With the equine herpesvirus quarantine at Parx Racing lifted Tuesday afternoon, Abiding Star is set to join the Preakness field this Saturday at Pimlico Race Course.
All Preakness runners must be on the grounds by noon Thursday, and trainer Ned Allard will van the 3-year-old colt over from the Pennsylvania racetrack Thursday morning.
Sam Elliott, the director of racing at Parx, lifted the track's quarantine after all horses in the affected barns tested negative for the equine herpesvirus Monday. Since April 1, four horses have tested positive; all have either died from the disease or been euthanized because of their degree of illness.
"I felt quite confident that [the quarantine lifting] was going to happen, but hey, stranger things have gone on," Allard told BloodHorse.com. "So often you take chances with horses that haven't really done anything that special but won one or two races, but this horse has got a lot of confidence in himself."
Pimlico will isolate Abiding Star, who has won five races in a row, in a temporary stall on the backstretch of the racetrack, away from the general horse population. He will train before the track opens to other horses early Friday and Saturday morning.