King Congie, beaten only a head when third in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes last month, worked five furlongs in 1:04.60 Sunday morning over a good Belmont Park main track in preparation for a start in Saturday’s $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

 Though the time may not seem like much, consider that the work was done around a set of traffic cones, referred to as dogs, forcing the move to be conducted toward the middle of the racetrack. Horses usually work along the rail. Belmont clockers timed King Congie’s final quarter in 24 seconds.

Dance City, who is expected to be a major pace factor in Saturday's Preakness Stakes, and Saratoga Red, whose participation in the second leg of the Triple Crown hinges on the size of the field, both worked five furlongs on an off track on Sunday morning at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – What a difference one Saturday makes. In stark contrast to the sea of humanity that descended on the Churchill Downs property on Kentucky Derby Day, there was no one beyond the very hard-core on the backstretch the following Saturday morning when Sway Away had his final pre-race workout for the 136th Preakness.

Not even Jeff Bonde, the California-based trainer who conditions Sway Away, was here.

PREAKNESS STAKES 2011: Contender profiles, news updates, video, and odds

ELMONT, N.Y. – On Monday morning, two days after the Kentucky Derby, John Velazquez walked into the kitchen of his Long Island home, grabbed a cup of coffee, and sat down next to his wife Leona. He thought he had just accomplished something very important in his career, but just to make sure he sent a text message to his friend, trainer Graham Motion.

“I think I won the Derby for you,” Velazquez’s message read.

Motion, still in Louisville at the time, replied, “Yes, I think it really happened.”

If you really want to know where Animal Kingdom came from, you have to hear his original trainer discuss the 2011 Kentucky Derby champion's humble beginnings. DRF's Marcus Hersh did just that and had this to report from Wayne Catalano, who guided Animal Kingdom through his maiden days before losing the horse to trainer Graham Motion:

There is little doubt that there will be a full field in the Pimlico starting gate for next Saturday’s $1 million Preakness Stakes. Eight days out from the race, there are at least 16 horses under consideration for the Preakness, which is limited to 14 starters.

Animal Kingdom was a thoroughly deserving and admirable winner of the 137th Kentucky Derby, but the race was one of the most strangely run Triple Crown races in the modern era. The opening six furlongs in 1:13.40 were the slowest on a fast Derby track in 64 years. The race unfolded so slowly that Zenyatta could have been on the lead. Seriously.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Mr. Commons worked seven furlongs in 1:24.40 at Hollywood Park on Friday for the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 21, surprising trainer John Shirreffs and jockey Victor Espinoza with his eagerness.

Ridden for the first time by Espinoza, who has the mount in the Preakness Stakes, Mr. Commons worked alone, and was very eager early, going the first half-mile in 46 seconds and five furlongs in 57.83 seconds, according to Shirreffs’s stopwatch. Shirreffs timed Mr. Commons finishing in 1:24.29 for the workout, slightly quicker than the official time.

Dialed In will be shooting for a $5.5 million bonus in the Preakness Stakes on May 21 at Pimlico, but not until very recently did Dale Romans, the trainer of Shackleford, realize that his colt is in line for smaller, albeit significant, bonus as well.

“I didn’t know about it until yesterday,” Romans said Thursday on a national teleconference. “It’s a little more incentive to go there.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. − When Barry Irwin grasped the Kentucky Derby trophy Saturday evening in the Churchill Downs winner’s circle, representing the 20 partners of Team Valor International who own Animal Kingdom, it was a moment racing’s traditionalists and its modernizers could appreciate.