Stradivari, Uncle Lino , and Collected—a trio of new faces to the Triple Crown campaign expected to start in the Preakness Stakes (gr. I)—had their final serious tune-ups May 13.
Speedway Stable's Lexington Stakes (gr. III) winner Collected worked seven furlongs in 1:24 4/5 over a track labeled "good" at Churchill Downs. He is expected to fly to Baltimore May 17.
MITCHELL: Collected Works Way Into Preakness Field
Todd Pletcher-trained Stradivari, scheduled to make his stakes debut in the Preakness, breezed five furlongs in :59 3/5 over a fast track at Belmont Park.
"He worked very well. 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," Pletcher said.
The 3-year-old son of Medaglia d'Oro broke his maiden at Gulfstream Park in his second career start Dec. 5 before returning off a four-month layoff to handily vanquish first-level allowance runners by 14 1/2 lengths April 17 at Keeneland.
"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," Pletcher said. "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."
Uncle Lino, who set a track record at Los Alamitos while winning the 1 1/16-mile California Chrome Stakes in 1:40.82 April 30, breezed five furlongs at Santa Anita Park in 1:00 4/5 May 13.
BALAN: Uncle Lino Game in California Chrome Stakes
Trained by Gary Sherlock, the son of Uncle Mo who previously finished third behind Exaggerator in the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I), is scheduled to ship from Southern California to Pimlico Race Course May 17.
