Uncle heavyWho will be followed next weekend by Irad Ortiz Jr., got a very positive review from trainer Butch Reed on Saturday morning after the last breeze had turned. Preakness 2024 at Pimlico.
Under his regular training rider Jose Castro, Uncle Heavy covered four furlongs in 47.34 seconds at Parx Racing. It was the third-fastest time on the track at 34 Breeze.
McPeek confirms Mystik Dan for Preakness 2024.
“He’s just been doing great,” Reid said. “The track was a little faster here today than it has been all week because of the humidity. That said, he did it very well under control. We just gave him a little bit of a run in the last eighth of a mile. He finished there in 47 and changed and came back and couldn’t blow a match and barely got a few sips of water. It was just what we were looking for and it came out nice and strong. “
Pennsylvania-bred Uncle Heavy is a social inclusion colt making his first start since April 6 when he finished fifth after a troubled trip in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. Since then it has worked three times.
Ortiz, a five-time Eclipse Award winner, rides Uncle Heavy in the Preakness, replacing Mychel Sánchez. This will be his sixth Preakness at Mt. Ortiz finished second in 2021 with Midnight Bourbon and last year with Blazing Sevens.
“You couldn’t ask for better than Irad,” Reid said. “Irad and I have had some success over the years, so we have a good relationship. I feel very good going into the race.”
Uncle Heavy, owned by Michael Milam and LC Racing, is scheduled to be sent to Pimlico on Tuesday.
Catching freedom is 50-50
Kentucky Derby fourth-place finisher Freedom Catch has been upgraded to “50-50” to run in the Preakness, according to trainer Brad Cox.
The winner of the Louisiana Derby (G2), which is over the same 1 3/16 miles as the Preakness, had another strong gallop Saturday morning at Churchill Downs under trainer Edwin Vargas.
Cox said Catching Freedom, owned by Albaugh Family Stables, should continue to “train well” to reach the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.
“If he’s going to go, I think he’s going to go after practice on Monday,” Cox said of the shipping plans.
Limit the breeze at Belterra Park
Mugatu went 5 furlongs at Belterra Park on Saturday morning to prepare for his start in the Preakness.
The 3-year-old son of Blofeld, owned by Average Joe Racing Stables and Dan Wells, was clocked 59.6 seconds before galloping six furlongs in 1:13.0, trainer Jeff Engler said.
“He’s ready to go,” Engler said, “I’m waiting from Brook Ledge (to transport the horse). I think they said Tuesday or Wednesday. If it is Wednesday, it will obviously be an early (day).”
Engler said Joe Bravo, who has racked up 5,659 winners while amassing $201,326,481 in purse earnings, has boarded Mugatu. Bravo, who has made five Preakness starts, was 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Mugatu in a maiden special weight score on the tape at Gulfstream Park in November. This was the only time he rode an angler’s apprentice.
Torres will be at Seize the Grey
Jockey Jaime Torres did not grow up in a horse racing family in Puerto Rico. He fell in love with the sport while watching on TV as Authentic postponed the COVID-delayed 2020 Kentucky Derby.
Fast forward 3 1/2 years and Torres will make his Triple Crown debut next Saturday in the Preakness aboard Seize the Gray, trained by D. Wayne Lucas.
The MyRacehorse-owned colt gave Torres, 25, his first graded stakes win when he finished first in the May 4 Pat Day Mile (G2) on the Kentucky Derby undercard.
“I have no words for it,” Torres said. “I am very grateful to MyRacehorse and Wayne Lucas for the opportunity.”
Seize the Gray pushed the pace in the Pat Day Mile, splitting the horses in midstretch and pulling away late from the favorite Nash for a 1 1/4-length victory over Nash in front of a Derby Day crowd.
“He ran a really good race on that horse,” Lucas said. “I don’t see any reason to change. I give young riders a chance if they have the opportunity. Anyone who seems to have a future, I don’t mind coming and helping. (But) you cannot lead with your heart. You have to make a business decision. I feel really comfortable with him on that gray horse. He’s a real level brat. I don’t think he’ll get into the hype at all.”
Torres said horse racing came onto his radar when his mother was flipping through television channels and a race from Puerto Rico’s Hipódromo Camarero was on. According to him, he went to the track the next day. But watching the derby next year proved his future.
“That’s when MyRacehorse won the Derby with Authentic,” he said. “When I first rode Seize the Gray and saw their silk in my stash, I thought, wow, I’m going to ride for MyRacehorse and D. Wayne Lukas.”
Torres admits he knew nothing about racehorses when he showed up at Puerto Rico’s famous jockey school on the track, beginning a year-long program for training riders. He said he stayed for six months before flying to Florida to train in the mornings for trainer Safi Joseph Jr., but his goal was to go racing.
“I knew going to Puerto Rico it was going to be pretty tough for me because the weight is less, like 109 (pounds),” Torres said. “So I just flew to the US and tried to start here. To be in jockey school you have to be 105 for two years. It was kind of difficult for me. I mean I’m tall. “
His first win came on September 17, 2022 at Gulfstream Park for Takestwotowiggle, who paid $28.20 to win a $6,250 claiming race. Torres subsequently led New York in 2023 with 37 wins. Among those wins was Saratoga’s first race on Seize the Gray at 13-1 odds. That fall, Torres had a good fourth in the Iroquois (G3) at Churchill Downs and third in a Keeneland allowance race before reteaming with Seize the Gray for the Pat Day Mile, which they won 9-1.
Torres spent the winter at Fair Grounds before joining the Kentucky circuit. As of Friday, he has 145 career wins and $7,296,445 in earnings after just 20 months of riding.
When asked about going from knowing nothing about racing to riding in the Triple Crown a few years later, Torres said, “It’s crazy. If someone had told me before I started, I would have been as good as new. I’m very happy, very blessed.”
Torres has never raced at Pimlico, but expects to have several climbs before the Preakness. He said he didn’t mind taking Gray off from the one-turn mile of the Pat Day to the two-turn Preakness, 1 3/16 miles.
“I think he’ll be fine. I mean, he’s by Arrogate,” he said, pointing to the late horse, who won the 1 1/4-mile Travers (G1) and the Breeders’ Cup Classic as a 3-year-old in 2016 and started his Age 4. Season with wins at Gulfstream Park’s Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) and Dubai World Cup (G1).
Lucas named new Hall of Famer Joel Rosario to replace Keith Asmussen and ride Just Steel for the first time in the Preakness. After finishing second in the Arkansas Derby (G1), Just Steel was part of a decisive pace in the Kentucky Derby and was tiring in 17th.
Rosario won the Derby with Orb in 2013 and the Belmont Stakes with Tonalist in 2014 and Sir Winston in 2019. He never won the Preakness, in which he finished by four seconds.
“He’s late,” Lucas said. “I think it’s good. We don’t want to change the horse’s style. I don’t blame Keith for the last time because he got into trouble (after being bumped hard early in the race) when the horse took a bit and pulled away. So he was at or near the front. We We’ll try to fix it next time.”
Lucas said Flavien Pratt will ride Oaklawn’s Honeybee (G3) winner Lemon Muffin, eighth in the Kentucky Oaks (G1), in Friday’s Black-Eyed Susan (G2) at Pimlico.
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