Preakness Field

Yesterday's final workouts by horses not on the Pimlico grounds did nothing to change the makeup of the Preakness field.Trainers generally expressed satisfaction after a number of entries underwent their final serious tuneups at Churchill Downs in preparation for a flight to Baltimore today.Kentucky Derby winner Charismatic and Cat Thief, third in the Derby, went five and four furlongs, respectively, and trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Cat Thief "could suit the scenario of the Preakness a little better.

A highly competitive race looms in the Grade II, $200,000 Dixie, the turf showdown over 1 1/8 miles that will headline today's Preakness undercard.Included in the field are Sky Colony, second to Yagli in this event last year, Sharp Appeal, who has Edgar Prado in the saddle, and Elliott Walden-trained Merlin's Ring.Sharp Appeal has the highest lifetime earnings in the field -- more than $500,000 -- and was third in the 1997 Dixie behind Ops Smile. He finished second to Federal Trial in the Hialeah Turf Cup in his most recent outing.

Call it the curse of Spectacular Bid.In the 20 runnings of the Kentucky Derby since the great Maryland horse won, the wagering favorite has been beaten. That includes this year's Derby, which was won by the 31-1 long-shot Charismatic.Not so in Baltimore. Over the past 20 runnings of the Preakness Stakes, the bettors' choice has won one-third of the time. And the favorite has finished in the money 70 percent of the time.The reason has to do with important differences between the two races, and the fact that bettors apply lessons from the Derby to the Preakness, said John Gollehon, author of the recently published book Budget Gambling.

The question of who likely will set the pace Saturday in the 122nd Preakness has been answered: Cryp Too.Cryp who?He's a gelding by Cryptoclearance who has won three of six races at Aqueduct. Based at Boston's Suffolk Downs with trainer Allen Borosh, Cryp Too finished second May 3 in the one-mile Withers Stakes, setting speedy fractions of 22 and 44 seconds.The question of pace in the Preakness had been a concern for the connections of several entrants, especially Captain Bodgit. A quick early pace helps set up his late closing run."

The four-horse field for Saturday's $600,000 Pimlico Special was set yesterday.Pimlico owner Joe De Francis said this year's race is as strong as the six-horse fields of the previous two years."

Ken McPeek is the only trainer making waves at Pimlico Race Course this week by shipping in a dog.Everyone loves Blinkers, the 6-year-old black Lab that saunters around the Preakness barn in between scarfing up bran muffins and posing for TV cameras."

Two heavily backed favorites, Cigar and Concern, will face four other older stakes winners, including Devil His Due, Saturday in the $600,000 Pimlico Special.The field of six horses was pre-entered yesterday, making this the third consecutive year that the Special has drawn a small, though select, field.Cigar will be seeking his seventh consecutive win, four of those victories having come in Grade I company. The 5-year-old Bill Mott-trained horse is undefeated since he was switched from grass to dirt in New York last fall.

Smilin Singin Sam, who finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby, might join the field for the 119th Preakness Stakes.Pimlico vice president of racing Lenny Hale said yesterday he had been contacted by the horse's owner, Cot Campbell of Dogwood Stable, about the possibility of his horse running in Saturday's race."

The prospective Preakness field gained another front-running candidate yesterday when New York trainer Bruce Levine said he intends to start Koluctoo Jimmy Al.The quick New York-bred, 6 1/2 -length winner of the Cahill Road Stakes at Aqueduct in wire-to-wire fashion on April 17, joins Personal Hope and Cherokee Run as possible Preakness pacesetters.These three horses plus Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero -- as well as Prairie Bayou, Wild Gale, Union City, El Bakan and Woods of Windsor -- are considered likely starters.

Two new starters, Careful Gesture and My Luck Runs North, joined the burgeoning Preakness field yesterday, making life a bit complicated for Canadian trainer Roger Attfield.Attfield conditions Alydeed, the highly regarded but lightly raced grandson of Nijinsky II. Alydeed won the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs, but Attfield skipped the Derby with the intention of running the colt in the Preakness.Now, it looks as if Alydeed could get bumped from the Preakness and instead be running Saturday in the Illinois Derby at Sportsman's Park in Cicero, Ill.Attfield is concerned that Alydeed might be dropped from the Preakness lineup because he has only $120,252 in earnings.

Rachel Alexandra changed stalls at Churchill Downs in Louisville early Thursday morning, and the reverberations blew through the Preakness Stakes posthaste. No sooner had Stonestreet Stables purchased the precocious 3-year-old filly than new owner Jess Jackson was fielding questions about a possible run at the $1 million Preakness on May 16. Jackson was noncommittal after moving Rachel Alexandra into trainer Steve Asmussen's barn. The ambiguity left Chip Woolley, trainer for the Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, wondering whether he needed a jockey for the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Attendance and betting at the Preakness hit five-year-lows on Saturday, and fewer people watched on television than last year. Does this signal a worrisome decline in business for Maryland's signature race or did a sluggish economy and the anticipated dominance of Big Brown lead to a one-year blip? Magna Entertainment Corp. officials and industry analysts say that the numbers weren't down enough to raise long-term questions about the health of the Preakness. Magno owns Pimlico. The crowd of 112,222 and the betting handle of $73,457,510 were both fifth best in the event's 133-year history.

At some point, tradition must cede to sensibility. A long and storied history cannot take precedence over an endangered and uncertain future, not when so much is on the line. While The Jockey Club has admirably convened a committee to study the health and safety of its racehorses, there's something the Maryland Jockey Club could push for immediately: It's past time the Triple Crown calendar was tweaked to move the Preakness Stakes, slated for Saturday at Pimlico, back at least one week.

And then there were 12. The Preakness field jumped from nine to a dozen yesterday when three more starters confirmed their intentions to take on Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. Trainers for Icabad Crane, the winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico; Hey Byrn, winner of the Grade III Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park; and Riley Tucker, who has been in the money six times in seven lifetime starts, have declared plans to bring their horses to Baltimore.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Rick Dutrow is worried. Does anyone believe him? When he said his horse was the best of the Kentucky Derby field and everyone should bet him, the only ones who seemed to believe him were the bettors. Now, he says he can't promise Big Brown, his Derby winner, will run a great race May 17 in the Preakness Stakes. "We're going to hope and go and we'll see," he said. "But with just two weeks to prepare, I won't really know." It is a face unseen. The smiles are weaker. The "babes" on the end of his sentences fewer.

Good morning--Preakness field --Wishing all the horses a safe ride in the 132nd running of the second jewel.

Rob Bailes has been around horses all his life. His father, Mert, saddled J.R.'s Horizon (ninth) in the 1990 Preakness, and his grandfather Bob was the farm manager and a trainer at Meadow Farm in Virginia and the first rider to get on Secretariat's back. Rob Bailes, who has unsung Mint Slewlep in Saturday's Preakness field, is already familiar with the Triple Crown series, having saddled Scrappy T in the 2005 Preakness and come away with a surprising second place behind Afleet Alex. "My dad pretty much taught me everything I know," said Bailes, 42. "I try not to give him credit for the bad things I do. He was a very good conditioner of racehorses, and probably the most important thing he taught me was you don't train every horse the same.

Close the freeways and open the barns - most of the Preakness field should be in town today. Are they a little slow getting here? Maybe, but all you have to do is scan the start list to realize that we're not dealing with the fastest crop of 3-year-olds here. Tomorrow's big race should confirm Barbaro's brilliance on the track. But even before the gates open, a bigger statement has already been made: This year the horse racing circuit is dominated by chickens, not thoroughbreds. How else do we explain the field?

And then there were seven - and counting. The entry of Diabolical into the 131st Preakness expanded the field to seven yesterday. And trainers for Greeley's Legacy and Platinum Couple said they could decide to enter the race, too. "We're going to go ahead and enter him," said Diabolical's trainer, Steve Klesaris, who owns the 3-year-old in partnership with Puglisi Stables. "Diabolical is a talented colt. I don't believe anyone has seen the best of Diabolical yet." Diabolical, who will be ridden by Ramon Dominguez, has proved his worth against this year's top colts.

Racing handicapping systems litter a horse track like torn betting tickets, and the relationship between the two is hardly casual. However, it is those very systems - suspect as some of them may be - and the willingness of folks to back them with a few bucks that drove multimillion-dollar wagering on yesterday's 130th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. Tony Steele of Burlington, N.C., was among a group of 16 friends as he mapped his strategy for yesterday's big race over a picnic table spread with sub sandwiches, ring bologna and chips inside the grandstand.