Pressure off Smarty Jones trainer Servis at Preakness 2018

Unlike the last time he showed up with a horse for the Preakness Stakes, trainer John Servis and his long shot stakes winner Diamond King will be coming to Pimlico for Saturday’s race under much different circumstances.

Cash is King, LC Racing and D.J. Stable’s Diamond King jogged a mile over a “good” main track at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa. Tuesday morning. It was his first day back to the track after working five furlongs in 1:01.51 over a sloppy surface Sunday.

“Everything’s pretty much done. He seems really happy,” Servis said. “He came out of the work really good, so it’s just a question of keeping him on the ground right now and getting him there in one piece.”

Servis said Diamond King is scheduled to leave the Philadelphia-area track Wednesday for the approximately two-hour trip to Baltimore, and the Quality Road colt will train over Pimlico on Thursday.

The last horse Servis brought to the Preakness was popular Pennsylvania-bred Smarty Jones, the undefeated Kentucky Derby winner of 2004 who stayed perfect with a record-setting 11 ½-length victory that broke Survivor’s mark of 10 lengths set in the 1873 Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

“He was doing great,” Servis said of Smarty Jones. “I was tickled to death with how he was doing. I remember just waiting to get him to the Preakness. It was great. You’re always thinking one [race] ahead so I was kind of hoping it didn’t take too much out of him.”

Smarty Jones came up a length short in his bid for the Triple Crown, taking the lead into deep stretch before being passed by 36-1 long shot Birdstone in the final 70 yards of the 1 ½-mile Belmont Stakes (G1).

This year, it is Servis who has the long shot in Diamond King looking to spring an upset over unbeaten Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness favorite Justify. Diamond King is a two-time stakes winner, having earned an automatic entry into the Preakness by virtue of his victory in the Federico Tesio Stakes April 21 at Laurel Park.

“It’s a little different now, obviously, but it’s nice to be back there. There’s no pressure this time, that’s for sure,” Servis said. “It was pretty crazy [with Smarty Jones], but it was fun. I enjoyed the hell out of it.”

Servis can become only the fourth trainer since 1909 to win the Preakness in his first two tries. The others are Thomas Healey (1922, 1923), Jimmy Jones (1947, 1948), Henry Forrest (1966, 1968) and Tom Bohannan (1992, 1993).

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano is named to ride Diamond King. Castellano has won the Preakness twice, including Cloud Computing last year.