American Pharoah, Dortmund gallop

From a Maryland Jockey Club release

Zayat Stables’ Kentucky Derby (G1) winner American Pharoah and Kaleem Shah’s third-place Derby finisher Dortmund galloped 1 ½ miles on a mild Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs.

“Those two looked good,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “American Pharoah, he is something to see out there. He just floats over the track. Dortmund looked like a happy horse out there today.”

Going on the track after the harrow break, the two backtracked to the front side of the track. American Pharoah, with Jorge Alvarez up, began his exercise with Dortmund and Dana Barnes following less than a minute later.

Baffert, who has won the Preakness five times, is three-for-three with his Derby winners coming back in two weeks to prevail at Pimlico. Silver Charm was the first in 1997, followed by Real Quiet in 1998 and War Emblem in 2002.

“They were totally different horses,” Baffert said.  “The main concern is that they look healthy and are doing good. That is all you can hope for going into a race.”

Baffert’s other Preakness winners, Point Given in 2001 and Lookin At Lucky in 2010, had finished fifth and sixth respectively in the Derby before going to Pimlico.

“I always won with the best horse,” Baffert said. “Usually those were the best horses of that crop.”

All five of Baffert’s Preakness winners came on a fast track and the 62-year-old conditioner noted that the long-range forecast for Saturday in Baltimore called for a chance of thunderstorms.

“If it rains, we know American Pharoah loves the mud,” Baffert said alluding to the colt’s 6 ¼-length 2015 debut victory in the slop at Oaklawn Park in the Rebel (G2). “I don’t know about Dortmund.”

After the two colts train Wednesday morning, Baffert and his Preakness candidates are scheduled to fly to Baltimore.