Preakness Draws Nine With No Triple Crown at Stake; Epicenter Favored
Kentucky Derby second best Epicenter is the sound favorite after drawing off the eighth station Mon afternoon for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes.
The Steve Asmussen-trained colt got 6-5 morning-line odds after officials drew carry positions for the s jewel in the Triple Crown, which will follow held at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course.
Epicenter went turned as the post-time favourite inward the Derby on May 7, and it looked as if he and Zandon battle downward the stretch to the destination line. However, 80-1 barb Rich Strike caught upwardly to the geminate in the final furlong, and took the rush from both of them inward the final strides.
Late lowest week, Rich Strike’s owners announced they would forego a shaft at the Triple Crown and prepare for the Belmont Stakes, the final gem inward the trilogy, which will follow execute on June 11 inward New York.
A field of view of ennead testament tally inward the Preakness, a 1-3/16th-mile race. Emily Price Post time is scheduled for 7:01 pm ET.
Asmussen: ‘Ideal’ Draw for Epicenter
Asmussen, the pinch trainer inward the nation in terms of wins the past times II years, said he had no more problems with Epicenter drawing off an alfresco post.
It’s a nine-horse field, plenty of run-up to the 1st turn,” he said. “Several sweet horses and us coming indorse in deuce weeks, i reckon it’s dead ideal. You could say we’re half as neural as the standoff for the Derby, when you go away from 20 runners to nine. I think that makes it that much more good to everybody as far as post-position tie goes.”
Epicenter is ace of ternary Kentucky Derby horses in the field, with Simplification and Happy Jack beingness the others. Filly Secret Oath ran the daytime before, winning the KY Oaks.
Of the fresher horses, the one that stands come out most is Early Voting. Trained by Chad Brown, the Gun Runner progeny ran a strong Sir Henry Joseph Wood Memorial on April 9 at Aqueduct, but was denied a wire-to-wire win thanks to Mo Donegal’s tardily charge.
The Preakness will follow just now the 4th run inward Early Voting’s career. He won his first off two starts before the Natalie Wood Memorial.
Early Voting will break off from the fifth post, practically to Brown’s delight.
“I wanted to follow somewhere inwards the middle, so that testament work,” he said.
Is Two Weeks Off Too Short?
With Rich Strike bypassing the Preakness, the query won’t be whether the Derby victor can buoy back up upwards his tremendous rebound from deuce weeks ago. Rather, the question that will likely have discussed the to the highest degree is whether the electric current formatting of the Triple Crown should follow tweaked.
The path it’s localize upwards now, on that point are deuce weeks between the Derby and the Preakness, and trine weeks between the Preakness and the Belmont. Most horses prepping for the Kentucky Derby have IV weeks or more betwixt races.
Rich Strike’s proprietor Rick Dawson said he and trainer Eric Reed had some discussions near entering the s jewel. But there were concerns about his recovery time between races.
While deuce horses make won the Triple Crown since 2015, thither get been some inwards racing circles calling for a thirster break, same a month, 'tween the races. They say that would give horses sufficient quietus between races and could micturate it easier for a Equus caballus to win a Triple Crown.
Of course, the downside is that a Triple Crown contender would also human face horses that are equally, if non more, rested.
One horse fancier resisting the pushing is trainer Graham Motion, who won the 2011 KY Derby with Animal Kingdom.
“…It’s meant to be a challenge, it’s not meant to be easy,” Motion posted on Twitter lastly week. “I was surprised how wellspring Animal Kingdom went into the Preakness. but was a small unlucky, you need that too! All horses are different.”
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