The Go-To Second Opinion at the Track
The Preakness Stakes has been disappointing for me in recent years. This may sound ungrateful, and it is, but one must admit that it’s been a rough couple of years for the poor Triple Crown race.
While a winning ticket in the Kentucky Derby still eludes me, the race always promises elite competition and excitement. The Belmont Stakes is usually a wonderfully unique contest and fascinating handicapping exercise in my home state. More often than not, the Preakness doesn’t offer any of this.
It’s not the Preakness we all want, featuring almost no returning Derby runners and few compelling new faces, but the Triple Crown trail continues at Pimlico nonetheless. Two weeks ago, the number of horses eligible to win the Triple Crown dropped to one. That one will be tested today.
While I’m hoping that the Belmont Stakes comes up deeper than this event, there’s still plenty to look at in this field as Mage takes his next step on the most challenging path in racing. Let’s take a look:
Preakness Stakes (G1) for Three-Year-Olds, 1 3/16 Miles on the Dirt
Anyone catch that race two weeks ago?
For those of you who invested four months of reading into my “Road to the Derby” series, I have no apology or explanation for what happened on the first Saturday in May. All I can say is that horse racing can be wildly unpredictable. In order to pick Rich Strike to win the Kentucky Derby, I would’ve required divine intervention or complete abandon of reason. But some people won money, didn’t they?
Concerning the owners of Rich Strike and their decision to skip the Preakness to focus on the Belmont, I think it’s a cowardly move that also makes sense. It’s an unwritten rule that a healthy Derby winner must run in the Preakness, but it’s also clear to most that he would’ve been hard-pressed to repeat. As my analysis is about to make clear, there’s a very likely winner here, one that Rich Strike should be familiar with. Let’s get into it.
The heroes have been vanquished. Last month, Tiz the Law’s dominant three-year-old campaign came to a screeching halt in a Kentucky Derby defeat to Authentic that still seems surreal upon rewatching. Meanwhile, super filly Gamine struggled mightily in the Oaks as she succumbed to more demanding route conditions. Both runners are skipping the month of October in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup, leaving fans in a slightly more dull world on Preakness Day.
