HORSE RACING NEWS & RESULTS

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GAYEGO IS POSSIBLE FOR START IN PREAKNESS; DECISION TUESDAY;

HARLEM ROCKER WILL BYPASS PREAKNESS; SET FOR QUEEN'S PLATE

BIG BROWN The Kentucky Derby winner had another easy morning Monday, jogging one mile over the muddy track at Churchill Downs under exercise rider Michelle Nevin in preparation for Saturday's 133rd running of the Preakness Stakes. Trainer Richard Dutrow said the colt went well in his once-around trip around the course. Since Big Brown scored his decisive Derby victory on May 3, Dutrow has limited the colt to a light exercise routine of gallops when the track is fast and jogging when it is wet. Dutrow said Big Brown will likely gallop Tuesday morning. Big Brown is scheduled to ship from Churchill Downs to Pimlico on Wednesday.

BEHINDATTHEBAR/HARLEM ROCKER Trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday that unbeaten Harlem Rocker will skip the Preakness and is headed to the Canadian Triple Crown series. Pletcher's other Preakness candidate, Behindatthebar, remains on course for the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown. Harlem Rocker, an Ontario-bred son of Macho Uno is owned by Frank Stronach, chairman of Magna Entertainment, which owns the Maryland Jockey Club tracks, Pimlico and Laurel Park.

"I spoke to Mr. Stronach this morning and we've decided to take a conservative approach," Pletcher said. "We're going to point toward the Queen's Plate (G1) and we'll look for some bigger races down the road."

The Queen's Plate will be run June 22 at Woodbine in suburban Toronto.

Behindatthebar, winner of the Lexington Stakes (G2) at Keeneland on April 19, breezed five furlongs in 1:00.13 at Belmont Park Sunday. He walked the shedrow Monday morning.

"I thought he worked well," Pletcher said. "It's the first time we've worked him on a traditional dirt track and he seemed to handle it real well. He came out of it well, so he's ready to go."

Jockey David Flores, who has ridden the colt in four of his five career starts, including all three victories, will be aboard in the Preakness. Pletcher said the colt is likely to be shipped from Belmont Park to Baltimore Saturday morning. Behindatthebar began his career in California with trainer Craig Dollase and raced and trained on the state's synthetic racing surfaces. In his only start in the East, he came from well off the pace to win the Lexington by one length.

GAYEGO Trainer Paulo Lobo reported Monday morning that a start in the Preakness Stakes by Cubanacan Stables' Gayego is under consideration.

"I'm going to decide (Tuesday). We are going to have a meeting," Lobo said from Southern California. "I'm going to track him in the morning, then we'll make a decision."

Gayego, the Arkansas Derby (G2) winner, finished a troubled 17th in the Kentucky Derby, in which he had to be steadied in traffic after getting off to a sluggish start. Lobo said his colt never got into the race after his early troubles.

"That's the reason we are thinking about (the Preakness)," he said. "He's very happy right now and he came back very sound."

GIANT MOON - Before heading to Saratoga Springs for the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Awards Banquet, trainer Richard Schosberg sent the Giant's Causeway colt to Belmont Park's training track for a 1 1/4-mile gallop Monday morning. Giant Moon is a finalist for the champion 2-year-old New York-bred of 2007 award. The winners will be announced Monday night at the Gideon Putnam Hotel event. Schosberg has been dealing with the wet weather that reached the East Coast on Sunday as he completes the tune-up for the Preakness. Giant Moon will have a half-mile breeze this week before shipping to Pimlico.

"We took him out early before the rain started," Schosberg said. "Depending on when the rain stops and depending on what I think of the track when I first see it in the morning, he'll either work tomorrow (Tuesday) or more likely Wednesday."

Schosberg said the breeze will take place on the main track at Belmont.

"Today he galloped on the training track because the main track was sealed up and the training track was harrowed, so it was a much better surface," Schosberg said. "He's much more comfortable on the big track. If it's in good shape at 9 o'clock then we'll go tomorrow (Tuesday), but we don't want to do too much with him anyway. If he goes Wednesday then he goes Wednesday."

Albert Fried, a prominent New York owner for many years, bred and owns Giant Moon. The colt emerged as a serious runner in New York-bred company last year, rolling to a maiden win and victories in two state-bred stakes.

This year, Giant Moon beat open company in the Count Fleet at Aqueduct on Jan. 5. His unbeaten string ended at four races in the Gotham (G3) when he finished last of nine, beaten 47 lengths over a sloppy, fog-shrouded course at Aqueduct on March 8. Giant Moon put in a good comeback performance in his last start, a fourth-place finish in the Wood Memorial (G1), on April 5 at Aqueduct.

Schosberg is bringing a fresh colt to the 133rd Preakness.

"He does well with time between races," Schosberg said. "He's always run with at least month between races. It seems like that is his best. He needed the Wood, for sure, because he got nothing out of the Gotham. The six weeks between the Wood and now I think will be good for him. He's got to step it up. It's a whole different league of horses, but he represented himself well in the Wood. I think if he had gotten anything out of the Gotham, he would have been pretty tough in the Wood. He only got beat two lengths and basically he hadn't run in 13 weeks because I have to toss the Gotham out from a physical fitness standpoint."

HEY BYRN Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. reported that Hey Byrn was loaded on a Pimlico-bound van at 10 a.m. Monday morning, along with stablemate and Pimlico Special entrant Gottcha Gold. Hey Byrn, who won the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park in his most recent start, galloped 1 1/2 miles under exercise rider Peter Shelton at Calder Race Course before embarking on a road trip that is expected to be completed Tuesday morning. Hey Byrn is owned by Beatrice Oxenberg, a longtime client of Plesa.

"I've been training horses for her for 25 years. Any success I've had I have to give credit to her and her (late) husband (Bernie)," said the Calder Race Course Hall of Famer. "They're the ones who got me started."

Hey Byrn will be ridden by C.C. Lopez, who was aboard for his Holy Bull score.

ICABAD CRANE The Federico Tesio victor galloped 1 1/2 miles under Xavier Aizpuru Monday morning at Fair Hill Training Center.

"That's what he'll do right up to the race," said trainer Graham Motion, who'll van Icabad Crane to Pimlico on Saturday.

The New York-bred colt has won three of four starts, including his game triumph in the Tesio in his most recent outing. His lone loss came in a third-place finish in the Rushaway Stakes over Turfway Park's synthetic racing surface.

"I could say he didn't like it, but I can't say in good faith that was the case," Motion said. "If anything, he lay too close to the pace. We took him out of his game. We thought that if he had any chance of winning, he'd have to be close to the pace, because nobody was coming off the pace that day."

Icabad Crane came back from the Rushaway to come from off the pace in the Tesio to catch Mint Lane by a head over the Pimlico racing surface despite a less-than-perfect trip.

KENTUCKY BEAR The son of Mr. Greeley was sent out on a sloppy sealed Pimlico racetrack Monday morning and jogged around twice under exercise rider Cassie Garcia.

"He's doing fine," Garcia said of the third-place finisher in the Blue Grass (G1) at Keeneland in his most recent start. Kentucky Bear has been here since Wednesday and is the only Preakness entrant currently taking advantage of the local surroundings. "He seems to like it here."

Jockey Jamie Theriot, who worked the colt at Pimlico on Saturday, believes the lightly raced Kentucky Bear (three starts) could be a major player in the Preakness field.

"I think he's at the top of his game," he said. "In the Blue Grass I think it was just a lack of experience coming down the lane with the crowd and everything. He kind of hung on that left lead, but both times I've worked him (since the Blue Grass) he was switching leads on his own, and those extra gears are there once he switches leads. I think now he's mentally ready for this kind of race."

Canadian-based trainer Reade Baker is expected to fly in Wednesday for the nationally televised draw for post positions.

"He's not a flashy work horse," Baker said of the colt's 1:01 clocking for five furlongs at Pimlico, "but he seems in good form." This will be the first Preakness runner for both Theriot and Baker, who believes the Derby winner could be vulnerable returning off a short rest.

"Were we handicapping any other race, the handicapper would say there's a horse that carried 126 (pounds) and he's going to run back in two weeks off a peak effort," Baker said. "The wise guys would say he's going to bounce. How come he can't bounce now?"

MACHO AGAIN The Derby Trial winner jogged 1 1/2 miles with a pony over the muddy Churchill Downs track under exercise rider Kenny Bourke Monday morning. Trainer Dallas Stewart has scheduled a Wednesday flight from Louisville to BWI Airport for Macho Again, who'll be accompanied by Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown. The son of Macho Uno earned his trip to the Preakness with a late-driving half-length victory over heavily favored Kodiak Kowboy in the Trial, rebounding from a dismal seventh in the Lane's End Stakes (G2) over Turfway Park's synthetic racing surface.

"He'll never run on (a synthetic track) again," said Stewart, whose colt had also finished off the board at Keeneland last year in his only other race on a synthetic surface. "Some horses just don't run on it."

Macho Again's connections had set the Kentucky Derby as a goal at the beginning of the year, but their colt made a lackluster seasonal debut in the Lecomte Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds and came out of the race with a minor ailment in a hind leg.

"That's history," Stewart said.

Julien Leparoux will have the return mount aboard Macho Again.

RACECAR RHAPSODY Two days after his final breeze for the Preakness, the Tale of the Cat colt returned to the track at Churchill Downs Monday morning.

"He jogged a mile and galloped a mile," said trainer Kenny McPeek. "Nothing fancy, just an easy day. He went great."

Racecar Rhapsody has never been worse than fourth in six career starts. His lone victory came against maiden company on Oct. 25 at Keeneland. He was a solid third, beaten a half-length, in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) on Nov. 24 at Churchill Downs and was fourth, beaten 1 3/4 lengths, in the Delta Downs Jackpot (G3) on Dec. 7.

This year, he was fourth by four lengths in the Lane's End (G2) at Turfway Park on March 22 and fourth by two lengths in the Lexington (G2) at Keeneland in April 19. McPeek acknowledged that his stretch runner faces a difficult task against the Kentucky Derby winner in the 133rd Preakness.

"He's going to run his race," McPeek said. "We've just got to hope that Big Brown has got a hole in him someplace. We're coming with a horse that is ready. That's the biggest thing we can do."

RILEY TUCKER The son of Harlan's Holiday had a final workout over the training track at Belmont Park, going five furlongs in 1:04, according to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. The track's clockers had him going in 1:06.09. However, Mott said the clockers had obviously clicked on a workmate a couple lengths ahead of Riley Tucker at the start of his workout. The track was listed as good and the work was listed as 14th of 14 on the surface.

"I thought it was pretty good," said Mott of the effort under exercise rider Leona Willaford. "I talked to the owners (Zayat Stable) and they wanted to know if that was fast enough."

Riley Tucker worked with blinkers on, an equipment change Mott had implemented before his third-place finish in the Lexington Stakes (G2) at Keeneland on April 19. The Zayat Stable colorbearer is named for one of Mott's sons, Riley Tucker. He is expected to be on the grounds Wednesday or Thursday and is subsequently slated to school in the Pimlico paddock.

STEVIL Trainer Nick Zito's scheduled a half-mile blowout Monday morning for the fourth-place finisher in the Blue Grass Stakes (G1) was put off another day until track conditions at Churchill Downs improved.

"We couldn't work; the track was off," Zito said. "We'll work him Tuesday and then he'll be going on to Pimlico."

Stevil, a son of Maria's Mon, will be ridden by John Velazquez for the first time on Saturday in the Preakness. Zito tried blinkers for Stevil's last two starts and said they would be on again. Stevil is 1-for-6, having won only in his debut at Belmont last fall.

Zito will be starting a horse in the Preakness for the seventh consecutive year. He won the 1996 edition with Louis Quatorze.

TRES BORRACHOS The third-place finisher in the Arkansas Derby (G2) galloped 1-5/8 miles at Churchill Downs Monday morning in preparation for his final workout.

"Tyler Baze will come in to breeze him Tuesday and then we'll ship to Pimlico on Wednesday," said trainer Beau Greely, who saddled Borego for a seventh-place finish in the 2004 Preakness. "My thought coming into the Preakness is that he should like the tight turns and the sharp track. He's improved in every race."

Tres Borrachos was up on the pace in the Arkansas Derby before giving way late to Gayego and Z Fortune, finishing 4 3/4 lengths behind the winner. He is 0-for-3 this year, but Greely is hopeful that he should give a good accounting of his talents at Pimlico.

"So far, so good," he said. "He ran a nice race in the Arkansas Derby. I liked the way he hung in there. His back form is good."

YANKEE BRAVO Trainer Paddy Gallagher reported that Yankee Bravo galloped about 1 1/4 miles at Hollywood Park Monday morning in preparation for a start in the Preakness Stakes. The son of Yankee Gentleman, who won the first three races of his career, finished third in the Louisiana Derby (G2) before checking in fourth in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) while wearing blinkers for the first time.

"He'll wear blinkers (Saturday)," Gallagher said. "I put them on for his last race because he kind of ducked out in Louisiana."

Yankee Bravo is scheduled for a flight to BWI Airport on Wednesday.

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