It's early morning, and Domenico Zannino is hanging on the first-turn rail at Timonium racetrack, clocking horses in preparation for next Monday's Fasig-Tipton sale.
"It's a wonderful place to be," said the Highlandtown native, who is the majority owner of Xchanger, the 3-year-old who will run in the Preakness on Saturday. "The sun comes lifting up and the horses come galloping down the frontstretch. It's good stuff."
Last year, Zannino was here doing the same thing, and that's when he spied horse No. 501.
"I was looking for the conformation, the movement and the ability," he said. "I watched how he galloped out. Some horses can't make it past the quarter-mile pole; some can't make it to the quarter-mile pole. I also listen for their breathing.
"You can watch tapes of their workouts, but you won't hear if they're chugging in their air passages."
When he watched No. 501, Zannino was impressed. The horse had extremely long strides, and distance did not seem a problem. He put stars all around his notes on the horse.
Zannino's trainer, Mark Shuman, missed the horse's timed workout, but watched the video -- 10 times -- and then went to look at him in the barn four times before the sale.
Separately, the two came to the same conclusion. They wanted the horse.
They decided not to bid on any other until after they took their shot at the then-2-year-old son of Exchange Rate.
"He was my first 2-year-old purchase," said Zannino, who was able to buy the horse at the Fasig-Tipton sale for $40,000. "We had a budget, and ... we just waited for that horse."
Since being purchased by Zannino's Circle Z Stables, Xchanger has won three of eight races, earned $291,990 and qualified for the Kentucky Derby.
Though Zannino, who has the controlling 50 percent interest in the horse, decided, with partners Shuman and Joe Masone, not to run in the Derby, he will send the horse from his training location at Fair Hill to Pimlico Race Course to compete in the Preakness.
"We're confident," Zannino said. "We know Street Sense and Hard Spun are great horses and that Curlin is a great horse that got lost in the Derby shuffle, but we're four weeks fresh and they're racing two weeks after the hardest race of their lives."
Shuman was of like mind, saying: "My horse is acting like he's going to run a big race, and I think those Derby horses ran their eyeballs out. We're hoping they're on a bounce and we're on a forward pace."
