Julian Pimentel retains mount on Kid Cruz for 2014 Preakness

Kid Cruz to be guided by Pimentel for 2014 Preakness Stakes

Baltimore, MD - Veteran Maryland jockey Julian Pimentel has retained the mount on Kid Cruz for the 139th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course.

Pimentel, 33, a regular in Maryland since the summer of 2006, rode Kid Cruz to victories in the Private Terms on March 8 at Laurel and the Federico Tesio on April 19 at Pimlico. Through Tuesday, Pimentel has 1,298 victories. He is the regular rider for the top turf sprinter Ben's Cat, owned and trained by King Leatherbury. Pimentel is 17-for-27 on Ben's Cat and they are scheduled to try for a repeat win in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint on May 16.

Kid Cruz, a son of Lemon Drop Kid, has three wins and a second in five career starts. Trainer Linda Rice claimed the colt for Vina Del Mar Thoroughbreds out of his second start on Nov. 22. He finished second in an Aqueduct allowance race in January, won the two Maryland stakes and is scheduled to try graded company for the first time in the Preakness.

Preakness Stakes betting online at Pimlico Race Course with OffTrackBetting.com

"He did get a race over the course down there, handled it well," Rice said. "It's going to be a big step up in company to run against the Derby horses, particularly California Chrome. It's a big jump up in competition, but we are hopeful."

Following the Private Terms, Rice entered Kid Cruz in the Wood Memorial (G1) on April 5 but opted to scratch out of New York's Kentucky Derby prep.

"I put him in the Wood with the idea that if he did run well it still kept the door open for the Derby because he did not have any points to get into the Derby," she said. "But he has had a bit of an issue with his right front shoulder with what I believe is a pinched nerve at the base of his neck. So we were treating him for that. He came up a little sore after his breeze into the Wood and I decided to wait and give it some time, so I wasn't able to run him in the Wood."

In the Tesio, Kid Cruz came four-wide from off the pace to post an emphatic 3 ½-length victory.

Bet the Preakness Stakes Online

Bet the Preakness Stakes online at OffTrackBetting.com. The 139th running of the 2014 $1,000,000 Preakness Stakes (Grade I), the second jewel of the Triple Crown, is set for Saturday, May 17, 2014 at the historic Pimlico race course. The second leg of the US Triple Crown, often referred to as the Run for the Black-Eyed Susans, is contested by three-year-old thoroughbreds on a dirt track measuring 1 3/16 miles. All members will be able to watch & place wagers on the Preakness online or by mobile wagering from your phone or tablet.

If you want to bet on the Preakness Stakes, then you have found the right place! You can place your bets before the race because OffTrackBetting.com offers ADVANCE WAGERING on the Preakness Stakes. Advance wagering opens days before the track opens so you can place your bets on the Preakness Stakes well before the competition!

OffTrackBetting.com offers a bets on the remaining Triple Crown Races. Did you know that on May 23, 1873 the first edition of the Preakness took place? Two years before the inaugural Kentucky Derby, the folks at Pimlico were busy working on a new three-year old stakes race of their own. Pimlico, which since its opening in 1870 had conducted all of its racing in the fall, ran its first Spring Meet in the year of 1873, with the initial running of the Preakness held on May 23. The Preakness was founded by then-Maryland governor Oden Bowie. Governor Bowie's term had actually ended in 1872, yet that did not prevent him from naming the then- mile and a half race in honor of the colt who won the Dinner Party Stakes in 1870 on the occasion of Pimlico's opening. At an 1868 Saratoga party hosted by a Milton Sanford, Bowie guaranteed that Maryland would have a track available for a race that was later dubbed the Dinner Party Stakes and had been instantly promoted by Bowie at the party when he offered $15,000 as a purse--no small sum at the time.