Informed Patriot will skip Preakness, run in Texas Derby

HRN staff
Photo: Tommy Land / Eclipse Sportswire

Informed Patriot, an automatic qualifier for the Preakness after his win in the Bathhouse Row Stakes, will skip the middle leg of the Triple Crown.

Trainer Steve Asmussen said on "At the Races with Steve Byk" that the Hard Spun colt will be pointed instead to the Texas Derby at Lone Star Park on May 27.

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Informed Patriot's win in the Bathhouse Row was his second victory in eight career starts. In two graded-stakes starts this year, he finished fifth in both the Sunland Park Derby (G3) and Arkansas Derby (G3).

Asmussen also said Track Phantom, who finished 11th in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, will be given a break and return for a fall campaign.

The Quality Road colt was 10th on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard after wins in the Gun Runner and Grade 3 Lecomte followed by a second-place finish by a half-length to Sierra Leone in the Risen Start (G2) and a fourth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby (G2).

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