BALTIMORE, Md.–Klaravich Stables’ Risk Taking and Crowded Trade repeated their routine on Friday. The Preakness runners of trainer Chad Brown took turns galloping 1 ¼ miles at Pimlico – the same thing they did on Thursday while preparing for starts in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes (G1) – and Jose Hernandez, Brown’s assistant who is caring for the horses here, said they are both ready to roll.
“They are doing good, and they are training good,” Hernandez said. “We will see what happens on Saturday. Everything they have done here, they have done well.”
Crowded Trade was the first to hit the track, going out at 6 a.m. with exercise rider Kelvin Perez on board. A half hour later, Perez was on Risk Taking’s back for his gallop. Brown was expected to be in town Friday afternoon.
Hernandez said he would like to see Crowded Trade, who was third in the April 3 Wood Memorial (G2) at Aqueduct, race closer to the pace. Risk Taking, he said, should be doing his best running late. He also ran in the Wood and was a disappointing seventh as the 2-1 favorite.
Both horses have trained well since the Wood and Brown was encouraged with their last works, five-furlong breezes last Sunday at Belmont Park. Working in company, both horses were timed in 1:01.76.
“A couple of their best workouts of the season,” said Brown, who won the 2017 Preakness with Cloud Computing. “This is a good opportunity to take a shot in a Classic race. Going into a race like this, you want to have a horse really thriving and doing well and I think we have two of them. The reward outweighs the risk to take a shot.”
Crowded Trade, who will be ridden by Javier Castellano, is 10-1 in the Preakness morning line. Risk Taking, who will team with jockey Jose Ortiz, is 15-1.
Maryland Jockey Club Press Release
Photo: Chad Brown receiving his Longines watch after winning the 2017 Preakness with Cloud Computing. (By Maryland GovPics – 142nd Preakness Stakes Pimlico Race Course, CC BY-SA 2.0 wikipedia commons)
