A trio of horses that bypassed the GI Kentucky Derby, each of which bring interesting form as new shooters for next Saturday's GI Preakness S., breezed in various locales Friday morning.
Speedway Stable's GIII Sham S. and GIII Lexington S. hero Collected (City Zip) continued to tear up the Churchill Downs main track with a third consecutive outstanding work since shipping in with his Bob Baffert stablemates late last month. Working beneath Miguel Mena over a rain-affected main track labeled 'good,' Collected was clocked in 1:24.80 for seven furlongs, going in fractions of :23.80, :35.80, :47.80, 1:00 and 1:12.60. He galloped out the mile in 1:38.60.
“I'd say we are ready. We're good to go,” said Jim Barnes, assistant to six-time Preakness winner Baffert. “Bob wanted a good seven-eighths and out a mile, and he did it pretty handily.”
Collected breezed a half-mile in a smart :47.40 (5/67) Apr. 29 and followed up with a seven-furlong move in 1:25.60 (1/1) May 5.
Stradivari (Medaglia d'Oro), who was accorded “TDN Rising Star” status off a 14 1/2-length allowance victory at Keeneland Apr. 17, took to the Belmont main track Friday morning and stopped the timer in :59.60 for his five-furlong drill.
“He worked very well,” said trainer Todd Pletcher. “I'm very pleased with the way he went. He's had three very good breezes since his allowance win and right now we're still considering the Preakness. He's a horse that we've thought a lot of for quite a while, so it was sort of in the back of our minds leading up to the allowance race that hopefully bigger things were to come. We were expecting a good effort but that even exceeded our expectations. Once he did that and came out of it well the Preakness became a consideration.”
Stradivari was bred by John Gunther, who races the colt in partnership with Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Mrs. John Magnier.
Uncle Lino (Uncle Mo) brings sneaky California into the Preakness and will form a solid one-two punch for his sire. Working Friday morning at Santa Anita, the bay breezed five-eighths of a mile in 1:00.80. Second to Mor Spirit (Eskendereya) in the GIII Robert B. Lewis S. Feb. 6, Uncle Lino was fourth to Danzing Candy (Twirling Candy) in the GII San Felipe S. Mar. 12, third to Derby runner-up Exaggerator (Curlin) in the GI Santa Anita Derby Apr. 9 and exited a track-record setting victory in the Apr. 30 California Chrome S. at Los Alamitos.
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