It's Preak Time!

Two weeks ago, Super Saver and Calvin Borel ruled Churchill Downs, giving Todd Pletcher his first Derby win. Now it's time for Pimlico and the second leg of the Triple Crown. The Preakness (named after Preakness, the first winner of the Dinner Party Stakes which is now the Dixie Stakes, a race that will also be run tomorrow), is often where championships are made (as I posted on Monday).

Here is this year's field for the 136th Preakness.

12th (6:12)
Preakness S. (G1)
1 3/16 Miles | Open | 3 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $1,000,000
Prg. # PP Horse Jockey Trainer Wt. Claim $ Equip. Med. ML
1 1 Aikenite Castellano J J Pletcher Todd A 126 LA 20-1
2 2 Schoolyard Dreams Coa E M Ryan Derek S 126 LA 15-1
3 3 Pleasant Prince Leparoux J R Ward Wesley A 126 LA 20-1
4 4 Northern Giant Thompson T J Lukas D Wayne 126 LA 30-1
5 5 Yawanna Twist Prado E S Dutrow, Jr. R E 126 L 30-1
6 6 Jackson Bend Smith M E Zito Nicholas P 126 LA 12-1
7 7 Lookin At Lucky Garcia M Baffert Bob 126 LA 3-1
8 8 Super Saver Borel C H Pletcher Todd A 126 LA 5-2
9 9 Caracortado Atkinson P Machowsky Michael 126 LA 10-1
10 10 Paddy O'Prado Desormeaux K J Romans Dale 126 LA 9-2
11 11 First Dude Dominguez R A Romans Dale 126 LA 20-1
12 12 Dublin Gomez G K Lukas D Wayne 126 LA 10-1

Aikenite is the stablemate of Super Saver, and is coming off a second place finish in the Derby Trial, Schoolyard Dreams finished second just in front of the Derby champ in the Tampa Bay Derby. Pleasant Prince is coming into the race off a third in the Derby Trial, Northern Giant finished second in the Lane's End, and ... Yawanna Twist will have to channel his inner Funny Cide (he's a NY Bred) to have a chance, he's also the closes to a local as his trainer is from Maryland and his jockey started his US career here. Jackson Bend, I still think is a bit overhyped, but he could suprise people. A much better post for Lookin at Lucky, and gets a key jockey change. The champ is here! No jockey has won back to back Preakness' since Pat Day did it three times in a row, and Calvin's record outside of Churchill isn't great, but Super Saver well he's the champ afterall. Caracortado (Scarface is Spanish), is considered to be the best of the new shooters. Paddy O' Prado and his stablemate First Dude have jockeys who know Pimlico very well and Dublin will try to win from the same post that his dad did.

There is not much pace in this race which means if Super Saver gets a loose lead he could wire them. The downside the last time a Maria's Mon colt was going against a Baffert trainee who was very good was Monarchos who ran in the 01 Preakness against Point Given, after defeating the son of Thunder Gulch in the Derby. However Point Given showed that he was a very good horse by turning the tables on Monarchos. That's the one thing that concerns me about this race is that Lucky will turn the tables on Super Saver. Then there is Caracoratdo who ran pretty well in California. I think Paddy sadly is going to bounce in this race. In all this is really not a great race sadly.

My top three are going to be Super Saver, Lookin at Lucky and either Caracorado, Aikenite, Dublin or Yawanna Twist for third. It would be the second Preakness win for Calvin Borel, and first for both Todd Pletcher and WinStar as an owner (they of course bred Funny Cide). Now lets just hope that it ends up this way.

The undercard somewhat leaves alot to be desiered. Rainbow View is in action as is Nicanor and Just as Well, other then those three that's really it. Hopefully the Belmont undercard is better.

Of course my condolences go out to Carolyn Hine as she lost her wonderful Champion Skip Away today at the age of 17. #3 on the North American Earnings List, in a way Skip Away should be #1 as the 1-2 (Curlin and Cigar respectivly) had run in the Dubai World Cup which is why they are 1 and 2. Of many races, "Skippy" as he was called is honored with his own race the Skip Away down at Gulfstream. Somewhat fitting he passes away on the eve of the Preakness which he finished second in 1996 to Louis Quatorze. Skip Away was trained by Mrs. Hine's husband Sonny.

There's no chat tomorrow, I will be announcing the Summer Series List sometime in the next two to three weeks.

March to the Black Eyed Susan

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!