Derby runner-up Mandaloun returns Sunday at Monmouth Park

OCEANPORT, N.J. (AP) — Mandaloun is returning to racing for the primary time since ending second within the Kentucky Derby, for which he might nonetheless be named the winner if Medina Spirit is disqualified for failing a postrace drug take a look at.

Coach Brad Cox on Thursday entered Mandaloun within the Grade 1 Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday. The 1-1/16 miles race for 3-year-olds drew a subject of 5 and will function a prep race for the $1 million Haskell Stakes at Monmouth on July 17.

Mandaloun is being pushed from Kentucky and is scheduled to reach on the New Jersey shore racetrack on Friday.

“I would like him to get some expertise at Monmouth and I’m wanting to make use of the race as a health software, as a prep from the Haskell,” stated Cox, who plans to fly in from Kentucky on Sunday morning to observe the race in individual. “I didn’t wish to go 11 weeks and not using a race. This was the race we thought made essentially the most sense on the calendar.”

Postrace testing confirmed Medina Spirit had the anti-inflammatory steroid betamethasone in his system on Might 1, when he was first to cross the Kentucky Derby end line. A second pattern additionally examined constructive.

Coach Bob Baffert and proprietor Amr Zedan filed a lawsuit in Kentucky on Monday, asking a choose to order racing officers to conduct extra testing earlier than stripping Medina Spirit of the Derby victory, which might take the purse cash from them however not have an effect on bettors as a result of the outcome was made official.

In a civil motion filed in Franklin Circuit Court docket, Baffert and Zedan Racing Stables requested for a brief injunction barring the Kentucky Horse Racing Fee from taking motion towards their horse till extra checks will be run.

Two years in the past, disqualified Kentucky Derby winner Most Safety completed second because the 1-20 favourite to King for a Day within the Pegasus Stakes earlier than occurring to win the Haskell.

Mandaloun, a Kentucky-bred colt owned by Juddmonte Racing, has gained three of six profession begins and earned $961,252.

Cox posted his first win in a Triple Crown race on Saturday when 2-year-old champion Important High quality gained the Belmont Stakes in New York. The colt is transport to Saratoga in July and pointing to the Travers Stakes.

The Louisville-born coach stated he’d prefer to maintain Mandaloun and Important High quality from racing towards one another once more for so long as doable. Important High quality completed fourth within the Derby after going off as the favourite.

Mandaloun drew the No. 2 publish for the Pegasus Stakes on Sunday and will probably be ridden by Florent Geroux.

Brooklyn Sturdy, who completed fifteenth within the Derby, drew the No. 1 publish and will probably be ridden by Abner Adano. Dr Jack has the No. 3 publish place, with Paco Lopez listed to trip. Weyburn, the lengthy shot winner of the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes, obtained the No. 4 spot for Dylan David.

Lugamo and Angel Cruz can have the surface No. 5 publish. The colt has not raced since a Twelfth-place end on March 27 within the UAE Derby in Dubai.

The Pegasus Stakes odds weren’t instantly launched.

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