Preakness contenders take to the track at Old Hilltop

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert sent LOOKIN AT LUCKY (Smart Strike) out for

an easy 1 3/8-mile jog under exercise rider Dana Barnes at 8:30 a.m. (EDT)

Thursday. It was the first visit to the track at Pimlico for the beaten Kentucky

Derby (G1) favorite, who is the 3-1 second choice on the Preakness S. (G1)

morning line.

"He went nice. He just sort of got a feel for it," Baffert said. "On a muddy

track you can't really get a good grip of it, but he looked good. That's not the

surface we're going to be running on. He got a good look at the track around

there. When there isn't any horses training on it, it's sort of weird for him,

but he took in all the sights pretty good. He went easy around there. We don't

do much once we get here with him. He's doing well."

Baffert saddled two horses in the Kentucky Derby. Lookin at Lucky drew the

rail, a tough assignment in a 20-horse field. He was twice knocked into the rail

early on, effectively ending his chances of winning. He rallied to finish sixth.

The speedy Conveyance (Indian Charlie) set the pace for three-quarters of a mile

before his energy was depleted and he wound up 15th on the wire.

After taking a morning jog at Pimlico, FIRST DUDE (Stephen Got Even) nibbled

on a potted plant while being given a bath outside the Preakness Stakes Barn.

"He liked that Black-Eyed Susan...I don't know," said trainer Dale Romans, as

though wondering if his colt was providing an omen of things to come. "As long

as he's happy, I'm happy."

The Preakness will provide a showcase in which First Dude will finally have

the chance to display his talent, said Romans, whose two Preakness entrants

arrived at Pimlico Wednesday afternoon following a flight from Louisville.

"We wanted to run him in the Derby, but he was excluded because of earnings.

I've always thought he was a special horse and that the extra distance of the

classic races would help him,' he said. "He just hasn't had the opportunity to

show what he can do.

"He's just coming into his own, and we're expecting a big breakthrough race

from him sooner or later. If he's going to have it, I'd like it to be in a

classic."

Paddy O'Prado is one of eight horses purchased by Donegal Racing's managing

partner Jerry Crawford two years ago with the expressed goal to compete in the

Triple Crown series.

"I had been in horse racing a long time. I started studying equine genetics

pretty carefully with an eye toward figuring out a way to buy horses that could

get a classic distance for the classic series. I thought I was a ways along in

my ability to pick horses that had that potential," said Crawford, an Iowa

attorney and political strategist. "In 2008, I went to the yearling sales

without any partners and bought eight colts for under $500,000 total. The year

before, I would have paid that much for one or two of them, but the economy

tanked and created a buying opportunity."

The Derby Dreams 1 partnership, including eight Iowans and one Bostonian, was

formed and has yielded great results.

"We've had a helluva good time," Crawford said. "Four of the eight have run

in graded stakes. One of my friends said, 'Dude, you've spoiled them. You can't

replicate this.'"

Nevertheless, a Derby Dreams 2 partnership has been formed after Crawford

purchased eight more horses, including a half-sister to Paddy O'Prado.

"He's very thorough. I've been told I'm a rare bird in this business because

I let the trainer do his job," said the 80-year-old retired businessman, for

whom Machowsky has trained for nearly 20 years. "Mike is free to do what he does

best."

As far as Blahut is concerned, why tinker with an owner/trainer relationship

that has produced great results?

"In my lifetime, I've dedicated a lot of time to owning horses. In your

lifetime you're only supposed to get one good horse," he said. "He's picked

three for me, so I'm way above average; that's why I'm happy."

Blahut owns a share in Kelly Leak (Runaway Groom), who captured the Sunland

Derby last year, finishing clear of fourth-place finisher Mine That Bird

(Birdstone), who would go on to capture the Kentucky Derby and finish second in

the Preakness. He also owned a 25-percent share of Southern Image, who captured

the 2004 Pimlico Special (G1), Santa Anita H. (G1) and Sunshine Millions.

Blahut, whose colors are always worn by the jockeys aboard horses he owns

with Machowsky, was looking forward to watching Caracortado run in the Kentucky

Derby until a troubled fourth-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) failed

to give him enough graded-stakes earnings to qualify for the 20-horse field.

As is his norm, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas had his Preakness

runners, DUBLIN (Afleet Alex) and NORTHERN GIANT (Giant's Causeway), out of the

barn and on the track to gallop at Pimlico shortly after it opened at 5:30 a.m.

(EDT) Thursday morning. Lukas said the absence of speed horses will affect how

the Preakness is run.

"I looks like it's more moderate speed and closers," he said. "It may be a

little bit bunchy on the turn."

Lukas would prefer that jockey Garrett Gomez, who is replacing Terry

Thompson, give Dublin a more patient ride. Dublin has run well in most of his

races, usually hitting the board, but hasn't won since taking the Hopeful S.

(G1) at Saratoga last summer.

"In a perfect world, if we could change, we wouldn't have moved quite so

early in the last three races," Lukas said. "In the Rebel (G2), the Arkansas

Derby (G1) and the Kentucky Derby, we were moving this horse too quick. He's got

a big drive and a serious drive, but I don't think he can start it from the

half-mile."

"I want to get into the race; I don't want to drop way out of it," he said.

"My horse has got pretty good tactical speed, if you use it. I just don't want

to make that move as early as we've been making it. He's not Secretariat. Once

in awhile you'll get a horse that can make that half-mile run, but not very many

of them. I'd like to be in contention in the race, be in position to make the

run, but I hope that we don't have to start at the half-mile pole."

Dublin finished seventh in the Derby under some difficult conditions on the

wet track.

"He was rolling pretty damn good in the Derby on the outside and he couldn't

see," Lukas said. "When we pulled the blinkers off, two clods of mud as big as

baseballs fell to the ground. He had no vision."

Trainer Nick Zito sent Wood Memorial (G1) runner-up JACKSON BEND (Hear No

Evil) out to the track at Pimlico for the first time for a gallop the wrong way

around the sealed surface and reported all systems are in order for the

Preakness.

This will be the fifth start of the year for Jackson Bend, and he is still

seeking his first victory. As a two-year-old he was 5-for-6 with a second,

including a sweep of the Florida Stallion Stakes series at Calder for previous

trainer Stanley Gold.

Robert LaPenta, who purchased a majority share in Jackson Bend from breeder

Fred J. Brei, realized he had a Triple Crown-caliber colt and put him in Zito's

barn after his October 17 victory in the $400,000 In Reality division. After

runner-up finishes in the Holy Bull S. (G3), Fountain of Youth and Wood

Memorial, Jackson Bend was a disappointing 12th in the Kentucky Derby.

"The Derby is sometimes a kind of funny race. You never know who runs 10th,

12th, 16th," Zito said. "You never know who got the worst of it. Any time you

run in a 20-horse race the stress factor is not recorded. Mentally, I don't know

(what the race took out of him); physically, not much."

The official chart recorded that Jackson Bend was in eighth position near the

mile mark of the Derby before being steadied and forced to alter course on the

sloppy, sealed surface at Churchill Downs. It turned out to be the first time

the son of Hear No Evil was ever worse than second.

The morning after his arrival from Churchill Downs, owner Ken Ramsey led

PLEASANT PRINCE (Indy King) onto the track for his first glimpse of Old Hilltop.

"All we did was jog him this morning," said Ramsey, who was deputizing in the

absence of trainer Wesley Ward. "The track was sealed. I talked to Wesley and at

first he was going to gallop him. Then he decided we'll just jog him. We don't

want to come up with a bruise or something on the eve of the deal. He looks

good, acts good, cleaned up his feed tub and posed for pictures."

Pleasant Prince is winless this year in six tries, the most starts of any of

the 12 Preakness runners, but Ramsey and Ward, who arrives Friday, believe his

best race may be yet to come if the right pace scenario develops Saturday.

"There's no really true speed horse in the race," said Ramsey as he sat down

for the Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico. "I don't know who's going to take the lead.

We're going to need to be a little closer than usual. We don't need to be way

back with the tight turns here. I'd see us probably lying fifth or sixth -- in

the middle of the pack."

Ramsey almost had two runners in the Kentucky Derby field, but when Pleasant

Prince came up as the first also-eligible on the graded-stakes earnings list, he

opted to keep Dean's Kitten (Kitten's Joy) in the field. The Mike Maker-trained

colt finished 14th in Louisville, Kentucky.

Steel Your Face Stables' lightly raced New York-bred YAWANNA TWIST

(Yonaguska) was out on the Pimlico surface for the first time Thursday morning

as assistant trainer Jose Collazo supervised barn activities until trainer

Richard Dutrow's arrival on Friday.

"He just galloped one time around the track," Collazo said. "He shipped in

good and everything went well. We just gave him a little exercise."

The Preakness will be a significant step for the bay colt, but he has

acquitted himself well in Grade 3 company with back-to-back runner-up finishes

despite only three starts as a sophomore.

"We thought it was worth taking a shot," managing partner Jim Riccio said.

"He's fresh and he moved forward when we tried him at two turns in the Gotham

(G3)."

Yawanna Twist was beaten less than two lengths in the Gotham by Awesome Act

(Awesome Again), then ran a good second to front-running American Lion (Tizow)

in the Illinois Derby (G3) at Hawthorne. He has been off since that April 3

race. Edgar Prado has the mount.

Trainer Derek Ryan said from his barn at Monmouth Park Thursday that he will

now bring SCHOOLYARD DREAMS (Stephen Got Even) to Pimlico on Friday, a day ahead

of schedule.

"Change of plans," Ryan said after jogging the colt "a couple miles" at

Monmouth. "The track was terrible. We're gonna ship early in the morning and

we're coming in with them both (including Ponzi Scheme [Sunday Break (Jpn)] for

the $70,000 James W. Murphy S.)."

Ryan had originally planned to make the 2 1/2-hour trip on Saturday, much as

he did last year when Musket Man (Yonaguska) ran third in the Preakness off the

van. He said he plans to exit the New Jersey track between 6:30-7 a.m. (EDT).

Schoolyard Dreams has been running in two-turn races since his debut last

October, his best outing coming when he lost a three-horse photo in the Tampa

Bay Derby (G3) -- a race in which he finished ahead of Kentucky Derby (G1)

winner Super Saver (Maria's Mon). That race was not lost in the opinion of

Pimlico oddsmaker Frank Carulli, who made him 15-1 on the Preakness morning

line.

"He's a good horse," Ryan said. "I think he fits here. It looks like all the

speed's are on my outside (post position 2), so I think I'll be sitting in the

second tier hopefully about five or six (lengths) off the early leaders. It

looks like Super Saver might be the speed of the race. I think Lookin at Lucky

will probably be up there and Nick Zito's horse (Jackson Bend). There's no

mega-pace, at least it looks that way."