Swipe Looks to Play Catch-up in Lex

Swipe (Birdstone), who completed the exacta behind leading sophomore Nyquist (Uncle Mo) four times last season, makes his belated seasonal debut in Keeneland's GIII Coolmore Lexington S. afer being sidelined for the first part of the year with an ankle chip. The Keith Desormeaux trainee won last July's Summer Juvenile Championship at Los Alamitos Racecourse, but would run into the undefeated eventual champion in each of his subsequent efforts–in Del Mar's Aug. 8 GII Best Pal S. and Sept. 7 GI Del Mar Futurity; Santa Anita's GI FrontRunner S. Sept. 26; and the track-and-trip GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Halloween– one spot ahead of last Saturday's GI Toyota Blue Grass S. victor Brody's Cause (Giant's Causeway) and another in front of stablemate Exaggerator (Curlin), a romping winner of the GI Santa Anita Derby a week ago.

Sixth in the BC Juvenile was Riker (Include), a winner of Woodbine's Colin S., Swynford S. and GIII Grey S. for trainer Nick Gonzalez and Tucci Stables before setting the pace here last October. Purchased privately after that by Team Valor International and Gary Barber and turned over to Mark Casse, he pressed and faded to sixth in a productive running of the GII Tampa Bay Derby Mar. 12. GI Wood Memorial S. winner Outwork (Uncle Mo) was second that day, while Brody's Cause was seventh.

Collected (City Zip) could provide Bob Baffert with his first Lexington win. The Speedway Stables representative went turf to dirt to annex Santa Anita's GIII Sham S. Jan. 9 before finishing fourth as the favorite over good ground in Oaklawn's GIII Southwest S. Feb. 15. He went to the front and never looked back last time in the nine-panel Sunland Park Festival of Racing S.