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Cozzetti splashes a bullet; Optimizer tours a half-mile
With exercise rider Joel Cano up, Optimizer was the first horse to work over a track labeled as sloppy when the track opened at 6 o'clock (EDT). Working on his own, Optimizer recorded fractions of :13 1/5, :25 3/5 and :37 3/5. "Every 10 years, they get it right. That was perfect," trainer D. Wayne Lukas said of the move that was the 14th fastest of 25 at the distance. Optimizer is scheduled to leave Churchill Downs early Tuesday morning for a van ride to Baltimore where he will complete his training for Lukas, who is shooting for a sixth Preakness victory. In other Preakness news: With rain starting to fall at Pimlico Monday morning, trainer Doug O'Neill called an audible and sent Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another out for his daily exercise at 6:45 instead of 8:30. "We sent one horse out at 6:30 and the track was great," O'Neill said. "It just started sprinkling and everyone's iPhone was saying 'rain's coming.' We didn't want to get caught up in a sloppy track or a wet track, so we took him out. Turned out that we could have waited, but we didn't know." Under his regular exercise rider, Jonny Garcia, the colt had his standard piece of exercise, a half-mile jog followed by a strong gallop for six to eight furlongs.
"It was fun. What a first-class setting," O'Neill said. "That will definitely be one of the top things that we have experienced here in Baltimore." Team Valor International and Mark Ford's Went the Day Well galloped 1 1/2 miles at Fair Hill Training Center Monday morning. Trainer Graham Motion's plan to ship to Pimlico after training hours Tuesday morning could be changed by rainy weather. "Only if it looks like the track is going to be a mess on Wednesday will I not ship him (Tuesday)," Motion said. "As long as it looks like it will clear up tomorrow, I'm not too worried." Motion has a long history of success at Pimlico. The 47-year-old trainer scored his first graded stakes win there with Gala Spinaway in the 1993 Polynesian Handicap, a Grade 3.
Tiger Walk, who finished fourth in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial last time out, breezed four furlongs in :47 3/5 at Pimlico Sunday morning before taking the 20-minute ride back to Sagamore. "He likes the track. He was training here for about a month, and then we only left the babies here. We took all the other horses to the farm," Correas said. "He's very familiar and comfortable here. Now we'll see how he handles the crowd -- that's the only question." The New York-bred Zetterholm walked the shedrow in the Preakness Stakes Barn on Monday, the morning after he breezed five furlongs on 1:01 2/5. "Everything is good," assistant trainer Blake Dutrow said. "He seems happy to be here. It's an off day for him, so he's just taking it easy." Dutrow, 20, works for his uncle, Richard Dutrow Jr., and is the grandson of the late Maryland training legend, Richard Dutrow Sr. His father, Chip, and his uncle, Tony, are trainers, too. Zetterholm brings a three-race winning streak at Aqueduct into the Preakness. The New York-bred opened 2012 with a second-place finish on January 7 and broke his maiden on February 4. He rallied from off the pace to beat an allowance field by a half-length on March 4 and took the restricted Patsyprospect Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths on April 6. Blake Dutrow said the bay colt by Silver Train out of the Lord at War mare Holy Wish is easy to deal with. "He's a pretty smart horse. He likes to stop and look at his surroundings," he said. "He's just getting used to the place." Zetterholm will be taking a sizeable step up in competition from the Patsyprospect to the Preakness. "Every race he has improved from his last," Dutrow said. "If he likes the track and the race sets up nice for him, he's got as good a shot as anybody. I think the race does set up nice." Heinz Steinmann's Creative Cause walked the shedrow at Hollywood Park as he prepares for his second cross-country trip to run in the Preakness. After finishing fifth in the Kentucky Derby, Creative Cause was shipped back to California by trainer Mike Harrington, who has determined that his colt is fit and ready to ship to Pimlico on Wednesday. "Everything's fine," said the 71-year-old Harrington, who is scheduled to arrive by plane in Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon. The colt will be on an earlier flight that will stop in Louisville to pick up the Churchill Downs contingent heading to the Preakness. "I'd like to be there for the draw, but I don't know if I'll make it there in time or not," Harrington said. The post-position draw is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday on HRTV. Creative Cause, who missed by a nose to I'll Have Another in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, finished three lengths behind him in the Kentucky Derby.
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