Firing Line Pointed For Preakness Rematch

Firing Line, who was second in the Kentucky Derby, is headed to the Preakness after coming out of the race in good shape. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
For Firing Line’s connections, the Kentucky Derby must have felt like déjà vu.
The 3-year-old colt has spent most of his career racing in California and lost both of his graded stakes attempts in the state to Bob Baffert’s Dortmund. While Firing Line finished two lengths ahead of Dortmund in the Derby, it was another Baffert horse who kept him from the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs.
Firing Line finished second by a length to American Pharoah but the loss in the Derby isn’t enough to scare him away from taking on the horse again. Trainer Simon Callaghan and owner Arnold Zetcher confirmed on Sunday morning that the horse will indeed be headed to the Preakness in two weeks to take on both American Pharoah and Dortmund again.
“I think he proved what a good horse he is and it’s just an exceptionally good [group] of horses this year,” Callaghan said. “I think a lot of people who have been involved in this race for many years were saying that it is one of the best Derbys in the last 30 years. So I think we’ve got an exceptionally good horse and other years we would have won and I think the winner is a special horse. We’re just happy the way he ran and hopefully we can get our revenge in Baltimore.”
Before this race, it was proven that Firing Line was a gutsy horse his combined losing margin of the three races coming in at just ¾ of a length. He again showed that heart to everyone watching the Kentucky Derby when he refused to give up and fought all the way to the wire, even when American Pharoah pulled a length away.  
“He’s a really tough horse, he tried all the way to the wire. [Jockey Gary Stevens] gave him a great ride, everything kind of went well in the race, we’ve got no excuses that way. American Pharoah is a good horse. He certainly stayed the distance well yesterday. It was the first time he had gone that distance so that was a little bit of an unknown, but I think somewhere around a 1 1/8 mile to 1 ¼ mile is going to prove to be his optimum.”
If all goes to plan in the next week, Firing Line will be flying to Pimlico Race Course three days before the Preakness on the same plane that American Pharoah and Dortmund are planning to fly out on.
Callaghan will be flying back to California on Monday but his assistant Carlos Santamaria and exercise rider Humberto Gomez will be staying with the horse through his time in Kentucky and Maryland.
“I’m going to go back to California for a few days and check on the other horses [in his barn]. They know the horse very well so he’s in good hands,” he said.
Other horses looking at the Preakness in two weeks include International Star, who was a scratch on Saturday morning, Danzig Moon, who finished fifth in the Derby, Stanford, who scratched from the Derby on Thursday, and Divining Rod, who won Keeneland’s Lexington Stakes but skipped the Kentucky Derby.