Lukas: Preakness is Right Path for Gunnevera

When he was training in his native country, Antonio Sano was the D. Wayne Lukas of Venezuela, winning more than 3,300 races. 

On the morning of May 12 at Churchill Downs, former trainer Larry Kelly, who helps Sano oversee multiple graded stakes winner Gunnevera, took Sano and his son, Alessandro, over to meet Lukas, a six-time winner of the Preakness Stakes (G1). The Sanos originally were torn between running in the May 20 Preakness or training up to the Belmont Stakes (G1) with the late-running son of Dialed In  .

Lukas assured them they made the right call in planning to send the chestnut colt on to Baltimore following his seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1).

"The misconception in the Preakness is that it's a speed track, that it's always a speed horse. I don't find that to be true in my experience," said Lukas, whose most recent Preakness triumph came with Oxbow   in 2013. "If he's sound and ready to go, I'd take him. When you throw in the mud, the surface, everything, you need to give him a second chance. I would."

Antonio Sano made a brief visit back to Churchill Downs Friday to check on Gunnevera before the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) winner departed. With exercise rider Victor O'Farrell aboard, Gunnevera impressed his contingent when he jogged and galloped before picking up the pace to near-work speed for about a quarter-mile down the backstretch.

"The horse looks nice; the way he displays himself on the track," Alessandro Sano said. "It was the right decision to run in the Preakness, just looking at the motion the horse has when he goes to the track and comes off the track. He looked like a happy horse."

The Sanos were to go to Lexington Friday afternoon to visit Darby Dan Farm and Dialed In with both slated to fly back to Florida before heading to Baltimore May 15.

Gunnevera will have May 14 off and then have an easy jog Monday. 

John Oxley's Classic Empire, fourth in the Kentucky Derby after a horrendous start and trip, resumed galloping Friday at Churchill after jogging the day prior. The reigning 2-year-old male champion is set to van to Baltimore Sunday.

"He felt great," said exercise rider Martin Rivera. "As soon as I turned him around (after jogging to the front side), he was dragging me, on the muscle this morning. He came back really good after the race. I loved the way he went this morning. He's come back more aggressive, actually." 

Norman Casse, trainer Mark Casse's son and assistant, said he's not particularly surprised how well Classic Empire bounced out of a challenging Kentucky Derby—the latest adventure in a young season that saw the colt's training and racing schedule disrupted over the winter with a couple of setbacks. 

"He's a really tough horse," Casse said of the Arkansas Derby (G1) winner. "He really loves what he's doing right now. I'm really happy just with the fact that he's finally in a routine, he's finally under a regular pattern where he's running and isn't missing any training or that kind of thing. I think probably the most important thing coming out of that race is how well he's doing, that I think he's going to run a really good race in Baltimore. 

"I'm not thinking, 'Wow, we should have won the Derby,' or 'We could have won the Derby,' or 'He ran a better race than Always Dreaming.' I don't think like that. My thoughts are he's doing really well right now. It's unfortunate we didn't win the Derby, but there are plenty of big, big races down the road that we'd really love to win, such as the Preakness and the Belmont. That's what we've got to focus on now." 

Kentucky Derby runner-up Lookin At Lee and his 11th-place stablemate Hence galloped Friday at Churchill, pleasing trainer Steve Asmussen's chief assistant, Scott Blasi, while training for the Preakness.

Blasi said Hence has demonstrated a lot of energy since exiting his subpar performance last Saturday.

"We just don't feel like he ever leveled out in the Derby, that he didn't put that much effort into it," Blasi said of Calumet Farm's Sunland Derby (G3) winner. "It didn't seem like he handled the track and all the kickback with the 20 head. Hopefully we catch a fast track and he should give a better account of himself. The talent is there." 

Illinois Derby (G3) winner Multiplier had a routine gallop at Keeneland Friday. He is slated to work Sunday and scheduled to van to Baltimore May 16.