WinStar Farms' Super Saver jogged a mile at Churchill Downs on the morning of May 5 in his first return to the track since winning the May 1 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I).
"He looked very good," Mike McCarthy, assistant to trainer Todd Pletcher said of the Maria's Mon colt’s appearance on the track. Also on the track to jog about a mile was Pletcher-trained Mission Impazible, the Derby ninth-place finisher. McCarthy said he also went well over the fast track.
Pletcher’s other Preakness probable, Aikenite , galloped a mile and three-eighths under exercise rider Kevin Willey.
Super Saver and Mission Impazible were among about a half-dozen Derby runners who were on the track at Churchill May 5.
Paddy O'Prado , the Derby third-place finisher for Dale Romans, also jogged as he went to the track for the second day in a row. "He’s doing really good," Romans said. "He really came out of it (Derby) great. He wanted to get out (May 4-5) and do something."
Super Saver and Paddy O’Prado are among the Derby horses being pointed toward the May 15 Preakness Stakes (gr. I) at Pimlico. Romans said First Dude , a son of Stephen Got Even who broke his maiden at Gulfstream Park in January, and finished third in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I), is also destined for the Preakness. Romans said a place has been reserved on the May 12 plane from Louisville, Ky. to Baltimore, Md., for First Dude and that he is 90% sure he will enter the colt.
Romans said First Dude, whose five-furlong work in 1:00 4/5 over a muddy track at Churchill Downs April 26 was the fastest of the day, would have another breeze this weekend. First Dude did not make the Derby because he had insufficient earnings in graded stakes that are used to determine the 20-horse Derby field.
Ice Box , the Derby runner-up, and stablemate Jackson Bend (12th in Derby) also went to the track for light exercise. Stacy Prior, assistant to trainer Nick Zito, said no decision had been made on the horses’ status for the Preakness.
Trainer Bob Baffert said he had not decided on the Preakness status of Lookin At Lucky , who ran sixth as the 6-1 Derby favorite, and Conveyance, who ran 15th in the Derby. Both horses are scheduled to go to the track May 6 for the first time since the Derby.
Baffert said he would decide by May 9 whether either or both would run in the Preakness.
