Welcome to Preakness Week! Often known as the ugly stepsister, the Preakness believe it or not, is a key race when it comes to the Eclipse Awards. Since 2001, the winner of the Preakness has been named 3yo Champion Colt/Gelding. Of course there is one exception to this rule of thought and that's because last year's winner was a filly. However, I think she turned out to be an okay horse in the long run (wink wink). Seriously though here is the list and what they've done/did after their Preakness wins.
2001: Point Given (Wins in the Belmont, Haskell and Travers, named HOY as well as 3yo Colt/Gelding)
2002: War Emblem (Win in the Haskell)
2003: Funny Cide (3rd in the Belmont, 3rd in the Haskell)
2004: Smarty Jones (2nd in the Belmont)
2005: Afleet Alex (Win in the Belmont)
2006: Bernardini (Win in the Jim Dandy, Travers and JCGC, 2nd in the BC Classic)
2007: Curlin (Wins in the JCGC and BC Classic, 2nd in the Belmont, 3rd in the Haskell, named HOY as well as 3yo Colt/Gelding)
2008: Big Brown (Wins in the Haskell, Monmouth Stakes)
2009: Rachel Alexandra (Wins in the Mother Goose, Haskell and Woodward, named HOY as well as 3yo Filly)
If Super Saver where to following in these lovely boys and girl's steps, he'll have to win the Preakness. The good news is that Calvin Borel will be riding Black Eyed Susan day and in the BES to get used to the track. All the pressure in the World is on him in the Preakness, however I think more pressure is on Todd Pletcher to try to grab the only TC race he hasn't won yet.
The big reason being... Aikenite. It's a bit of a risk entering another horse when you have the Derby winner for a different owner (Aikenite is owned by Dogwood Stable) but it has happend before. In matter of fact, Todd's former boss Wayne Lukas was the last one to do it. He entered Overbrook's Cat Thief, even though Charismatic owned by Bob and Beverly Lewis had won the Derby. That's how loaded Todd is this season, now the mile and 3/16 may still be too long for Aikenite, but like Super Saver he wasn't that bad of 2yo. He beat Ice Box in his first start, and went on to finish third behind Dublin in the Hopeful and 2nd behind Noble's Promise in the Breeders Futurity. Of course those three went on to the Derby finishing 2nd, 5th, and 7th (Ice, Noble, Dublin) respecitvly. His two bad beats where this year in Holy Bull and Bluegrass. Holy Bull winner Winslow Homer was injured and Bluegrass winner Stately Victor didn't show in the Derby, however runner up of that race Paddy O' Prado finished third. Aikenite is coming off a second place finish to Hurricane Ike in the Derby Trial, and although he had enough earnings to go, his connections decided to skip. I do think he's up against it in the Preakness, especially with his Derby winning stablemate, but I think he'll do well in Saturday's race.
I do want to appologize for not doing a Weekend Preview and Recap, I hadn't felt that great on Friday, so I just skiped this past weekend. A few notes about upcoming chats, I haven't decided yet when the next chat will be. One more thing, I'm pleased to announce the Horse Racing Bloggers Awards, these are awards given out to the best horse racing blogs wether it's TB, QH, Arabians or SB. Nominations open next week, but you cna check out the catagories now!
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