MID-ATLANTIC Diamond King eyes Preakness

The promising 3-year-old Diamond King was scratched from the Private Terms Stakes with a fever March 17, but he never became very ill and quickly resumed training. He worked a mile for trainer John Servis in 1:47.60 at Parx Racing on March 24.

“The work was excellent, he’s doing very good,” Servis said. “His fever got up to about 102, but he fought it off. We never did treat him for it.”

Servis and Diamond King’s owners – Chuck Zacney, Leonard Green, and Glenn Bennett – want to give Diamond King, who is 3 for 5, a chance to earn his way to the Preakness Stakes. They plan to start him in either the 1 1/8-mile Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park on April 21 or the Grade 3 Lexington, a 1 1/16-mile stakes at Keeneland on April 14.

“We’re leaning toward the Tesio, but we’re still considering the Lexington,” Servis said. “The Tesio is a Win and You’re In for the Preakness, and we also wouldn’t have to go all the way to Kentucky.”

Servis said about five horses in his Parx stable recently spiked a fever, including Grade 2 winner Ms Locust Point, but they all recovered within days.

“She had a fever for two days,” Servis said. “It got up to about 101.5 and then the next day it was under 100, so we just trained her lightly for a few days and then went on with her.”

Ms Locust Point is being pointed to the Grade 1, $300,000 Madison at Keeneland on April 7.

Carrasco back galloping soon

Jockey Victor Carrasco, sidelined with a badly broken right leg since a Sept. 14 spill at Delaware Park, was informed by his doctors Tuesday that his bones have healed well enough for him to begin galloping horses in the next few weeks.

Carrasco, a leading rider in Maryland and the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2013, has undergone extensive physical rehabilitation the past few months and is eager to resume his career.

“It has been very, very difficult, but we are at the eighth pole now, almost at the wire, so it’s all good,” he said. “I have to keep working as hard as possible.”

Carrasco said he plans to begin getting on horseback April 10 at Laurel, but “it all depends on how well things go in physical therapy.”

Carrasco, a strong and aggressive rider, has won 841 races from 4,900 mounts, a win average of 17 percent.

Old Time Revival works

Old Time Revival tuned up for the April 7 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct by working five furlongs at Laurel Park over a good track in a bullet 58.60 seconds Wednesday.

Maryland Jockey Club head clocker Kevin Geraghty timed Old Time Revival for a half-mile in 46.80, with a gallop-out of 1:11.40.

Old Time Revival, a Jacks or Better Farm homebred trained by Kenneth Decker, has finished second in his last two starts. He was beaten 2 3/4 lengths by Enticed and was four lengths clear of third in the one-mile Gotham on March 10. In his prior start, he was run down by Still Having Fun and beaten a neck in the Miracle Wood at Laurel.

Decker also worked Fellowship a half-mile in 48.20 on Wednesday. Fellowship is nominated to the Grade 1 Carter on the Wood Memorial undercard.