Chief’s Crown, Five Others, Are Already at Pimlico for Preakness

Chief’s Crown, the early favorite who finished third in the May 4 Kentucky Derby, heads a list of 11 probable starters for the 109th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course Saturday.

Six of the probable starters, including Chief’s Crown, already were stabled at Pimlico Tuesday. At least one other was expected to arrive before the end of the day, said Charles (Chick) Lang, executive vice president and general manager of Pimlico.

Those six also included Eternal Prince, the Wood Memorial winner who finished a disappointing 12th in the 13-horse Derby after getting a bad start out of the gate; California Derby winner Hajji’s Treasure; I Am The Game, runner-up to Kentucky Derby winner Spend a Buck in the Garden State Stakes; Roo Art, who was third in the Jim Beam Stakes, and Skip Trial, winner of the Preakness Prep.

Lang said the other probable starters included Southern Sultan, a 3-year-old stabled in Delaware who is still a maiden; Cutlass Reality, who was shipping in Tuesday from New York; Sparrow Von, a 3-year-old stabled at Bowie; Tajawa, runner-up in the Lexington Stakes, and Arkansas Derby champion Tank’s Prospect, who finished seventh in the Kentucky Derby.

Southern Sultan and Sparrow Von probably will not arrive at Pimlico until the morning of the $350,000-added Preakness.