Un Ojo has a jog, Shake Em Loose has to make a decision
BALTIMORE, Md.—Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Secret Oath galloped at Churchill Downs under exercise rider Danielle Rosier shortly after the track opened at 5:30 a.m. Friday.
“Just going along with the routine and keeping her happy,” said Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, seeking a seventh Preakness victory.
Lukas said Secret Oath, who was third against males in the Arkansas Derby (G1) before her Kentucky Oaks score, will have a couple of open gallops but not a timed workout before the Preakness. He plans to leave Louisville early Monday morning to van Secret Oath and Ethereal Road to Pimlico.
Lukas praised how well Ethereal Road has done in recent days after being scratched from the Kentucky Derby but said he’s sticking with plans to run the colt in the Sir Barton. He hopes to use that spot as a launching pad to New York’s Belmont Stakes (G1).
“Boy, he’s having a great week,” said Lukas on the decision to go in the restricted Sir Barton rather than the Preakness, “I wonder if I really screwed up there. But he’s going in the Sir Barton. I’m going to try to make the Belmont Stakes with him.”
Cypress Creek Equine LLC’s Un Ojo, the one-eyed winner of Oaklawn Park’s $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2), jogged twice around the Churchill Downs oval under Clay Courville, the son and assistant to trainer Ricky Courville. Un Ojo, withdrawn from Derby consideration because of a minor foot bruise five days before the race, is scheduled to work Saturday with jockey Colby Hernandez. Ramon Vazquez, who recently moved his tack to California, has the mount in the Preakness.
Once again Friday morning, Simplification’s morning routine was pretty much a variation on his name: simple.
Jesus ‘Chino’ Prada, assistant to trainer Antonio Sano, said the colt went out on the track with the pony at 6 a.m. and galloped about 1 ½ miles as the son of Not This Time prepares for the 147th Preakness (G1).
“Everything is excellent with him,” Prada said.
Simplification arrived at the Pimlico Stakes Barn at 5 a.m. Tuesday following is four-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. He has been the only horse on site this week, but other runners will be arriving in the coming days to get ready for the Preakness and the 15 other stakes being run by the Maryland Jockey Club at historic Pimlico Race Course May 20 and 21.
Owner/Trainer Rudy Sanchez-Salomon’s Shake Em Loose is scheduled to breeze on turf at Laurel Park before a decision is made whether he will run in the Preakness or the James W. Murphy on turf.
Maryland Jockey Club Press Release
Photo: Secret Oath in her Oaks triumph. (Coady Photography)
