claiming crown preview | Horse Racing Free Tips

Trainer Frank Russo and jockey Jorge Vargas Jr. combined to win two of the five Claiming Crown Preview races held Sunday at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md., while jockey Mychel Sanchez also had two preview wins.

The five preview race winners earned an automatic berth to the 23rd Claiming Crown, to be held Saturday, Dec. 4 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. This will be the 10th consecutive year Gulfstream will play host to the event. All preview winners will receive $2,500 toward shipping costs.

Russo and Vargas won the first two preview races on the program.

Morning Moon Farm's Aequor, an 11-1 shot trained by Russo and ridden by Vargas, drove past the 1-9 favorite Sevier inside the final 20 yards to win the six-furlong Claiming Crown Express preview for 3-year-olds and up, covering six furlongs in 1:10.11. Less than 30 minutes later in the Claiming Crown Canterbury preview for 3-year-olds and up, Vargas rode the Russo-trained Belgrano to victory over a firm 5 ½ furlong turf course in 1:01.98 after drawing away from the 4-5 favorite Noble Commander down the stretch.

Sanchez also won consecutive preview races and had three wins on the afternoon.

He won the Distaff Dash preview aboard Team Valor International LLC's Beantown Baby, covering a 5 ½ furlong turf course in 1:01.96 for trainer Arnaud Delacour. He came right back to score a length victory aboard the Guadalupe Preciado-trained Lookin At Roses in the Rapid Transit preview, covering seven furlongs in 1:23.58.

The final Claiming Crown preview race, the Emerald preview, went to Mandate, who covered the 1 1/16 mile course in 1:40.97 while winning by 3 ¼ lengths under jockey Andrew Wolfsont for trainer Robert Johnston.

Nominations for the Claiming Crown are due November 8.

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Highlighted by the $1 million Preakness (G1), presented this year as the final jewel in a refashioned Triple Crown, the Maryland Jockey Club will serve up a total of 16 stakes, nine graded, worth $3.35 million in purses over Preakness weekend at Pimlico Race Course.

The 145th running of the 1 3/16-mile Preakness for 3-year-olds will anchor an all-stakes program of 12 races, seven graded, worth $2.7 million on Saturday, Oct. 3. It will be joined this year by the 96th renewal of the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2), one of the country's premiere events for 3-year-old fillies, contested at 1 1/8 miles.

Turf runners 3 and up will travel 1 1/16 miles in the $250,000 Dinner Party (G2), previously run as the Dixie, now in its 119th year. Pimlico's oldest stakes race and the eighth-oldest in the country, it was named the Dinner Party for its 1870 debut and run at two miles.

Other grass stakes on the Preakness program are the $150,000 Gallorette (G3) for fillies and mares 3 and up, $150,000 Laurel Futurity for 2-year-olds and $150,000 Selima for 2-year-old fillies, each going 1 1/16 miles; and $100,000 James W. Murphy for 3-year-olds and $100,000 Hilltop for 3-year-old fillies at one mile.

Joining the Preakness Day lineup this year is the $200,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) at six furlongs for 3-year-olds and up. Other sprint stakes on the card are the $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs and $100,000 Skipat for fillies and mares 3 and up.

Rounding out the Oct. 3 stakes lineup is the $100,000 UAE President Cup (G1) for Arabians, contested at 1 1/16 miles for 4-year-olds and up.

The historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) for 3-year-olds and up, returned to 1 3/16 miles after being contested at 1 ¼ miles in 2019, is the centerpiece of a Friday, Oct. 2 card that also serves as Claiming Crown Preview Day.

Each winner of the nine Claiming Crown Preview Day races will earn automatic entry and a stipend toward travel costs to the annual Claiming Crown Day program being held for the eighth consecutive year at Gulfstream Park. A similar preview was hosted at Laurel Park in 2015.

Preakness weekend will kick off Thursday, Oct. 1 with three stakes led by the $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) for 3-year-olds at six furlongs. It will be joined by a pair of five-furlong turf sprints, the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint for 3-year-olds and up and $100,000 The Very One for fillies and mares 3 and older.

Live racing will be conducted at Pimlico this year from Sept. 24-26 and Oct. 1-3.

Nominations for all Thoroughbred stakes, excluding the Preakness, close Thursday, Sept. 17. Nominations for the UAE President Cup for Arabians close Saturday, Sept. 19.

All nominations can be forwarded to Racing Secretary Jillian Tullock at Pimlico Race Course, Hayward & Winner Aves., Baltimore MD 21215, e-mailed to stakes coordinator Coley Blind at cblind@marylandracing.com, or by calling 410-542-9400 or 800-638-1859.

For more information go to: https://www.pimlico.com/sites/www.pimlico.com/files/PDF/2020_Preakness_Stakes_0.pdf

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