Flashpoint, accompanied by trainer Wesley Ward, heads to the Pimlico track for a gallop on May 20, the day before the big race. |
Also out for a pre-race gallop are Preakness contenders Mr. Commons . . . |
. . . Sway Away . . . |
. . . and Isn't He Perfect. |
Back at the stakes barn after his exercise on the track, Mucho Macho Man (who finished third in the Kentucky Derby) concentrates on a mouthful of grass, ignoring the HRTV interviewer's microphone. |
Midnight Interlude walks the shedrow after his gallop and bath. |
Race Day arrives, and King Congie, ridden by Robby Albarado, takes part in the post parade . . . |
. . . as does Dialed In, one of five Preakness contenders who also ran in the Kentucky Derby. |
Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, who trained for the Preakness at nearby Fair Hill Training Center and did not arrive at Pimlico until race-day morning, joins the post parade; John Velazquez has the mount. |
Flashpoint (#4) goes straight to the lead at the start of the 136th Preakness Stakes. |
Shackleford, Jesus Castanon up, is right behind the leader as the horses head for the clubhouse turn. |
Dance City and Ramon Dominguez, maintaining fifth place for almost the entire race, get some kicked-up dirt in their faces. |
Left and below: Shackleford crosses the finish line half a length ahead of Animal Kingdom (red and green silks) to win the Preakness Stakes. Astrology (far right, below) is third and Dialed in (#10) is fourth. Dance City finished fifth. |
Mike Smith and Astrology return after their third-place finish. |
Norman Asbjornson, the longest shot in the fourteen-horse field, is back at the stakes barn after his eleventh-place finish. |
Concealed Identity, who is blind in one eye, grazes outside the barn after finishing tenth in the Preakness, a race his sire, Smarty Jones, won in 2004. |
Shackleford cools off after his big win . . . |
. . . while a fan plucks a souvenir from the victory blanket of black-eyed Susans. |
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