Firing Line to Return to Track Wednesday

American Pharoah & Dortmund Set for Return Thursday

Lochte, Bluegrass Singer Pointed to Preakness Undercard Turf Stakes

Summer Squall’s Preakness Victory Still Sweet for Howard, Day

BALTIMORE, MD., 05/05/15 - Arnold Zetcher’s Kentucky Derby (G1) runner-up Firing Line is scheduled to return to the track at Churchill Downs for a jog Wednesday, according to Carlos Santamaria, assistant to trainer Simon Callaghan.

The two horses he split in the Run for the Roses, Zayat Stables’ American Pharoah and Kaleem Shah’s Dortmund, are scheduled for another walk day Wednesday with a return to the track Thursday.

“Everything is good here,” Santamaria said of Firing Line, who walked the shedrow for 30 minutes on a warm Kentucky morning. “He is feeling good and he is a happy horse.”

Jim Barnes, assistant to trainer Bob Baffert, offered a similar report for American Pharoah and Dortmund.

Also scheduled to return to the track Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs is Mr. Z, who finished 13th in the Derby.

Mr. Z is owned by Zayat Stables and trained by six-time Preakness winner D. Wayne Lukas.

“We have talked, but so far no decision has been made,” said Lukas, whose most recent Preakness victory came with Oxbow in 2013.

Mr. Z was ridden in the Derby by Ramon Vazquez, who also finished third on the colt in the Arkansas Derby (G1), also behind American Pharoah.

“We haven’t gotten that far,” Lukas said about whether Vazquez would retain the mount.

LOCHTE, BLUEGRASS SINGER POINTED TO PREAKNESS UNDERCARD TURF STAKES

Grade 1 winner Lochte and multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old Bluegrass Singer are poised to make their next starts May 16 at Pimlico Race Course on the undercard of the $1.5 million Preakness (G1).

Trainer Marcus Vitali said Tuesday morning he is pointing the 5-year-old Lochte to the $300,000 Longines Dixie Stakes (G2) for 3-year-olds and up and Bluegrass Singer to the $100,000 James W. Murphy Stakes for sophomores, both run on the Pimlico turf.

Pimlico will be the ninth different track in 25 lifetime starts for Lochte, who won two of five starts in the first three months of 2015 before getting a short break. Most recently he was seventh in the Appleton (G3) March 28 at Gulfstream Park.

“He’s doing excellent. He just worked a good half-mile and he’s coming into the race good,” Vitali said. “I thought I’d give them all a little breather. They had a hard campaign. We’re getting ready for the summer and we actually backed off everything for a while.”

Lochte won the Gulfstream Park Handicap (G1) and was second in the Frank Kilroe Mile (G1) at Santa Anita in 2014. After returning to South Florida, he captured The Vid Stakes in September and the Tampa Bay Stakes (G3) in January.

“I’m expecting a great race out of him. I think it’s suited for him,” Vitali said. “We actually waited for this race and kind of pointed in that direction. So far, so good. If he stays healthy from now until then, we’ll be there.”

Bluegrass Singer has also made five starts this year, returning from nearly two months off to take the $75,000 Parx Derby May 2. It was the second career stakes win for the Bluegrass Cat gelding following the Mucho Macho Man, formerly the Gulfstream Park Derby, Jan. 3.

“It was a confidence booster for him. That was the plan,” Vitali said. “We were going to go over for the Parx Derby. It was a little more distance than he likes, but I thought the company might have been a little easier. We let him go a mile and 70 yards in preparation for the Murphy.”

The one-mile Murphy will be the second time on turf for Bluegrass Singer, who was second by 2 ½ lengths in an optional claiming allowance Oct. 22 at Gulfstream Park West in his only other try on grass.

Bluegrass Singer was third in the Lambholm South Holy Bull (G2), sixth in the Besilu Stables Fountain of Youth (G2) and fourth in the Fasig-Tipton Swale (G2), all at Gulfstream, before his short vacation.

“I gave him a little bit of time off, too, but I wanted to get one race into him because he’s a younger horse,” Vitali said. “I ran him on the turf back at Calder and I think he had a lot of potential. He’s just a good horse. Good horses, if they’re right and happy, they run. I feel the Murphy will be a great spot for him.”

Based at Monmouth Park for the summer, Vitali said his horses should arrive at Pimlico by next Wednesday. Last year Vitali – who has three horses entered at Pimlico on Thursday and one on Friday – sent out Allstar to a fourth-place finish in the Murphy.

“They should get there three or four days ahead of time so they can train up there and get a look at the track,” Vitali said. “(Bluegrass Singer) is a much better horse (than Allstar), I believe. I think we’re going to see a lot more from him this year, as long as he stays healthy.”

SUMMER SQUALL’S PREAKNESS VICTORY STILL SWEET FOR HOWARD, DAY

This year’s renewal of the Preakness Stakes will mark the silver anniversary of Summer Squall’s 2 ¼-length victory over Kentucky Derby hero Unbridled.

“I remember the overall experience,” trainer Neil Howard said of his first Preakness starter. “To be there with a horse that was a contender made it more exciting and more nerve-wracking. I can only imagine what (Bob) Baffert’s going through with those two horses (American Pharoah and Dortmund).”

For Day, Summer Squall represented the second of his five Preakness victories.

“I felt like he should have won the Derby because I thought he was the better of the two horses,” Day said. “When we turned for home (track announcer) Mike Battaglia said ‘Summer Squall has taken the lead’ and 150,000 people let out a whoop you could have heard close to the moon.

“His (Summer Squall’s) head went up and Unbridled ran right by. Then Summer Squall got to running again and galloping out, I couldn’t get him pulled up. I had to get an outrider.”

Two weeks later, it was a different story.

“In the Preakness, I was going to stay on the inside,” said Day, who won his first Preakness on Tank’s Prospect in 1985. “I was able to cut the corner at the top of the stretch and got the jump on Unbridled.”

Day, now 61, is the only rider to win the Preakness three consecutive years. He did it with Tabasco Cat in 1994, Timber Country in 1995 and Louis Quatorze in 1996.

Howard, 63, has started only one other horse in the Preakness: Midway Road, who finished second to Funny Cide in 2003. If all goes well, he hopes to be there next weekend for the Black-Eyed Susan with Stoneway Farm’s Ahh Chocolate.

“She has only run twice, but we think she is a nice filly,” Howard said of the unbeaten daughter of Candy Ride (ARG).

Howard also could possibly bring last year’s Sir Barton winner Class Leader back to Pimlico.

“He is nominated to the Pimlico Special and the Dixie,” Howard said of Class Leader, who worked five furlongs on the Matt Winn Turf Course at Churchill Downs in 1:02.40 on Tuesday morning. “There is a slim chance (he would run).”