Mr. Z Bought by Calumet, Entered in Preakness
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Mr. Z, who finished a troubled 13th in the May 2 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), has been entered in the Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes (gr. I) and will run in the colors of Calumet Farm.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas said the paperwork was being processed that would transfer ownership of the Malibu Moon colt from Zayat Stables to Calumet. Calumet owns Oxbow , the 2013 Preakness winner.
With the addition of Mr. Z, eight 3-year-olds, headed by the top three Derby finishers, have been entered in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness.
Post positions will be drawn at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Lukas, who had settled into the Preakness stakes barn with six horses being aimed at Pimlico weekend stakes, insists Mr. Z has a good shot to provide him with his seventh Preakness winner should he be entered. The colt finished third to American Pharoah in the Arkansas Derby (gr. I) previous to the Kentucky Derby. Mr. Z has one win in 13 starts but has eight placings to his credit.
"He was very lucky not to go down," Lukas said of Mr. Z's Kentucky Derby trip. "He could have been compromised to the point where he could have clipped heels. I have him to the point where he's better right now than I have ever had him."
Despite the Hall of Fame trainer's confidence in his charge, owner Ahmed Zayat, who is already represented by American Pharoah in the Preakness, had insisted Mr. Z would not be entered.
"He is not running. Period," Zayat, who is in Italy until Friday, said via Twitter Tuesday.
Zayat Stables' Derby winner American Pharoah tops the Preakness lineup, followed by Firing Line and Dortmund, the respective second- and third-place finishers in the May 2 classic at Churchill Downs.
Also entered were Danzig Moon (Malibu Moon) who ran fifth in the Derby; Lexington Stakes (gr. III) winner Divining Rod (Tapit ); Bodhisattva (Student Council ), winner of Pimlico's Federico Tesio Stakes, a traditional Preakness prep; and Tale of Verve (Tale of Ekati ), who was entered in the Derby but did not draw in to the field.
American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile ), Firing Line (Line of David ), Dortmund (Big Brown ), Danzig Moon, and Tale of Verve were en route to Baltimore from Kentucky Wednesday on a Tex Sutton air charter expected to land between 1-2 p.m. (EDT).