Lukas: Mr. Z coming into Preakness ‘same way Oxbow did’

D. Wayne Lukas got his wish to run Mr. Z in the Preakness, but only after the colt’s private sale to Calumet Farm (Horsephotos.com) At Pimlico on Thursday, Calumet Farm’s new acquisition Mr. Z (Malibu Moon) galloped 1 1/2 miles under exercise rider Edvin Vargas for six-time Preakness (G1)-winning trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Lukas said a similar exercise is planned for Friday and that the colt may jog Saturday. Mr. Z drew the No. 3 post for the Preakness and will be ridden by Corey Nakatani. Mr. Z, who blew out a quarter-mile in :23 1/5 through the stretch at Churchill Downs on Monday, had vanned to Pimlico Tuesday and trained for the first time here Wednesday. Lukas won his first Preakness in 1980 with Codex and his most recent came two years ago with Oxbow, a colt whose past performances coming into the Preakness ran pretty close to those of Mr. Z. “Oxbow was a lot more aggressive than this horse. He liked to have things his own way,” Lukas said of the colt who had finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby (G1). “This horse is a little more manageable.” Oxbow took four tries to break his maiden and a victory in the Lecomte (G3) was his lone stakes victory prior to the Preakness in a career that included all stakes after the maiden score. Mr. Z won at first asking and has run in 12 consecutive stakes and is graded-stakes placed seven times. He finished 13th in the Derby after enduring a rough trip into the first turn.

“He never got a chance to run in the Derby,” Lukas said. “He is coming into
the race beautifully, the same way Oxbow did.”

As Lukas chatted at the end of the Preakness
barn, a swarm of photographers clustered around Derby runner-up Firing Line
(Line of David) as
he got a bath after his morning exercise.

“Look at them all down there,” Lukas said. “He beat us an inch (in the Los
Alamitos Futurity) and we were lugging out. It’s all about what have you done
lately.”

In addition to Mr. Z, Lukas brought five other
horses to Pimlico for the weekend with three in stakes Friday and two Saturday.

On Friday, he runs Lady Zuzu (Dynaformer) in the Hilltop,
Super Saks (Sky Mesa) in the Miss Preakness (G3) and Brewing (Maimonides) in the Jim McKay
Turf Sprint.

Danzig Moon could take to Pimlico better than Churchill, assistant trainer Norman Casse believes (Horsephotos.com) John Oxley’s Danzig Moon (Malibu Moon) got his first feel for the Pimlico racing surface Thursday morning when assistant trainer Norman Casse sent him out for a 1 1/2-mile gallop shortly after the renovation break at 8:30 a.m. (EDT). The versatile colt seemed to like it, but that should come as no surprise since Pimlico will be the fifth track Danzig Moon has raced on in as many starts as a three-year-old when he breaks from post 4 Saturday in the Preakness. “I actually think he’ll like this track a little more than Churchill,” Casse said after returning to the Preakness Stakes Barn. “Churchill is its own track, but I actually think he’ll like deeper race tracks — tracks like here, tracks like Saratoga. He really likes Palm Meadows and this (Pimlico) is very similar.” Norman Casse has done the majority of the hands-on training for his father, Mark, who has been dividing his time between the United States and his home base in Canada. Both were trackside when Danzig Moon was a troubled fifth in the Kentucky Derby. “I was watching from the apron and I could tell when they went under the wire the first time that he was in a bit of trouble,” Norman Casse said. “I was a little nervous about that, but as soon as he got clear I saw him grab hold of the bridle and I knew he’d be all right. Going past the half-mile pole when he went by Carpe Diem (Giant’s Causeway) I thought, ‘Man, we’re really gonna run a big race here.’ And we did, but obviously we’ve got to move forward off that to win the Preakness.”

An unusually fast work horse, Danzig Moon’s
closing style in races is something of a contradiction. Casse said it’s all a
matter of developing his raw talent.

“I think we haven’t seen his best race yet,” Casse said. “I think it’s taken
him a little while to figure out exactly what his job is and being a racehorse.
But I think seeing how aggressive he was in the Derby is kind of a testament to
where he is now mentally. Before, you had to ride him a little more. He had the
talent; but you had to teach him. Now he’s doing things on his own, and I think
it will make him a better racehorse. We put blinkers on him immediately because
he wasn’t focused at all.”

Danzig Moon hasn’t had an official work since
the week before the Derby.

“You just try to go a little easier (after the
Derby),” Casse said. “We gave him a few days where he only galloped a mile
instead of a mile and a half, just trying to get his energy level back up, but
he really never waned. He’s trained just as good for this race as he did for the
Derby, and a lot of people were excited about the way he was training for the
Derby, so I’m excited about the way he’s training now. We feel like we deserve
another chance.”

Mark Casse was scheduled to arrive on a flight
from Canada later Thursday.

Fair Hill-based Divining Rod has settled into his Pimlico stall (Horsephotos.com) Lael Stables’ Divining Rod (Tapit) made the short trip from Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Maryland, to Pimlico by van Thursday morning. Trainer Arnaud Delacour sent the colt out for a 1 1/2-mile gallop at 6 a.m. He was loaded on a van at 9:30 and transported to the track. Preakness rules require all horses to be on the grounds by midday on Thursday. Delacour said that Divining Rod will go to the track at Pimlico at 6 a.m. Friday. Divining Rod showed that he was a Preakness prospect with a victory in the Lexington S. (G3) on April 11 at Keeneland. For the first time in his career, the homebred colt successfully rated off the pace, moved to the lead a little later in the race and scooted home first by three lengths. “That wasn’t a surprise because we had obviously breezed him behind horses in the past before the Lexington, and he took it very well,” Delacour said. “That wasn’t a surprise, but we wanted to see that kind of race, which we hadn’t seen before. I must say that everything worked out perfect for us. There was some fast enough fractions, like :47-and-change, for him to get to relax. That worked out very well for us.”

Divining Rod earned enough Derby qualifying points to get
on the also-eligible list, but the colt’s owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, had
decided to point to the Preakness. Delacour said he had no second thoughts about
not competing in the Derby while he was watching the race.

“I’m glad I wasn’t in there, because that’s a tough race, a
(big) field,” Delacour said. “To take on those kind of horses, those are the
best three-year-olds in North America, to me it was better to take them on with the
right amount of time between races and in an eight-horse field rather than a
(big) field in the Derby.”

Charles Fipke’s Tale of Verve (Tale of Ekati) got his first
feel for the Pimlico racing surface Thursday morning, galloping 1 1/2 miles a
little after 6:30 under exercise rider Kortez Walker.

“We are good to go,” trainer Dallas Stewart said. “He picked it up the last
time through the stretch and Kortez said he didn’t want to stop.”

Tale of Verve had shipped to Pimlico from
Churchill Downs on Wednesday. He drew post position 5 for Saturday’s
Preakness and will be ridden by Joel Rosario, who will be seeking his first
Preakness victory on his fourth mount.

“Post5 is pretty nice,” Stewart said. “I hope they rock and roll early on
the lead.”

Stewart, who will be saddling his fourth
Preakness starter, said Tale of Verve handled the ship well. Tale of Verve is
scheduled for a similar activity Friday morning with no gate or paddock
schooling on the itinerary.

“He doesn’t need any of that. He’s good,”
Stewart said.

Tale of Verve never has raced on an off track
and a chance for rain remains in the Saturday forecast.

“I don’t know how he would do on it,” Stewart said. “He has trained on off
tracks, but whether he will run hard on it is another thing.”

Stewart is a native of McComb, Mississippi, and
Walker completes a Magnolia State exacta for Tale of Verve.

Walker, 23 is from Hattiesburg and is also an
apprentice jockey.

“I have ridden some races and he (Stewart)
wanted me to come to Kentucky for two years, but I wanted to wait until I looked
better on a horse,” Walker said. “I am going to start riding again this summer
at Churchill Downs.”

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