By Brock Sheridan, The Brock Talk
Horse racing
being the fickle game that it is, makes it difficult to predict entries into a
race next week. With that being said, it looks like the Preakness Stakes (gr.
1) will feature a full 14-horse gate when they go to the post May 15. It also
looks like the Preakness will be evenly represented by horses that started in
the Kentucky Derby and by horses that are new to the Triple Crown.
With much being written
and said over the years about the grueling North American Triple Crown and the
scarcity of those that have taken all three races (there have been only 11
since 1919), it might appear to some that these Preakness invaders may have an
advantage. The thinking goes, and logically so I might add, that Kentucky Derby
horses are coming out of perhaps the most taxing race of their careers carrying
more weight further and against more horses than they will ever again. And they
must bounce back into the Preakness with only two weeks rest - or one or two
weeks less than most trainers would like.
That of course
contributes to the fact that 13 of the 20 Kentucky Derby starters this year are
not being pointed toward the Preakness. But once a Derby runner makes it into
the Preakness starting gate, they have a much better chance of winning than
their invading rivals from strictly a historical perspective.
Looking at the last 50
Preakness Stakes going back to 1959, only eight Preakness winners did not start
in the Kentucky Derby. The most recent being eventual 2009 Horse of the Year
Rachel Alexandra, who became the first filly since Nellie Morse in 1924 to win
the Preakness and the first to ever do so after a victory in the Kentucky Oaks.
Prior to that, after an
easy win in the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct in late April, Bernardini won the
2006 Preakness tragically marred by the injury to Kentucky Derby winner
Barbaro.
Six years earlier Red Bullet
avenged his loss in the 2000 Wood Memorial to Fusaichi Pegasus, by passing on
the Derby and coming back to win the Preakness over his Kentucky Derby winning
nemesis.
One has to go back 17
years to find another Preakness winner who did not start in the Derby. Both the
1982 and 1983 Preakness winners made their previous start in a race other than
the Kentucky Derby. Deputed Testamony won the 1983 Preakness after taking the
Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico and Aloma's Ruler won the previous Preakness,
after having won the Withers Stakes.
In one of the most famous
and controversial Preakness Stakes, D. Wayne Lukas brought Codex to Baltimore
in 1980 to take on the Kentucky Derby winning filly Genuine Risk. In February
Lukas had not included Codex among his five Kentucky Derby nominees. So after
their win in the Santa Anita Derby, they made their next stop in Baltimore for
the Preakness. (Ironically, it was Lukas' son Jeff who had nominated Codex to
the Preakness saying later he would pay the $100 fee because "My dad
doesn't know how good Codex is.")
Nearing the top of the
Pimlico stretch, Codex and Angel Cordero Jr. where in front but Genuine Risk
and Jacinto Vasquez were bearing down on the outside. Just as it seemed the
filly was about to pass, Cordero appeared to steer Codex wide out of the turn,
taking Geneuine Risk and Vasquez with them and stopping the momentum of the
charging filly.
Former jockey Eddie
Arcaro, working as a analysist for the ABC telecast, told 30 million viewers
that if he were a steward, he would disqualify Codex. Moments later the track
stewards disallowed the claim of foul and kept Codex the winner. The Pimlico
switchboard lit up within seconds and angry calls persisted at the track for
weeks.
Although nominated for
the Triple Crown, trainer Del Carroll chose not to run Bee Bee Bee in the 1972
Kentucky Derby. However, after winning the Survivor Stakes at Pimlico, he
entered Bee Bee Bee in the Preakness only to see him go gate-to-wire at 19-1
odds over Riva Ridge on a sloppy track.
In another famous
Preakness, Greek Money freshened at Pimlico while Ridan won the 1962 Kentucky
Derby. The two locked strides lengths ahead of the field down the stretch of
the Preakness and racing fans were given not only an exciting finish, but an
unusual post race as well.
Jockey Manuel Ycaza on
the second-place Ridan, claimed foul on jockey John Rotz aboard the winning
Greek Money. Perhaps dismissing the new technology of film patrol in his early
action and later claim, it was discovered by the eye in the sky that the hot
tempered Ycaza had in fact sent an elbow directly to the chin of Rotz just
before the wire. Rotz and Greek Money kept the victory and Ycaza got a 10-day
suspension.
