Preakness Hopefuls Tune Up at Churchill

[Wandering Eyes]

A trio of candidates for the GI Preakness S. at Pimlico Oct. 3 turned in their final serious moves Saturday morning at Churchill Downs.

Bruce Lunsford’s Art Collector (Bernardini), who was forced to miss the Sept. 5 GI Kentucky Derby owing to a minor foot injury, tuned up for the final leg of this year’s reconstituted Triple Crown by drilling a half-mile in :48 flat with big-race rider Brian Hernandez, Jr. in the saddle. The GII Toyota Blue Grass S. and Runhappy Ellis Park Derby hero was caught in fractions of :12.40, :24.40 and :35.80 before galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.60. The half-mile clocking ranked as the seventh-fastest of 78 works at the distance.

With jockey Florent Geroux at the controls, Albaugh Family Stables and Spendthrift Farm’s Thousand Words (Pioneerof the Nile) went five furlongs in 1:00.60 in splits of :11.80, :24.40 and :48.20. He, too, was out three-quarters of a mile in 1:13.60. The $1-million Keeneland September yearling purchase was scratched from the Derby after flipping in the paddock.

“I thought he worked a lot better today with blinkers,” Geroux told the Churchill notes team. “Last week was his first work over the track so he didn’t wear them but went very easy. It was a bit more of a serious work today.”

Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) remains a Preakness possibility and breezed five panels in 1:00.80 beneath Tyler Gaffalione. The GI Alabama S. winner and recent runner-up in the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks clicked off fractions of :12, :23.60 and :35.80 before pulling up six furlongs in 1:15.20.

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