Dixiana Farms’ homebred Hayes Strike along with Mendelssohns March, owned by Harold Lerner, Nehoc Stables, AWC Stables and Team Stallion Racing Stable, tuned up for expected starts in Saturday’s $1 million Toyota Blue Grass (G1) by working 5 furlongs in 1:00.60 in company together over a fast main track Sunday morning. 

Hayes Strike comes into the 1 1/8-mile Toyota Blue Grass off a victory in the Private Terms Stakes at Laurel on March 18. 

“I don’t run many horses in Maryland,” trainer Kenny McPeek said of Hayes Strike, who has two graded stakes placings. “His race at Turfway (in the Leonatus Stakes on Jan. 21 in which he finished ninth) … nothing went right. He didn’t ship well, and he didn’t handle the synthetic surface at all. I just needed to get him back on the dirt and get him back to winning.” 

Hayes Strike is a half-brother to Senior Investment, who won the 2017 Stonestreet Lexington (G3) here for McPeek. 

“Senior Investment needed a mile and an eighth, and his brother is the same,” said McPeek, who also plans to run R.T. Racing Stable and Cypress Creek Equine’s Sun Thunder in the Toyota Blue Grass. Sun Thunder finished fifth in the Twinspires.comLouisiana Derby (G2) on March 25 in his most recent start. 

Mendelssohns March has two wins in two starts with victories on the turf at Fair Grounds and on a sloppy dirt track at Oaklawn Park.

McPeek is the most recent of six trainers to have swept the Central Bank Ashland (G1) and Toyota Blue Grass in the same year. McPeek, who accomplished the double in 2002 with Take Charge Lady and Harlan’s Holiday, is expected to send out Magdalena Racing, Colette Marie Vanmatre and James Ball’s Defining Purpose in Friday’s Central Bank Ashland. Defining Purpose worked 5 furlongs in 1:00.20 this morning.