GI Alabama winner Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) remains possible to contest the GI Preakness S. at Pimlico Oct. 3.
“It's going to depend on who shows up,” said trainer Ken McPeek. “We are also nominating her to the [GI] Spinster [Oct. 4] and she's been invited to the [GI] QEII [Oct. 10]. We're shopping it, that's all. We have three good choices. My strong preference would have been a 3-year-old filly Grade I [on dirt], but there isn't one out there.”
Both alternatives to the Preakness, the nine-furlong Spinster for fillies and mares 3-year-olds and up, and Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, a 1 1/8-mile turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies, will be contested at Keeneland.
Campaigned by Peter Callahan, the chestnut finished second behind Art Collector in the July 11 GII Toyota Blue Grass S. at Keeneland. Swiss Skydiver also captured the Aug. 21 Alabama at Saratoga and finished second in the Sept. 4 GI Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.
“She's likes to run, work,” said McPeek. She acts like she wants to do more. She never misses an oat. If she had backed out of the feed tub at any time, we would have spread her races, but she hasn't done it,” McPeek said. “As long as she's telling us she wants to do something, we're going to consider it.”
McPeek indicated that a run in the Preakness would be more likely if Tiz the Law (Constitution), the GI Belmont S. winner who finished second behind Authentic in the Kentucky Derby, should skip this year's third leg of the Triple Crown.
“We know the two toughies will be Art Collector [Bernardini] and Authentic [Into Mischief],” he said. “They're both nice horses. We're just waiting to see who else is going, Right now, we're undecided. We're doing the research.”
Swiss Skydiver won the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks, GIII Fantasy S. at Oaklawn and GII Santa Anita Oaks earlier this season.
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