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Sovereign Awards Derby & Auction Prices Santa Anita Derby Day Wood Memorial Day Kentucky Derby Contenders |
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 The statue with the silks of last year's Preakness winner Early Voting in front of the Preakness Stakes Barn. |
All eight of the Preakness horses were out on the track this morning for a gallop of 1 to 2 miles. At the start of training hours it was unusually cool with temperatures in the mid 40's but it quickly warmed up after sunrise to an eventual daytime high of 73, with clear skies and a fast main track.
   Mage was the last Preakness horse to go out, shortly after the harrowing break. Trainer Gustavo Delgado said, "All the horses in the Preakness are new. But Mage is feeling very, very, very good. Better than the Kentucky Derby." Gustavo Jr., assistant to his father added, "As long as he's in a good rhythm and relaxing the first part of the race and makes his move, that's what I want to see,"
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  Blazing Sevens galloped for trainer Chad Brown. Brown said, "I feel like I have him as good as I could possibly have the horse for the race. He's got good spacing, he's working as good as he's ever worked and he really doesn't have any excuses. He just has to go over there and handle the Pimlico surface, handle the mile and three-sixteenths."
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  Chase the Chaos galloped once around. Owner Bill Dory said, "I'm lost for words. This is above and beyond what I ever expected to happen to me in horse racing. Being a small-time owner type of deal, I was hoping to make it to the Canadian Derby (G3) at our local track (Northlands Park) one day. That was my dream. This has surpassed my dreams a thousand-fold."
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  Coffeewithchris galloped twice around. Owner-trainer John Salzman Jr. said, "He was a little preoccupied today watching everything. He will buck and play. He's got my exercise rider on edge because he just feels good. He just wants to show his emotions. This track is going to be a little faster than Laurel. So, that should help him. We just want a good break and then get into the first turn. I think I'm going to be laying second or third or maybe on the lead. Hopefully we can slow it down and drag them all the way.
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  First Mission galloped for trainer Brad Cox who said, "I really do think the best is yet to come for this horse. For him to be what we want him to be it has to be. I do believe he has a big move forward in him. We'll see if it happens Saturday. He never regressed from his first two runs. He obviously is going to need to take a step forward and he's training like a horse that's going to take a step forward. [Post 8] gives Luis options from the outside to do what he needs to do to get the position he needs to have."
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  National Treasure was the first Preakness horse, out at 5:45. He will get blinkers for the third time but never in consecutive races. Trainer Bob Baffert said, "It's a small blinker, keeps him a little bit focused." "From Day One he showed he's a very talented horse but he gets distracted very easily," jockey John Velazquez said. "He's going forward, then he forgets that he's running. You try to put him in the race, he runs, then he stops running. He's one of those horses that has a lot of talent but doesn't put it together the way you want him to."
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  Perform galloped for trainer Shug McGaughey who said, "He's been a horse that has always trained really good. If you look back at his sprint races, they weren't that bad. Maybe the one at Churchill was, but he would be fourth, beaten four or five lengths, and decent horses beat him. Everything came together when we ran him two turns over at Tampa with Irad (Ortiz Jr.). Irad kind of schooled him a little bit and got him to relax behind those horses and he finished up really good."
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  Red Route One galloped for trainer Steve Asmussen. Asmussen said, "I think there's more there. I'm hoping with winning we get a chance to see it. We have not yet gotten to the bottom of him by any means."
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