King of the Roxy Entering into the Preakness Stakes

Horse trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed Friday that he would in fact enter King of the Roxy into the 132nd running of the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore Maryland next weekend.

This is the second horse Pletcher’s entered into the race during his tenure as a trainer—the first offering was in 2000 with Impeachment— and he expects the speedy horse will perform well at the Preakness.

In the horse’s seven career starts he’s finished in the money five times, the most recent payday coming after a second place finish in the Grade I Santa Anita Derby in April.

“We started focusing on the Preakness immediately after the Santa Anita Derby,” says Pletcher. “He has only been long a couple times and in the one start at Churchill (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile) it wasn’t his best effort. He lost some training time when we first got to Florida over the winter so we felt we didn’t want to rush him and pointed to the Preakness.”

Owned by Barry Irwin, King of the Roxy will be ridden by jockey John Velazquez, who makes his Preakness debut on board the horse.

In the starting gate King of the Roxy will join the Kentucky Derby’s top three finishers in Curlin, Hard Spun and Street Sense, all of which have confirmed for the Stakes.

Pletcher had a record tying five horses entered in the derby but once again failed to finish on top.

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