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Departing takes initial tour of Pimlico
"He did not have a lot of trouble in the Louisiana Derby," Stall said. "It is like going from the college game to the pros, except for RG III or Andrew Luck. Everything is a little faster and the holes were moving a little faster than he was. "In the Illinois Derby, he took Brian where he needed to go. I think the extra ground (a sixteenth of a mile farther than the 1 1/8-mile Illinois Derby) will help him. There is plenty of gas in the tank." Stall said that Departing would go to the track at 6:30 a.m. (EDT) on Friday. "We only have the one horse to train and the one that runs (Tread in the Miss Preakness on Friday) is going to walk," Stall said.
Todd Quast, the general manager and trainer at GoldMark Farm, which co-owns the colt with Whisper Hill Farm, works closely with Amoss and is at Pimlico with Amoss' staff. "Tom ships horses all around," Quast said. "This is obviously a bigger race than most that you ship off to, but his crew is very comfortable with that." Quast said there never was a question about how Amoss would handle the schedule this week. "Family is first," he said. "His daughter is graduating from LSU. He graduated from LSU. His wife graduated from LSU. I think he would have been disowned if he wouldn't have gone. "And this horse is so relaxed, so easy going, that it was really a non-issue. I told him, 'Go. We're fine.' " Quast said that Mylute, runner-up to Revolutionary in the Louisiana Derby, was calm throughout the trip from Kentucky and has settled in at Pimlico, the seventh track he will race over in his 11-month career. "He handled it; didn't turn a hair," Quast said. "There were horses that came off a little hotter, a little sweatier. If he did, it would be a big thing because he is so laid back. He is the consummate professional horse. His demeanor off the track is what you would want. He eats, sleeps and nothing bothers him. It's a perfect type of situation." Mylute went to the track with exercise rider Maurice Sanchez at 6 a.m. Thursday to jog a mile and gallop 1 1/4 miles. "He looked around and said, 'All right, I'm home.'" Quast said. "He handled it very, very well. He's very seasoned and very relaxed wherever he goes. He handled it super, had good energy, came off the track good and cooled out good." Rated second in the morning line at 5-1, Mylute, who drew the No. 5 post position, will be ridden by Rosie Napravnik. Mike Pegram's Sunland Derby winner Govenor Charlie, who also shipped from Kentucky Wednesday, had a routine first morning at Pimlico and went to the track shortly after 6 a.m. Thursday for some exercise. "He handled the track fine. He galloped a mile to let him get over the track," said Jimmy Barnes, trainer Bob Baffert's longtime assistant. "He went over it fine and seemed to like it." Baffert, who is scheduled to travel from California to Baltimore on Thursday, waited until he was sure the colt was fully recovered from a minor hoof injury before committing to the Preakness. Govenor Charlie was examined at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital near Lexington, Kentucky, in mid-April after the injury was discovered. He was able to return to training, but Baffert decided that he was not ready for the Kentucky Derby on May 4. "It was minor, but I wanted to make sure that there was nothing else involved," Baffert said. "That's why I sent him to the clinic and they did the scan on him. I wanted to make sure that we weren't missing something." Govenor Charlie has had three timed works since the visit to Rood and Riddle, including a snappy six-furlong breeze in 1:10 4/5 Monday morning at Churchill Downs. "We're running because after his last work he's back to 100 percent," Baffert said. "I just lost that little time with him, five days of training and an important work. I had to get him right and now he's 100 percent. The way he worked the other day, it looked like he's doing well. He's back to his old self." By Tuesday morning, Baffert was willing to say that the colt would go on to the Preakness. "The main thing is that he came out of the work really well," Baffert said. "It looks like he's sitting on a big race. He had to be 100 percent and he had to be training really well. He handled the work really well and didn't get tired. We'll find out if he's good enough." Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
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