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Three Preakness candidates put in works
Hull figures to be prominent from the start if he runs in the Preakness, but Romans said Rachel Alexandra would figure to be close by at all points of the race. "She's true speed that keeps on going," he said. "She's real quality. I don't know how it's going to be for a filly to come back in two weeks -- I think it's harder for the fillies than it is for the colts. But I'm sure if Steve (Asmussen) takes her over there, then she's ready to go." Romans had high hopes for Hull going into his stakes debut in the Derby Trial on April 25, which is run at 7 1/2 furlongs. He was impressed by the colt's effort in that four-length win and that's why the 1 3/16-mile Preakness is being considered so strongly. "We knew he was good, but when you're stepping up into stakes company for the first time there's still some unknowns," Romans said. "But he proved he can run with anybody, because that was a solid field of horses."
Starlight Partners' TAKE THE POINTS (Even the Score) turned in a five-furlong work in 1:00 over the fast training track at Belmont Park. It was the second fastest of 38 at the distance. "He worked in company with Monba (A.P. Indy), who we're also running on Preakness Day on the turf (in the Dixie S. [G2])," said Don Lucarelli, one of the principal owners in the stable. "According to Angel Cordero (Jr.), who was aboard Monba, Take the Points outworked Monba a little bit." Take the Points finished fourth in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and did have enough graded stakes earnings to qualify for the Kentucky Derby, but the owners and trainer Todd Pletcher decided to aim for the Preakness instead. "Since we added the blinkers after his last race in California, he has really stepped up," Lucarelli said. "That's what gave us the encouragement to potentially bypass the Derby, to go on a track that favors speed a little more. Not that you'll see us on the lead, but that track should lend itself to his style of running. He galloped out real strong and they were very happy with the work." Other Preakness contenders did light exercise on Sunday.
Pioneerof the Nile is scheduled to work Monday morning, most likely after the renovation break. Joe Steiner, who handled Pioneerof the Nile's two pre-Derby works here, is flying in to Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday night and is slated to be aboard in the morning. Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and 19th-place finisher FLYING PRIVATE (Fusaichi Pegasus) both galloped before the renovation break Sunday morning at Churchill Downs. Mine That Bird galloped a little more than two miles with exercise rider Charlie Figueroa up. "He's doing super, as good as ever," said Figueroa, who has been the regular morning exercise partner for Mine That Bird since arriving in Kentucky on April 21. "I know he hasn't backed off. There is no regression at all." Trainer Bennie "Chip" Woolley Jr. was pleased to see the first fast track in the morning since Wednesday. "I can't believe how fast they can get it good here," Woolley said of a track that went from muddy during the latter part of training hours Saturday to fast fewer than four hours later. Mine That Bird is scheduled to train at Churchill the next two mornings and leave for Pimlico around midmorning on Tuesday. Flying Private is scheduled to work Monday morning at Churchill before shipping to Pimlico on Tuesday. "I think I'll just go an easy half (mile) with him," trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. "He doesn't need much. That two-week span between the Derby and Preakness is a concern of getting the energy back, so I don't have to do a lot with him. He's had plenty of racing." Flying Private finished last in the field of 19 in the Derby over a sloppy track that Lukas said may have affected many of the runners in the field. "I've got a nice horse. He's a very good horse," Lukas said. "He didn't show up in the Derby, granted, so tell them to bet on somebody else. Having said that, he's a well-bred horse, he'll go a mile and three sixteenths. He's got a top rider in Alan Garcia, who just won the Peter Pan ([G2] at Belmont Park on Saturday). There's a lot to like."
"He's one of those super hard-trying horses. He always gives you 110 percent. In his works in the morning, if you ask him to work good, he works good. If you don't want him to work fast, he'll do what you want," Fawkes said. "In the afternoon, he always gives you 110 percent." Sunday was "walk day" for TONE IT DOWN (Medaglia d'Oro) at nearby Laurel according to 73-year-old trainer Bill Komlo. The third-place finisher in the recent Federico Tesio S. will likely be the only Preakness runner to have ever raced over the Pimlico surface. "(The Preakness) was kind of always in the back of our minds when we got the horse in the Timonium sale last May," said Komlo, a former University of Maryland football player. "When he ran second in his first start going a mile, we thought maybe we've got a distance horse here. "I think he wants to come from off the pace," said Komlo, who said he may not give Tone It Down another work since the Tesio was only two weeks ago. He will ship in to Pimlico on race day.
Ryan said he plans to work Musket Man on Tuesday and then gallop up to the race. Musket Man won the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) and Illinois Derby (G2) before finishing a troubled third in the Kentucky Derby. "He ran his race, but he probably should have been second," Ryan said. "He came out of it good." Louisiana Derby (G2) winner FRIESAN FIRE (A.P. Indy), meanwhile, is scheduled to be vanned from Delaware Park to Pimlico Monday morning. Trainer Larry Jones plans to send Friesan Fire to the Pimlico track Tuesday morning for a five-furlong workout that will determine the Preakness status of the Kentucky Derby's beaten-favorite. Friesan Fire returned from his 18th-place finish at Churchill Downs with cuts on all four legs, believed to be suffered in bumping incidents shortly after the start. Should he pass the test, Friesan Fire will be ridden by Gabriel Saez, who'll be aboard for Tuesday's workout.
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