Max Player | Horse Racing Free Tips

Asmussen’s Preakness Trio: Pneumatic ‘Doing Extremely Well,’ Max Player Showing Good ‘Energy’

Steve Asmussen's trio of Preakness contenders each had the easy half-mile workout Monday that is typical for the Hall of Fame trainer's horses five days before a race.

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Pneumatic, winner of Monmouth Park's Pegasus Stakes in his last start after finishing fourth in the Belmont Stakes (G1), worked a half-mile in 50.20 seconds over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga. Max Player and Excession each were timed in 49.80 seconds at Churchill Downs.

“It's what we asked for, and they handled it really well,” Asmussen said of the three colts. “Pneumatic is doing extremely well since his win in the Pegasus. We're excited about getting him the opportunity at this level.”

Pneumatic drew Preakness Post No. 10 Monday.

“He had an outside draw in the Pegasus, a little bit shorter field, but an outside draw nonetheless,” Asmussen said. “Joe (Bravo) worked out a really good trip and hopefully he can do the same.”

Max Player, owned George Hall and SportBLX Thoroughbreds, will make his second start for Asmussen, having finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby. Max Player was third in both the Belmont Stakes and Travers when trained by Linda Rice.

Asmussen termed the work “a little leg-stretch,” adding, “I like his energy.”

Max Player drew Post No. 8 for his Preakness start.

“I think that's an excellent draw. I think he'll be able to stay a little closer from there,” Asmussen said. “Very anxious to see how he runs.”

Calumet Farms Excession will be making his first start since he was a fast-closing second at 82-1 odds behind the well-regarded Nadal in Oaklawn Park's Grade 2 Rebel Stakes on March 14. Excession will break on the rail, which Asmussen called “perfect.”

“He can follow the fence and make his late run,” he said.

Asmussen is shooting for his third victory in the Preakness, following Horses of the Year Curlin in 2007 and the filly Rachel Alexandra in 2009.

The post Asmussen’s Preakness Trio: Pneumatic ‘Doing Extremely Well,’ Max Player Showing Good ‘Energy’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Preakness Notes: Alborado To Ride Swiss Skydiver; Ny Traffic ‘Most Likely’ To Run; Authentic Breezes Monday

Peter Callahan's Grade 1 stakes-winning filly Swiss Skydiver will compete in the 145th Preakness (G1) at Pimlico on Oct. 3, trainer Kenny McPeek confirmed Sunday.

Veteran jockey Robby Albarado will replace Tyler Gaffalione on the millionaire filly. Albarado won the Preakness in 2007 aboard future Hall of Famer Curlin.

When she goes to the gate at historic Pimlico Race Course, Swiss Skydiver will be the 55th female to run in the Preakness. The most recent of the five filly winners of Maryland's Triple Crown classic was Rachel Alexandra in 2009. Her success against males in Baltimore helped her capture the 3-year-old filly title and the Horse of the Year Award.

McPeek had talked about the 1 3/16-mile Preakness as a possibility for Swiss Skydiver since the summer and decided to send her in against males for a second time when she worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 at Churchill Downs Saturday morning. In June, the chestnut daughter of Daredevil won the Santa Anita Oaks (G2), her third straight victory. In her first attempt against males, she ended up second to Preakness prospect Art Collector in the July 11 Blue Grass Stakes (G2). On August 15 at Saratoga, she won as she pleased in the 1 1/4-mile Alabama (G1). Three weeks later, she was second in the Kentucky Oaks (G1).

“I know she will make the distance without any problem,” McPeek said. “I think she will like that racetrack. Of course, she has raced everywhere. Whatever racetrack she has raced over she has handled great. It was a tough call between racing against straight 3-year-olds or older fillies and mares or turf, which was briefly thought about. I think she will handle it fine.

“My preference would have been if they wrote a race back like the Alabama back for this week. But that doesn't exist. There are no 3-year-old filly Grade 1s. She gets a little bit of weight off and she's continuing to do good,” he added.

A victory against the boys would greatly enhance Swiss Skydiver's quest for year-end honors.

“I think if she wins a race like this you've got to include her possible Horse of the Year,” McPeek said. “She's danced every dance and she's been hickory and she had entertained the fan base like probably no filly in years. I think it's a chance to make history.”

The other dirt option for McPeek prior to the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Keeneland on November 7 was the Spinster (G1) on Oct. 4, also at Keeneland.

Preakness entries will be taken Monday. Swiss Skydiver will ship to Maryland from Kentucky on Tuesday.

“It will be interesting to see where she draws,” McPeek said. “I think she runs better from the outside and I think drawing the one-hole cost her the Oaks. I think she got pinned down in there and if my rider had stayed inside he probably would have won. But he went around. Hindsight is 20/20. It is what it is.”

Ny Traffic Likely for Preakness Following Sunday Breeze
Ny Traffic breezed a half-mile in 48 seconds at Churchill Downs Sunday morning to the satisfaction of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who stopped just short of committing the Haskell (G1) runner-up to Saturday's Preakness.

“Most likely he's going to go, but tomorrow we'll make the decision,” Joseph said. “We were very happy with the work.”

Ny Traffic's half-mile clocking was the second-fastest of 88 recorded at the distance.

Sunday's workout was his first since finishing eighth in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby (G1), in which he was a forward factor early before weakening in the stretch. He exited the Derby with a cut in his left front ankle.

The son of Cross Traffic had previously lost by a nose to eventual Kentucky Derby winner Authentic in the July 18 Haskell at Monmouth Park.

Derby Hero Authentic Slated to Breeze Monday at Churchill
Following more stakes success at Santa Anita on Saturday, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert flew from California to Kentucky Sunday morning to check on his Preakness candidates Authentic and Thousand Words.

Authentic, Baffert's record-tying sixth Kentucky Derby winner, is scheduled to work Monday morning at Churchill Downs. Thousand Words, a three-time stakes winner, had his final Preakness work Saturday.

“All good. He came out of it really well,” Baffert said about Thousand Words. “He's on course.”

Baffert said he will make the final call on his Preakness horses Monday morning before entries close. The post-position draw is set for noon.

In the Preakness, Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez will ride Authentic and Florent Geroux will ride Thousand Words.

Saturday afternoon at Santa Anita, Baffert saddled the 1-2 finishers in the Chandelier Stakes (G2), Princess Noor and Varda, before saddling the top two finishers in the Awesome Again (G1), Whitney (G1) winner Improbable and heavy favorite Maximum Security, winner of the Pacific Classic (G1).

Art Collector on Track for Trip to Pimlico
Bruce Lunsford's Art Collector, winner of the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby and Keeneland's Blue Grass (G2) in his last two starts, did a combination of walking and jogging at Churchill Downs under Welter Davilla Sunday morning.

“I just wanted to let him move around a little without actually training,” trainer Tommy Drury said.

Art Collector, a son of 2006 Preakness Stakes winner and 3-year-old champion Bernardini, worked a half-mile in 48 seconds on Saturday.

Lunsford, Drury and jockey Brian Hernandez are shooting for their first Triple Crown win, with Drury making his first start in the series. Lunsford has never had a Preakness starter, but his horse Vision and Verse was second by a head at 54-1 odds in the 1999 Belmont Stakes (G1) won by Lemon Drop Kid.

Allied Racing's Mr. Big News, the Kentucky Derby third-place finisher at 46-1 odds, jogged a mile Sunday morning under regular exercise rider Tony Quinones. Mr. Big News is to fly to Baltimore Tuesday. He's trained by Bret Calhoun and will be ridden by Gabriel Saez. Calhoun, Saez and Allied Racing's Chester Thomas all are seeking their first wins in the Triple Crown series, with the trainer and owner set to participate in the Preakness for the first time.

The Steve Asmussen-trained trio of Pneumatic, Max Player and Excession all galloped Sunday. Winchell Thoroughbreds' Pneumatic, winner of Monmouth Park's Pegasus Stakes, is training at Saratoga, with George Hall and SportBLX Thoroughbreds' Max Player and Calumet Farm's Excession at Churchill Downs.

Max Player was fifth in the Kentucky Derby in his first start under Asmussen's care after finishing third in both Saratoga's Travers Stakes (G1) and Belmont Park's Belmont Stakes (G1). Excession makes his first start since finishing a good second to the highly regarded Nadal (since sidelined) in Oaklawn Park's Rebel Stakes (G2). Pneumatic was fourth in the Belmont Stakes before earning his first stakes triumph in the Pegasus.

Asmussen, who recently became only the second trainer to win 9,000 races, is seeking a third Preakness victory, following Curlin in 2007 and Rachel Alexandra in 2009. Both horses went on to be Horse of the Year, with Curlin also earning that title in 2008.

Godolphin's homebred Jim Dandy (G2) winner Mystic Guide breezed five furlongs Sunday in 1:01.60 over the main track at Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md. Trainer Mike Stidham has all but ruled out the Preakness.

“The work went great. It was on a wet track but he handled it really well. We were comfortable with it being a safe track to work on,” Stidham said. “He just went evenly and finished up nice with a good gallop out, but we're pretty much focused on skipping the Preakness and going into the Jockey Club.”

The post Preakness Notes: Alborado To Ride Swiss Skydiver; Ny Traffic ‘Most Likely’ To Run; Authentic Breezes Monday appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Asmussen, Closing In On All-Time Training Record, Will Saddle Three In Preakness

Steve Asmussen last week became only the second trainer to win 9,000 races, the landmark win coming on Troy Ounce in the second race at Oklahoma City's Remington Park. That left him 446 victories — since whittled to 437 heading into Friday's racing — shy of becoming the sport's all-time winningest trainer, with the late Dale Baird accruing 9,445 in a career spanning 1961-2007.

Only 15 of Asmussen's wins have come at Pimlico Race Course, but they've accounted for 11 graded stakes and more than $3.3 million in purses, including Preakness (G1) victories in 2007 with two-time Horse of the Year Curlin and two years later with the filly and 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra. Asmussen's Pimlico wins have come out of 57 starters after going 0 for 10 from 1998 through 2006.

Now Asmussen will try to win the Preakness for the third time with a trio of horses: George Hall and SportBLX Thoroughbreds' Max Player, Winchell Thoroughbreds' Pneumatic and Calumet Farm's Excession.

Asmussen also plans to run Winchell Thoroughbreds' Tenfold in the Pimlico Special (G3), a race he won last year after finishing a close third in the 2018 Preakness to eventual Triple Crown winner Justify. Asmussen has nominated horses to other stakes at Pimlico and expects to again be a presence at Old Hilltop.

“We think we will have a lot of live action for the weekend, and I expect a couple of winners to add to the total,” said Asmussen, the 2017 and 2018 winner of Pimlico's $50,000 bonus to the trainer whose horses earn the most points racing in the Preakness festival's stakes. “At this stage, we're just blessed with some extremely talented horses and it is an important event for us. Preakness weekend has always been a big deal to us, and we've been fortunate to have fastest-enough horses to run in the races they offer.”

Max Player officially entered the Preakness picture on Wednesday, two days after a sparkling workout of 1:00 1/5 at Churchill Downs, the fastest of 21 works that day at the distance. While Asmussen is well-known for putting a significant work into his horses 12 days before a race, he is not a trainer who drills his horses or goes in expecting an extremely fast work. So when his horses do that, handicappers have learned to pay extra attention.

“He's an extremely impressive horse and I think he's doing really well,” Asmussen said. “His work Monday was excellent. His gallop-out was huge. He came out of it in very good shape, went back to the track with a whole lot of energy. Very exciting horse at the right time.

Hall sent Max Player to Steve Asmussen a couple of weeks before the Kentucky Derby (G1), in which he closed from well back to be fifth. The colt had previously been trained by New York-based Linda Rice, including winning Aqueduct's Withers (G3) and finishing third in the Belmont (G1) and Travers Stakes (G1), both won by Derby runner-up Tiz the Law.

“We've secured Paco Lopez to ride him,” Asmussen said. “We're hoping he's able to stay a little closer, not give himself a margin that is impossible to overcome with the Preakness being a little shorter than the Derby. But he is doing really well. He's a very clean-legged, good-moving horse with a great attitude.”

Excession hasn't raced since he was second by a fast-closing three-quarters of a length at 82-1 odds in Oaklawn Park's Rebel Stakes (G2). That March 14 race was won by Nadal, who before being injured was one of the top choices for the Kentucky Derby.

A son of Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags, Excession will be ridden by Sheldon Russell, won of Maryland's leading riders.

“He needed some time after the Rebel,” Asmussen said of Excession. “He's been working well recently. His race against Nadal was very impressive. Just a weird year that he's allowed him to take a break and come back” and still make a Triple Crown race.

Pneumatic won Monmouth Park's TVG.com Pegasus Stakes in his last start to run his record to 3 for 5, with a fourth in the Belmont Stakes. Asmussen also is shooting for a third victory in the $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3), including a repeat with Tenfold. That son of Curlin loves Pimlico, having finished a close third in the foggy running of the 2018 Preakness Stakes won by Triple Crown hero Justify.

Like Pneumatic, Tenfold is owned by Asmussen's long-time client Winchell Thoroughbreds.

Joe Bravo, who was aboard for the Pegasus, will be back on Pneumatic for the Preakness, Asmussen said. “We feel great about how he's doing, knowing that this is by far the toughest race he's ever been in.

“I believe it's quite obvious there are some extremely talented 3-year-olds left that are doing very well. It ought to be a great race. Pneumatic, coming off his lifetime best, deserves the opportunity.”

Tenfold has ground out $1.1 million the hard way, winning last year's Pimlico Special and Saratoga's Jim Dandy (G2) in 2018 while earning many more checks by finishing second, third and fourth in 19 career races. When he returns to Pimlico, Tenfold will be attempting to win for the first time since the 2019 Special 10 races ago.

“Solid horse. Right now it's not easy to find lucrative purses for horses that need to run as far as he does,” Asmussen said. “The Pimlico Special was probably equal to his Jim Dandy victory. He's a Grade 2 winner of a million dollars. He's a pretty damn good horse.”

In his last two starts, Tenfold shipped to California for a third in Santa Anita's Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) then second in the Charles Town Classic (G2). “He's huge,” Asmussen said at Churchill Downs. “I don't think the tight turns of the Charles Town Classic suited him. But this year's calendar has made finding a suitable spot for most horses difficult.”

Pneumatic and Tenfold will ship in from Saratoga, where their training is being overseen by Asmussen chief assistant Scott Blasi.

Asmussen currently is the meet-leading trainer at Churchill Downs (where he became the all-time win leader in June), Lone Star Park, Remington Park and Louisiana Downs. The record-breaking and goal-oriented horseman isn't shy about acknowledging he wants to be racing's all-time win leader.

“I read it or I heard it somewhere that if they don't want it to be important, then why do they keep count?” he said with a laugh. “Right now, after reaching a goal as significant as 9,000 wins, you feel a great amount of gratitude for the opportunities that we've been given and the effort that all the help has put into it to get it done.”

At his current strike rate, Asmussen figures to be the sport's all-time win leader within 1 1/2 years. Then what?

“The open-ended, unanswered question of what's next, then every victory you lift your arms and say, 'new world record,'” he said cheerfully. “Every one you win, if you get fortunate enough to get to it, and afterward, you're the only one who ever did it.”

The post Asmussen, Closing In On All-Time Training Record, Will Saddle Three In Preakness appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Max Player to Preakness

George Hall and SportsBLX Thoroughbreds Corp.’s Max Player (Honor Code) will contest the Oct. 3 GI Preakness S. at Pimlico.

“I’m very excited because I haven’t been in the Preakness yet,” said Hall, who won the 2011 Belmont with 24-1 shot Ruler On Ice. “After the Kentucky Derby, he looked like he wanted to keep running. Steve watched him closely, and he was in great shape. He’s galloped well. He’s breezed well. We felt the horse was at the peak of his game and is ready to run.”

Winner of the GIII Withers S. for Linda Rice in February, Max Player finished third in the June 20 GI Belmont S before filling the same position in the GI Travers S. Aug. 8. Transferred to Steve Asmussen, he was fifth in his latest start in the Sept. 5 GI Kentucky Derby. Asmussen previously won the Preakness with Curlin (Smart Strike) in 2007 and again in 2009 with the filly Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d’Oro).

“I really feel like we will be competitive,” said Hall. “If you look at the Belmont S., where we were third, he didn’t have such a great trip. We got really caught behind a lot of horses and had to move around a lot and still wound up being third because he came on so strong at the end. In the Travers, he again came on strong to be third. It’s no shame to lose to Tiz the Law, as everybody knows. We feel like he’s a really good horse. When we started to look at the Preakness, I think the view is that he’s in perfectly good health. He’s in good shape, and he needs to develop. Reviewing the Kentucky Derby, he really came out of the gate slow [from post 1] and was far behind in the first jump. If we can get a little better trip out of the gate, maybe get a better post position and not fall so far behind and give him so much work to do at the end, we think that we can be competitive.”

According to Hall, jockey Paco Lopez will partner the colt for the first time in the Preakness.

“Obviously, we want to stay in the race, but we have to be careful because he is going to be a closer, no matter what,” said Hall. “I’m sure Steve will give Paco the correct instructions.”

Looking farther down the road, Hall added, “He had a long layoff before the Belmont, but then he’s had a robust campaign since,” Hall said. “What’s most important to us is that he stays healthy and has a good 4-year-old and, hopefully, 5-year-old career. We didn’t really think there was negative toward running in the Preakness that would affect his long-term prospects as a 4-year-old. We’re pretty excited about what he’s going to do be doing in the future, too.”

Hall bred Max Player through his K & G Stables, named for his children Katherine and George, with the colt raised on his Annestes Farm in Versailles, Ky. Hall owns 86% of Max Player, with SportBLX Thoroughbreds owning the other 14%. Co-founded by Hall and Joe De Perio, SportBLX Thoroughbreds offers micro-shares in racehorses. More micro-shares in Max Player, which will come out of his majority interest, likely will be available for purchase next week, Hall said.

Asmussen will also run Monmouth Park’s Pegasus S. winner Pneumatic (Uncle Mo) in the Preakness. Joe Bravo will have the mount.

The post Max Player to Preakness appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post