His connections may be different, but James Wolf's Treasure Trove will find himself in familiar surroundings when he makes his return to graded-stakes competition in Friday's historic $300,000 Pimlico Special (G3) at Pimlico Race Course.
The 6-year-old gelding is the only one of 11 horses entered that ran in last year's Pimlico Special for 3-year-olds and up at 1 3/16 miles, the same distance as Saturday's $1.65 million Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
Treasure Trove, then trained by Mike Maker, pressed the early pace before tiring to be seventh behind stablemate Last Judgment. Laurel Park-based trainer Anthony Farrior got the son of Tapizar for $32,000 three starts later out of a 1 1/16-mile claiming event at Keeneland.
“Hopefully, this year it falls apart,” Farrior said Thursday morning. “We know we don't have the best horse, but if the race falls apart we can pick up some pieces.”
Treasure Trove drew Post 9 and is rated at 12-1 on the morning line. Jevian Toledo will be aboard for the seventh straight race, the most recent a three-quarter-length optional claimer going 1 1/8 miles April 21 at Laurel.
“He just needs to get him covered up. Toledo's been riding him and he knows him. If he lets him get out early, he'll run off with him. He ran off with him two races ago and ran third, and he probably should have won,” Farrior said. “He always breaks slow. He's not a real good gate horse so he breaks slow, and he can tuck in. He likes to be in trouble. It seems like he runs better if you get a hold of him and if he runs against the bit he runs a lot better.”
Treasure Trove has raced seven times since the claim with two wins, one second and one third. He also finished fourth behind stakes winners Galerio and Forewarned in the Feb. 19 John B. Campbell at Laurel. Forewarned will break from Post 5 in the Pimlico Special, also at 12-1 in the program.
“He was a little funny in behind when we first got him and he's kind of worked his way out of it,” Farrior said. “It just seems like he's getting better with time.”
The 2-1 program favorite for the Pimlico Special is Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods' Vindictive, a three-time winner from six starts who drew the rail for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, who also entered stakes-placed Untreated. Among other rivals are 2021 Dwyer (G3) winner First Captain, trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, and Panamanian Group 1 winner and U.S. Grade 3-placed Capocostello.
“I grew up in Kentucky and I've always had claimers. I've claimed a lot of horses, so claiming one at Keeneland for [$32,000] and running him in a graded-stakes race on Preakness weekend and not be 50-1 is pretty good,” Farrior said.
“He came out of the last race really good. We skipped an allowance race because we kind of wanted to try him in a stakes race,” he added. “Mr. Wolf is a native of Maryland and he wanted to run one on the big day, so we'll give it a shot.”
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