Social Inclusion heading to Pimlico for 2014 Preakness Stakes

Social Inclusion hits the road for the Preakness Stakes

Baltimore, MD - While California Chrome's travel plans hadn't been firmed up, Preakness candidate Social Inclusion hit the road for Pimlico Race Course Wednesday morning to run in the Preakness Stakes.

The Wood Memorial (G1) third-place finisher boarded a Pimlico-bound van at Gulfstream Park at approximately 10:30 a.m. after returning to the racetrack for the first time since being scratched from Saturday's Sir Bear Stakes with a bruise in his right front foot. The son of Pioneerof the Nile jogged to the satisfaction of trainer Manny Azpurua and Rontos Racing Stable Corp.'s Ron Sanchez.

"We're all set and excited," Sanchez said. "I was a little concerned Saturday with the bruise, then I was happy (Tuesday) and today I'm excited. He went out jogging today and everything was great. Manny and his guys did a great job."

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Social Inclusion was accompanied on the van by Rontos Racing's Hey Leroy, the Appleton (G3) winner who is being pointed to the $400,000 Dixie (G2) on Preakness Day.

Plans call for Social Inclusion to walk Thursday morning after his scheduled early-morning arrival at Pimlico, gallop Friday, Saturday and Sunday and breeze on Monday.

Luis Contreras, who rode Social Inclusion in a pair of dazzling victories at Gulfstream and his show performance in the Wood, has the call for the Preakness.

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.

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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.