Granted, it’s only a matter of days, but keeping Preakness Stakes horses happy is a thing that is on the mind of all of the trainers shooting to win the second Jewel of the Triple Crown.
Keeping Preakness Stakes horses happy until they are in the gate at Pimlico at May 20 can be easier said than done.
Charlie Whittingham was one of my favorite trainers in history and his dry humor was shared on occasion. One of his best quotes is “horses are like strawberries, they spoil overnight.”
This web was as true back in the day as it is now and that is why the trainers are so aware of keeping Preakness Stakes horses happy.
One of the keys to keeping Preakness Stakes horses happy leading up to the race is just trying to keep the runners moving and in a normal way as race day approaches.
Always Dreaming seems to be thriving as he tries to parlay on his Kentucky Derby success. On May 12, the runner got a maintenance jog under his belt for trainer Todd Pletcher. The weather has been a problem but the trainer can adapt, Pletcher: “He was full of himself, feeling great. I’m really happy where he is energy level-wise. We’ll just sit around and worry about the forecast and go from there. This whole two weeks in between the Derby and the Preakness is all about just refueling and keeping him healthy and happy. Right now he looks like he’s very, very happy.”
This is as good as time as any to recap how the 2016 Preakness starters prepared for the race and how they fared. Keith Desormeaux proved last year he knows how to keep Preakness Stakes horses happy. He was very patient with the 2016 Preakness winner last year just letting him gallop up to the race. The runner did not have an official work at Pimlico.
The second finisher in the Preakness last year Cherry Wine did not run in the Kentucky Derby. The racer was coming off a third in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 9 but trainer Dale Romans put two serious drills into the runner before the Preakness. He worked in 1:00 3/5 the end of April and a week before the Preakness, Cherry Wine drilled in an easy 1:01 3/5.
Nyquist came to the Preakness a tired horse last year after winning the Kentucky Derby and he did not work between the two races.
Stradivari was a fine-tuned instrument rolling into last year’s Preakness. The colt had just made his 2016 debut on April 17 and won in a romp with a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. The Todd Pletcher student was worked three times before the Preakness and despite being rank, he only was beaten five lengths.
Showing a proven affinity for Pimlico will be a solid trait to look for when evaluating the Preakness contenders this week.
In the last several seasons, the Preakness has been an inspirational race of courage, agility, joy, triumph and loss and it has also become quite an attraction
The Preakness is run at a 16th of a mile shorter than the Kentucky Derby but it was not always like that.
It has been run at 7 different distances over the decades from a mile to a mile and a half. And it has not always been the 2nd leg in the Triple Crown.
Eleven times, the Preakness was run before the Derby, and 11 times the Belmont Stakes was run prior to the Preakness. The Kentucky Derby and the Preakness was run on the same day twice. For about the last 80 years, the Derby, Preakness, Belmont have been carded in that sequence.
As they days dwindle toward the May 20 showdown bettors need to try to get a handle on how the runners are handling the ship to Maryland and once again, think pace in Baltimore and don’t get caught up in the hype.
From Day One, this classic has always been about quality. Sir Barton, the first Triple Crown winner, proved to be one tough cookie as he won the Preakness just 4 days after taking the Kentucky Derby.
The roaring 20s, that’s right, with prohibition, speakeasies and Al Capone all wrapped into one, started the decade that saw Man O’ War prove the prompt chalk in the second jewel.
It was 10 years later when Gallant Fox strode into town and walked away with a three quarter of a length win on his way to Triple Crown glory. War Admiral performed the same feat as the 1930s wound down but Whirlaway picked up the torch in 1941 on this way to racing history.
The sport’s first millionaire, Citation, took the 1948 renewal of the Preakness. The long-fused Carry Back hit a home run responding like Roger Maris in 1961 and electrified the crowd with a sizzling late charge to victory.
Handicapping this year’s Preakness and isolating the winner presents the usual challenge and be careful before just assuming a bias or sharp turns will favor a particular runner. Like the Derby, it is not easy to go wire-to-wire in Baltimore but the track still has a speed bias feel attached to it although that is a misconception.
One thing bettors will likely hear time and time again before this year’s Preakness is that the Pimlico surface is speed conducive and you have to be near the lead to succeed. But that is not always the case.
Only about 18% of the winners in the history of the race have taken them flag fall to that’s all so don’t quickly buy into the myth about the sharp turns and the Baltimore highway.
Consider these thoughts by a true star in the business. This is what Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens said about a speed conducive track before he went on to take the 2001 edition with Point Given, Stevens: “That’s a fallacy. It’s like an old wives’ tale that Old Hilltop is a speed racetrack. Every year I’ve got to go through the same thing, that Pimlico is a speed track. Basically, the horses run the exact same style at Baltimore as they do in the Kentucky Derby. It’s not a speed-favoring racetrack. It’s a fair racetrack and I think if you get your horse position where it belongs, then you’ve got a shot. But people who go in there with the attitude that it’s a speed racetrack and try and change a horse’s style, they’re making a major mistake…. you’ve got no chance.”
