Preakness 2017: Cloud Computing breezes half-mile at Belmont Park

Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence’s Cloud Computing breezed a half-mile Saturday morning under exercise rider Peter Roman just after the Belmont Park training track opened at 5:30 a.m.  The son of Maclean’s Music was timed in 48.40 seconds by Daily Racing Form.

 

“He breezed very well, galloped out super and came back good so far,” trainer Chad Brown said by phone.  “That’s his last piece of work and if he comes out of it well he’ll be on to Baltimore on Tuesday.”

 

Cloud Computing finished third in the Gotham Stakes (G3) and third in the Wood Memorial (G2) to earn 40 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby. That was enough to make it into the Derby field, but the colt’s connections decided to pass the Derby, in which Klaravich and Lawrence’s Practical Joke was fifth, and wait for the Preakness with Cloud Computing.

 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss’ Royal Mo jogged around the shedrow of the Preakness Stakes Barn at Pimlico Saturday morning.

 

While checking the radar on his phone’s weather app and trying to gauge when the morning rains might stop, trainer John Shirreffs said he hoped Royal Mo will have the opportunity to put in a five-furlong breeze Sunday morning.

 

“I’m hoping. We’re not going to get a lot more rain, and they’ll be working the track all day, so I think it looks good,” said Shirreffs, who saddled the son of Uncle Mo for a victory in the Robert Lewis (G3) and a third-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby (G1).

 

Shirreffs, who has scheduled the work for 8:30 a.m., was in the process of engaging a local rider for his trainee’s final serious preparation for the Preakness.

 

“I just texted Gary Stevens to see if he had any suggestions of someone he knows who would like to work the horse,” said Shirreffs, who has employed local exercise rider and aspiring jockey Taylor Leatherman for Royal Mo’s morning jogs and gallops during the week.

 

Stevens has the Preakness mount.

 

 

As it has turned out, Preakness candidate Conquest Mo Money cost far less money than owner Tom McKenna imagined. McKenna and his wife Nancy will be making their first start in a Triple Crown race with the New York-bred son of Uncle Mo that they purchased for $8,500 in the Conquest Stable dispersal sale in November.

 

It’s an understatement to say he has done well for them. He won three in a row to start his career, two of them in stakes, then finished second in the Sunland Derby (G3) and second in the Arkansas Derby (G1). He has earned $508,900 and the McKennas have spent $150,000 to supplement him to the Preakness because he had not been nominated to the Triple Crown series.

 

McKenna, 81, picks out horses on appearance over pedigree and figured he had no shot of buying the colt. But he acquired him for what is now an are-you-kidding price and he has become the star of the McKenna’s Judge Lanier Racing, a power in New Mexico. Conquest purchased him for $180,000 as a yearling.

 

“He fell through the cracks. It is a blessing from God, I guarantee you,” McKenna said. “It was a very fortuitous thing that happened. I’ve worked a lot of sales. I don’t use agents. I do all my own buying. I do all my own claiming. I’m hands-on in the management of this stable. Anyway, I don’t think it will happen again in my lifetime. It was unbelievable. Nonetheless, we got him and he hasn’t disappointed us. This horse has the best head of any colt that I have had in my life. He’s an amazing horse. My 14-year-old grandson could train that horse. That’s how easy he is. He’s just automatic. He’s just a dream, a dream.”

 

McKenna says he enjoys shopping at dispersals because the conditions can be favorable to the buyer.

 

“When the Heiligbrodt Racing Stable dispersed, I bought African Rose out of that sale for $6,500 and she’s won almost $600,000 now,” he said. “I like dispersals because of the fact that there are no reserves. I knew that this dispersal with that number of horses that there had to be some bargains.”

 

McKenna said he does his due diligence by inspecting all the horses being offered – he believes he has a God-given eye for horses – and compiles a list of prospects that might fit into his budget.

 

“I don’t have deep pockets and I’ve got to limit myself,” he said. “I get in on horses I might have an opportunity to buy. I watch for ones that might slip through the cracks. Breeding is the second thing I look at in the horse. I might pick a horse that is a little crooked or not quite correct, but has other things that might outweigh that. I might look at a horse that a lot of these agents might not look at.”

 

McKenna was stunned at the lack of interest when Conquest Mo Money came into the ring at Keeneland and entered the auction.

 

“In this particular instance, I had not planned on bidding on Mo Money,” McKenna said. “I just thought that he would be totally out of my price range. Lo and behold, I got him.”