Saturday’s Preakness Update: Trio of Breezers at Belmont

Trainer Chad Brown sent out Klaravich Stables' duo of Crowded Trade (More Than Ready) and Risk Taking (Medaglia d'Oro) to breeze in company Saturday, while Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher had Whisper Hill Farm's Unbridled Honor (Honor Code) work in company with older graded stakes winner Fearless (Ghostzapper) at Belmont Park in preparation for next Saturday's GI Preakness S.

Risk Taking, winner of the GIII Withers S. and seventh-place finisher in the GII Wood Memorial S., worked outside of narrow GIII Gotham S. second and Wood Memorial third Crowded Trade, through five-eighths in 1:01.76 on a main track rated fast at 8:45 a.m. with the pair finishing together at the wire. Risk Taking was scratched out of Saturday's GIII Peter Pan S. in favor of the second leg of the Triple Crown.

“I thought they breezed super. It was just what I wanted,” Brown said. “I got them in 1:01 and even out in 1:13 and change. I was real happy with it.”

Brown added of Risk Taking, “His last two works were the best we've seen.”

As for Crowded Trade, he said, “He's only raced three times. He's run three really credible races and he's going in the right direction. He's had six weeks between races and I could see him running a really big race on Saturday.”

Unbridled Honor, runner-up in the GIII Stonestreet Lexington S., worked outside of Fearless on Belmont's dirt training track at 9:30 a.m. The pair covered a half-mile in :49.75 and out in 1:02.1 with a long gallop out through the turn.

“I thought both horses worked well to the wire,” Pletcher said. “Fearless was particularly strong on the gallop out and I thought Unbridled Honor did well. I was happy with both of them.”

As for Unbridled Honor, Pletcher added, “We weren't really thinking Derby at that time [in the Lexington]. We were hoping for a good performance, which we got. He finished up well and he continues to improve with each start. He had a good pace to run at that day. Hopefully, it will be a contested pace at Pimlico.”

Fearless, winner of the GII WinStar Gulfstream Park Mile S. and runner-up in the GII Oaklawn H., is being pointed to the GIII Pimlico Special S. May 14.

John and Diane Fradkin's homebred and El Camino Real Derby winner Rombauer (Twirling Candy), meanwhile, had his final timed workout in preparation for the Preakness Saturday morning, covering five furlongs in :59.80 seconds under jockey Flavien Prat at Santa Anita. “He worked in company, settled in a length behind the other horse, passed him coming to the eighth pole and went on about his business,” trainer Michael McCarthy said.

Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas has confirmed Ram (American Pharoah) as a starter for the Preakness. He won his second straight annexing an allowance on the GI Kentucky Derby undercard. “We realize he has to step forward to be effective,” Lukas said. “But when these horses are doing well, sometimes they'll step up and do what you want them to do. I always thought this horse had potential.”

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Risk Taking, Unbridled Honor Added to Preakness

Next weekend's GI Preakness S. continues to take shape as GSW Risk Taking (Medaglia d'Oro) and Unbridled Honor (Honor Code) are expected to be added to the fray during Monday's draw at Pimlico.

Winner of the GIII Withers S. in February, Risk Taking had been initially tabbed to contest the nine-furlong GIII Peter Pan S. at Belmont Saturday, but has been rerouted to join his Klaravich Stables stablemate, Crowded Trade (More Than Ready), in the second jewel in the Triple Crown. Chad Brown trains the colt for Baltimore native Seth Klarman, who was the co-owner of Brown's 2017 Preakness winner Cloud Computing.

“After a couple of lengthy discussions with Mr. Klarman, we feel that this horse is better around two turns,” explained Brown. “That, along with the defections, it just seemed like a good opportunity to take a chance with the horse. I know he is the morning-line favorite for the Peter Pan and we are giving that up, but the reward is: if we are able to get lucky in this race and have him run the race of his life and potentially win or be right there, it's a huge purse. Along with that, it's a little better for him around two turns with the extra distance. Of course, it's a tougher race, but it just came down to a risk-and-reward situation and getting the opportunity to try him around two turns.”

The Preakness will be Risk Taking's first start since he finished seventh as the 2-1 favorite in the Apr. 3 GII Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. He broke his maiden at the Big A in December prior to his Withers score.

“Our optimism is really based on being able to confidently draw a line through the Wood,” Brown said. “If we do that, and if he was to move forward off his previous two races, another step forward, finishing strong at a mile and three-sixteenths, it could potentially put him in the trifecta or maybe better.”

Jose Ortiz will ride the Risk Taking in the Preakness.

Newly-minted Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher also confirmed Whisper Hill's Unbridled Honor will take aim at the Preakness, the only Classic which the 53-year-old has yet to win.

A narrow winner in his third career start going just over a mile at Tampa in February, the colt was fourth in the GII Tampa Bay Derby before a runner-up finish in the GIII Lexington S. at Keeneland Apr. 10.

“He's a horse that we've always had high hopes for,” Pletcher said Friday. “He's always trained really well and he's still sort of putting it all together in race situations. We thought he made a move forward in the Tampa Derby when he ran a sneaky-good fourth and was finishing arguably the best of anyone in the field. He came back and was second-best in the Lexington. That was another improving effort.”

The grey will be Pletcher's 10th Preakness runner and his first since Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming finished eighth in 2017. His best finish was a third with his first starter, Impeachment, in 2000.

Unbridled Honor will have his final Preakness work Saturday morning and is scheduled to ship from Belmont Park to Pimlico on Tuesday.

Pletcher indicated that the 1 3/16-mile race could provide an ideal scenario for the colt.

“We like the way he's training and if he could get a decent pace up front to run at, we feel that if he can take another step forward and he's in the mix,” Pletcher said.

Jockey Luis Saez will replace Julien Leparoux in the saddle for the Preakness, his first mount on the colt.

“We've had a lot of luck with Luis,” Pletcher said. “He's riding great and we're happy to have him.”

In related Preakness news, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas told Maryland Jockey Club racing officials Friday that Christina Baker and William Mack's Ram (American Pharoah) has not been ruled out and he expects a decision to be made Saturday.

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Luis Saez To Ride Pletcher-Trained Unbridled Honor In Preakness

Todd Pletcher, Thoroughbred racing's newest Hall of Fame trainer, will take aim at the May 15 Preakness Stakes (G1) – the only Triple Crown race he has yet to win – with Unbridled Honor.

Pletcher's election to the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. was announced Wednesday. The 53-year-old, who gained entry in his first year of eligibility, holds the record for career-earnings ($405,791,077) and ranks seventh all-time with 5,118 wins, including 708 graded-stakes victories. He has saddled two Kentucky Derby (G1) winners – Super Saver (2010) and Always Dreaming (2017) – and three Belmont Stakes (G1) champions – filly Rags to Riches (2007), Palace Malice (2013) and Tapwrit (2017).

Unbridled Honor, a gray Whisper Hill Farm homebred son of Honor Code, will be Pletcher's 10th Preakness runner and his first since Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming finished eighth in 2017. His best finish was a third with his first starter, Impeachment, in 2000.

The Preakness will be Unbridled Honor's first start since his runner-up finish in the Lexington (G3) at Keeneland on April 10. The late-running colt was a dozen lengths off the early pace in the Lexington and ended up 2 ¾ lengths behind the winner, King Fury. In his previous start, the Tampa Bay Derby (G2), he was forced to try to close into a slow early pace and finished fourth, seven lengths in back of Helium.

“He's a horse that we've always had high hopes for,” Pletcher said Friday. “He's always trained really well and he's still sort of putting it all together in race situations. We thought he made a move forward in the Tampa Derby when he ran a sneaky-good fourth and was finishing arguably the best of anyone in the field. He came back and was second-best in the Lexington. That was another improving effort.”

Unbridled Honor will have his final Preakness work Saturday morning and is scheduled to ship from Belmont Park to Pimlico on Tuesday. Pletcher said that the Preakness, led by front-running Derby winner Medina Spirit, could provide an ideal scenario for the colt.

“We like the way he's training and if he could get a decent pace up front to run at, we feel that if he can take another step forward he's in the mix,” Pletcher said.

Jockey Luis Saez will replace Julien Leparoux in the saddle for the Preakness, his first mount on the colt.

“We've had a lot of luck with Luis,” Pletcher said. “He's riding great and we're happy to have him.”

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Curlin Colt Unleashes ‘Fury-ous’ Rally For McPeek In Lexington Stakes

Far back early under Brian Hernandez Jr., King Fury benefited from a fast early pace and uncorked a powerful move on the turn to win the Grade 3, $200,000 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes on a very sloppy racetrack at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday afternoon.

Trained by Kenny McPeek for the partnership of Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys Farm LLC, King Fury – a 3-year-old colt by Curlin bred in Kentucky by Heider Family Stables LLC – completed 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.50 and paid $38.40 as the third longest price in the field of nine 3-year-olds competing for 34 points in the final day of Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying races of 2021. The top four finishers earned 20-8-4-2 points.

Unbridled Honor finished second at 20-1 odds, beaten 2 3/4 lengths, with 8-1 shot Starrinmydreams another 2 1/4 lengths back in third and 2-1 favorite Proxy finishing fourth.

Noble Reflection, stretching out to 1 1/16 miles after a six-furlong maiden win at Oaklawn last out for Richard Baltas, shot to the lead under Javier Castellano and set fractions of :22.39, :45.87 and 1:11.30 for the first six furlongs. Unbeaten Swiftsure, 2-for-2 sprinting for Steve Asmussen, and highly regarded Bob Baffert-trained Bezos applied pressure on the front-runner.

Hernandez allowed King Fury to settle near the back early, then began picking off horses approaching the far turn, finding room along the rail as the field made its way around the final turn. The front-runners began to pay the price for the early fractions and King Fury reeled them all in quickly, opening a commanding lead after a mile in 1:37.12 and easily holding off the late rally by Unbridled Honor and Julien Leparoux.

A $950,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling purchase, King Fury is out of the Flatter mare, Taris. The Lexington Stakes was his third win from six starts and first in a stakes. He had not raced since a fifth-place finish after setting  the pace with blinkers on in the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28. After training at Gulfstream Park this winter, McPeek removed the blinkers for the Lexington.

Post-race quotes

Brian Hernandez Jr. (winning rider of King Fury)
“They were going fast, and my horse, he actually jumped away from there (the gate) really, really good. Then going around the turn, he went to hopping up and down from the dirt. Once he got down to the fence and midway down the backside, he went to traveling so good. I got to the five-eighths pole and went 'Man, they're in trouble from this point' because he was just doing it the right way and traveling and taking us the whole way. He was so powerful today that I knew I would just be able to pick my way through like we did. He was just there for me the whole way.”

Kenny McPeek (winning trainer)
“This has always been a really, really good horse. We were a little aggressive with him last fall. I'm going to give a big tip of the hat to the (co-owner) Three Chimneys team. They said, 'Hey, send him to us for a little while. Let's give him a little break'. He needed it. We tested him at the highest levels and he came back bigger and stronger.”

“I'm really proud of everybody involved. I've got a great team of people that help me. I channeled a little Alice Chandler today, because what a fantastic woman she's been for horse racing. It's an awesome win for (co-owner) Paul Fireman and his family. I wish he was here – I think he's playing golf in the Dominican (Republic) right now. It's a good day.”

On King Fury's next race
“We'll check him after this race. I think he's going to handle a mile and a quarter without any trouble. Whether he gets in (the Kentucky Derby-G1), it's out of our control. We'll see how he bounces out. We think a mile a quarter would be great. We'll look at the opposition. The Preakness (G1) is a great race too. It could be either-or, but it would definitely one or the other.”

Dallas Stewart (trainer and co-owner of third-place finisher Starrininmydreams)
“He's a really nice horse. He showed his quality this afternoon. It was a really nice effort. We'll get him back to Louisville and plan for the next one.”

John Velazquez (rider of fourth-place finisher Proxy)
“He was not loving this (sloppy track), that is for sure. I knew that in the first turn. He kept running at the end because he is a distance horse and he is supposed to pass horses.”

Mike Stidham (trainer of Proxy)
“I knew when Johnny had to (urge) him right away on the first turn that he looked like he was not handling the sloppy track. We had in the back of our minds to try him on the turf, and now that is something we will look at. Maybe not immediately but in the near future.”

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