Alwaysmining – Photo Courtesy of Laurel Park
Alwaysmining represents the best in local Preakness hopes and the gelded son of Stay Thirsty is carrying a six-race win streak, including five stakes. His last was close to spectacular as he captured the nine-furlong Federico Tesio Stakes by 11 ½ lengths at odds of 1-5. He will be making his first graded stakes appearance and represents the first Preakness starter for trainer Kelly Rubley, though she has trained some nice horses and graded stakes winners in her career. The 1 3/16-mile Preakness Stakes distance is only a sixteenth of a mile farther than he’s traveled before, plus his pedigree suggests he should be fine with the minor stretchout.
Overall, Alwaysmining has won seven of 12 starts and while the Preakness represents a substantial jump in class, he has show to be steadily improving with each start. Daniel Centeno will be back aboard the Runnymeade Racing colorbearer in Baltimore and the pair currently carry early odds of 8-1.