Macho Again and Denis of Cork prepare for second half

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Louisville, KY (Sports Network) - A pair of second-pace finishers in this year's Triple Crown races are being prepared at Churchill Downs for the remainder of the 2008 racing season.

Preakness Stakes runner-up Macho Again and Denis of Cork, second in the Belmont Stakes, are being trained at Churchill Downs for a possible meeting at Saratoga.

The trainers of both three-year-olds have the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes on Sunday, July 27 listed as a possible start this summer.

"He is doing really good and I don't see anything that I don't like," said Dallas Stewart, trainer of Macho Again. " He is galloping regularly until we decide where to go with him."

The winner of the Derby Trial may also make his next start in the $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park on Saturday, August 2. In his last start, Macho Again was fifth in the Belmont Stakes.

This year Macho Again has two wins in six starts for better than $300,000. Early this year he was sixth in the Lecomte Stakes and seventh in the Lane's End Stakes.

Trainer David Carroll says Denis of Cork, third in the Kentucky Derby, may make his next start in the Jim Dandy.

"He is doing well," Carroll said. "We are looking at the Jim Dandy, and from there that would give us four weeks to the Travers."

Owned by Mr. & Mrs. William K. Warren Jr., Denis of Cork has earned $600,000 this year in five starts with two wins. After winning the Southwest Stakes, he finished fifth as the beaten favorite in the Illinois Derby.