani, with a decision still pending from the Gun Runner camp.
In his first training session since winning the Kentucky Derby, Nyquist stretched his legs over the Pimlico racing surface Wednesday morning, jogging one lap clockwise around the one-mile strip.
Nyquist’s exercise came four days after he gave trainer Doug O’Neill, owner J. Paul Reddam, and jockey Mario Gutierrez their second Derby victory, and 10 days before he will attempt to win the middle jewel of the Triple Crown in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness on May 21.
