Midnight Magic

2010 Kentucky Derby, 2yo champion Lookin at Lucky was coming off a 3rd place finish in the Santa Anita Derby and lost his title of favoritism for the race. Garrett Gomez gave him an ill timed ride and finished sixth. 2 weeks later in the Preakness, it was a different story. With the rider change to youngster Martin Garcia, not only did Lucky win the Preakness, that helped him become the first 2yo Champion to win Championship honors at 3 in quite a while. Garcia will try to make some more magic again this upcoming Saturday with Midnight Interlude. This time he is taking over for Victor Espinoza who won the Preakness in 2002 with War Emblem.

While history was against Midnight Interlude in the Derby, the Preakness is a little bit more forgiving. Since 2000, three horses who won did not race at 2 (Red Bullet, Bernardini and Curlin). Midnight Interlude is trying to become the 4th to do so since. It helps that he has the defending race jockey and trainer in his corner as well. He'll be one of the overlooked horses when it comes to raceday with more then likely the Derby winner, 3rd place finisher, 4th place finisher and possibly a local taking more action (Nehro is possible at this time of writing) all going. I would not overlook this horse with an up and coming jockey in the irons.