It's back to the grass for J R Sanchez Racing Stable's Shake Em Loose after the claimer-turned-multiple stakes winner on dirt breezed over Laurel Park's world-class turf course Sunday morning.
Owner-trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon said Shake Em Loose will make his next start in the $100,000 James W. Murphy for 3-year-olds going one mile on the grass May 21 on the Preakness Stakes (G1) undercard at historic Pimlico Race Course. He had been under consideration for the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.
Working in company with 6-year-old stakes-winning mare Can the Queen, Shake Em Loose and his partner were timed in :51.20 over the yielding course, with Shake Em Loose and jockey Jevian Toledo galloping out five furlongs in 1:03.
“The filly doesn't usually breeze in company, but he's been breezing in company lately,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “It went very well for both my horses. They did pretty well over the course.”
By Shakin It Up, a Grade 1-winning dirt sprinter, Shake Em Loose has raced once before on the grass for his previous connections, a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight at Laurel where he lost all chance after getting bumped and pinched back at the start and finished 11th. Two starts later, Sanchez-Salomon claimed him for $16,000.
Since then, Shake Em Loose has won three of five races including the Dec. 26 Heft at odds of 59-1 in the first start for Sanchez-Salomon. Following his victory over Joe in the March 19 Private Terms, he was nominated to the Triple Crown by the late deadline for $6,000. He ran a troubled third behind Joe in the April 16 Federico Tesio, which offered a free pass to the Preakness for Triple Crown-nominated horses.
“I was pretty excited and very happy with his work on the grass, I'm going to go to the Murphy,” Sanchez-Salomon said. “I'm not going to force him too much. A race like the Preakness is really, really tough. Anybody can win the race; you saw what happened in the [Kentucky] Derby. Anything can happen, but I don't want to push him too much. I like this horse a lot and I want to protect him a little bit. I don't want to push him and break his heart.
“The horses that are coming in [for the Preakness], I don't want to go over there just to show up. I just want the horse to be happy and let him be a racehorse, and he can continue winning races,” he added. “There's a lot of races for him. I think he's a grass horse. I have this filly Foggy Dreams, who is by the same sire as Shake Em Loose, and she loves the grass. I think he will love it, too.”
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