Side note: Interestingly enough I just finished the recent book about Affirmed and I had never realized how strong of a proponent of changing the Triple Crown schedule Laz Barraro was.
And that was 1978.
I honestly feel like the connections of Trinneberg are not criticizing the schedule but rather that his enormous speed effort required more time between starts for him. And lets face it, he’s not exactly a strong challenger for the win.
~Emily
Sports reporter Claire Novak tweeted this a.m. that Bodemeister is confirmed as a Preakness starter.
It’s unclear if Kevin Plank/Sagamore Farm’s Tiger Walk will be able to get into the Preakness as a full house is expected and he may lack the earnings. The chances of getting it were tabbed at “80%” as of Sunday. Where did his name come from?
The names of Plank’s horses all feature some Under Armour connection, and Tiger Walk is no different. Auburn University is a client of the company, and on football Saturdays, Auburn fans line the street to watch their team walk into the home stadium. The ritual is know as the Tiger Walk. The name also plays off those of the colt’s parents, Tale of the Cat and Majestic Trail.
A photo collection (B’more Sun) of Sagamore today - props to Plank for saving the place and putting it to use as a functional racing stable. A slick video of the place from above here
As for Hansen, majority owner Kendall Hansen said “it is not in the best interest of Hansen to run back on two weeks’ rest or run over nine furlongs at this point in time.”
Hansen is being pointed to the seven-furlong Woody Steven Stakes on the Belmont Stakes undercard June 9, his owner said.
No Isn’t He Clever either:
Trainer Steve Asmussen said he feels the race distance is beyond Isn’t He Clever’s best.
The Grade 2 $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (Friday, Race 10) field is set. If Michael Matz had an entry it would’ve been the meeting of two showjumping greats 
Distance 1 1/8 mi; off at approx 4:46 pm EST
PP. Horse (trainer) jockey weight. ML Odds
Another defection: Hierro says no to Preakness
Hierro, the winner of the Derby Trial in his last start on April 28, will bypass the Preakness Stakes on Saturday and his connections will “consider other options”
Maybe Larry Jones should consider wheeling back on just 1 week Mark Valeski off his Grade 2 Peter Pan win at Belmont two days ago. The Preakness is shaping up (or is it falling apart?) to be just the Derby 1-2 and that’s it without another standout.
The runner up in the Peter Pan with a damn fine valiant effort was Right to Vote and he’s not TC nominated so no Preakness or Belmont for him. Most likely ‘Vote’ will be seen next in the Dwyer Handicap (G2) $200,000 at 1 1/16 miles on June 30.
Daddy Nose Best confirmed as a starter:
Asmussen just confirmed by text to @DRFByronKing that Daddy Nose Best will indeed run Sat. in 137th Preakness; G.Gomez to ride.
Expected to enter, due to the recent drop outs, Cozzetti trained by Dale Romans.
Cozzetti has won one race in seven starts while steadily improving as he develops a come-from-behind running style. He was third in the Grade 2 Tampa Derby and fourth in a three-horse photo for second, in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby.
Most recently he’s been ridden by Jose Lezcano
Out from consideration, long-shot Brimstone Island
Some tweets are suggesting Daddy Nose Best won’t be ridden by GoGo (who had him for the KY Derby), but rather instead they’ll go back to his prior jockey - Julien Leparoux.
As for Liasion it’s doubtful now however if he did, in an odd twist Martin Garcia would get the mount - despite the recent breakup reports between Baffert and Garcia.
Michael Matz trained Teeth of the Dog will get the services of Joe Bravo in the irons.
Zetterholm - Rick Dutrow trained runner based in NY will be stepping up into graded stakes company for the first time. He does however have three consecutive race victories behind him. Junior Alvarado gets the mount.
Weather projections: High temperatures for Friday and Saturday are supposed to near 80, and there is very little chance of rain, according to the National Weather Service.
[QUOTE=vineyridge;6312004]
What wimps!
I’ve been reading some older and old books that talk about horse racing. In the sixties, two weeks was the regular schedule for many of the top horses. As I mentioned in another post, the Preakness used to be three weeks after the Derby. Native Dancer ran the Derby, two weeks later won the Withers, and a week after that came back to win the Preakness.
In the 1800’s horses would run multiple race a DAY. Can’t remember the name, but one of the very greats ran 3 big races in 2 days as a three year old and won all three, including the St. Leger.[/QUOTE]
My favorite TC winner, Count Fleet, added the Withers in between his TC just for fun. Did you know that Count Fleet’s total margin for the 3 TC races together is the same as Secretariat’s? And Count Fleet, racing in war rationing, had tracks that were being skimped seriously on preparation due to trying to save gas used by the tractors. Watch his Belmont - the only fast track he ran on that year, and thus the one that would have suffered most from not watering them as usual - and you can tell at each footfall what the condition of that track is. Hertz always blamed the war gas rationing and what it did to track maintenance for CF’s injury at Belmont. But even so, on under-maintained tracks, with a career-ending injury in the Belmont, and with the jockey trying to pull him up briefly before he realized the horse would hurt himself more fighting him, his cumulative margin is equal to Secretariat’s. IMHO, the track condition, injury, etc., factors cost CF at least 1 length, and he would otherwise hold the cumulative TC record alone. But the Withers was also in the middle there, something Sir Barton also did. Tough horses back then.
About the Preakness, I’m really looking forward to Bodemeister’s race. Baffert has said he has actually GAINED weight after his Derby. I said before the Derby that he reminded me of Curlin as a brilliant, inexperienced horse who could actually benefit from a race with competition and difficulties and grow up and move forward after it.
Some tweets are suggesting Daddy Nose Best won’t be ridden by GoGo (who had him for the KY Derby), but rather instead they’ll go back to his prior jockey - Julien Leparoux.
Confirmed - GoGo is off, Julien back on.
Asmussen said he would reunited with Leparoux, who guided Daddy Nose Best to victories in the El Camino Real and Sunland Park derbies. Garrett Gomez rode Daddy Nose Best in the Derby.
I’m still surprised by the on going chatter against Julien with Union Rags. Not only Matz and exercise rider Pete Brette but more so from racing ‘fans’. From the absolutely ignorant comments those folks practically suggest Julien couldn’t outride Jacqueline Davis even if he was aboard Man o’ War. Hero to zero I suppose in this sport if you dare cost the average joe his $2 wager.
Juts about 3 hours away from the live Preakness draw (HRTV will carry it) and there were no last minute surprises with the entrants. A field of 11 were entered (in alpha order): Bodemeister, Cozzetti, Creative Cause, Daddy Nose Best, I’ll Have Another, Optimizer, Pretension, Teeth of the Dog, Tiger Walk, Went the Day Well, and Zetterholm.
No offense to the horse or his connections but I really don’t want to see the name Daddy Nose Best memorialized on the Preakness glass for years to come. Big Brown was bad enough!
[QUOTE=WhiteCamry;6319834]
The chart for his KD reports a fast track.[/QUOTE]
Source for Belmont being his first truly fast track of the year: American Race Horses of 1943 by John Hervey, aka Salvator, the in-depth “yearbook” of racing published each year for several years in there.
Not to say that he couldn’t have made an error in saying it, but the statement was by an acknowledged expert, not something picked up from NYT or Sports Illustrated.
The field is set and the positions determined in a very dry “live” event. No fat, long-shot odds as the Derby 1-2 pair are obviously the ones take this race.
137th Preakness Stakes
126-lbs for all
Off at approx 6:15 EST Saturday May 19th
NBC Sports
Post Position. Horse, Jockey. ML Odds
On scheduling: Conquistador Cielo ran in the Metropolitan Handicap against older horses as a three year old and won the mile race by 7 1/2 lengths. Five days later, he ran the Belmont and won by 14 1/2 lengths.
Courier-Journal: “Trainer Doug O’Neill popular but polarizing”
To Mike Gathagan, the Maryland Jockey Club’s vice president for communications, trainer Doug O’Neill is the best Kentucky Derby winner he has encountered taking his horse into the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Not only did O’Neill send I’ll Have Another to Pimlico two days after his victory at Churchill Downs — by far the earliest arrival for the Preakness by a Derby winner in years — but he and his barn crew have jumped at every publicity opportunity Gathagan has pitched leading up to Saturday’s $1 million race.
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Throwing out the first pitch before a Yankees-Orioles ballgame. Visiting the Boys and Girls Club. Meeting the Baltimore Ravens and lunching with coach John Harbaugh. Countless print, radio and TV interviews.
When O’Neill heard about last Saturday’s Preakness 5K run, he had his entire barn crew participate and offered his pony Lava Man, who earned more than $5 million on the track, to lead the field for the lap around Pimlico.
“You can’t put a dollar figure on what he’s meant to us,” Gathagan said. “We’ve asked him to do stuff, and he’s volunteered to do even more.”
Yet the past violations linger …
“You’d think I was a murderer” from some of the stories, he said.
Fellow trainer D. Wayne Lukas added a shot Wednesday. The four-time Derby winner, who is seeking a sixth Preakness victory with long-shot Optimizer, said some recent Derby winners have tainted the profession, including Rick Dutrow (Big Brown, 2008) appealing a 10-year suspension in New York and Chip Woolley (Mine That Bird, 2009) allegedly urinating on a slot machine.
“And now Doug, at least, has some gray area hanging over him,” Lukas told reporters. “That bothers me, frankly. I think those guys are all good enough they don’t need for there to be doubts. I think they can train horses and not have that problem in front of them. They can do it the right way.”
We’ll see what happens as either I’ll Have Another will continue to be in peak form mixed with a bounce by Bode and he’ll take the 2nd leg. Or if defeated, this interest in the connections will fade exceedingly quick.
Another surprise with Guyana Star Dweej as the sprinter was not entered into the Preakness due to a minor injury, but rather he’s pointed to the Belmont Stakes. Say what?
In 2012 the horse is 6 1-4-0; the one victory was in a maiden $75k special weight at the Big A at 1-mile with victory holding on by 1/2 a length and the comment was “all out”.
Trainer Doodnauth Shivmangal did not enter Guyana Star Dweej in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes due to the combination of a grabbed quarter and a spate of wet tracks in New York that prevented him from being able to work the horse.
Guyana Star Dweej, a maiden winner from nine starts who likely would have been the longest shot in the field, will likely be pointed to the Belmont Stakes, Shivmangal said.
Sidebar: this Friday as part of the greater Preakness weekend will be the return running of the $300k Grade 3 Pimlico Special (Race 12) on Black-eyed Susan Day.
In 1948 the race was held in October and the great Citation was entered. At the time the race purse was “winner take all” for the $10,000 prize. (Per the inflation calculator $10k in 1948 would be equivalent to $89,553 in 2010) Needless to say when the ‘Calument comet’ was entered nobody even considered for a moment running against him. After winning the race Calumet owner Warren Wright donated all the winnings to the Damon Runyan Memorial Cancer Fund. A paid workout for charity 
I was just watching some old TCs recently and saw a Pimlico Special on the Preakness broadcast on the Saturday. Yes, they were broadcasting other races instead of just talking for an hour prerace. Also had Jim McKay, who knew what he was talking about. This was 1992, I think, since Strike the Gold was running a 4-year-old. It was nice to see the older horses, too.
Saturday for the Preakness should have great weather and with it, after a few years of tinkering with the formula to regain the massive popularity of fans coming out, might get close to its old record. The all-time high was 121,263 for the 2007 running then the exceedingly foolish dramatic changes to the alcohol policy dropping it to a mere 77,850 in 2009.
Last year with some tweaking the officials lured in 107,398 and with a band like Maroon 5 playing the infield they might see something in the low teens. I doubt they are coming to see Kegasus and ‘get their freak on’ …or maybe they are.
[QUOTE=Laurierace;6319832]
No offense to the horse or his connections but I really don’t want to see the name Daddy Nose Best memorialized on the Preakness glass for years to come. Big Brown was bad enough![/QUOTE]
I couldn’t agree more.
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