The Florida-bred BIG DRAMA (Montbrook) has finished first in his last
“What happened was: the rider got his whip caught between the bridle
Big Drama jogged a mile and galloped a mile under exercise rider
“He has always been laid back. A lot of horses have talent, but the
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After a five-year absence, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert returns to
Pimlico with his ninth Preakness starter, Kentucky Derby runner-up PIONEEROF THE
NILE (Empire Maker), bred and owned by Ahmed Zayat. Baffert has won the race
four times — Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998); Point Given (2000) and War
Emblem (2002).
“I love coming here because in the stakes barn everybody is relaxed.
This year, that is MINE THAT BIRD (Birdstone), the New Mexico-based
“He sets him down, he’s coming,” Baffert said. “I’m starting to get
Pioneerof the Nile was shipped from Louisville to Pimlico Wednesday
“The horse went well today,” Baffert said. “The track is nice. We’ve
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A few days before the Derby, Baffert said he had prepared the colt to run in
all three legs of the Triple Crown. He said Thursday that Pioneerof the Nile has
handled the demands of running 1 1/4 miles in the Derby and is ready for the
Preakness.
“He’s really bounced out of it well. I’ve had horses that I’ve run there that
you can tell it really took a lot out of them, and I really didn’t want to bring
them. But I sort of had to bring them to take another shot at it. He came back
like the ones that won it. He’s going to run a big race.”
Baffert said that Mine That Bird deserves respect and his losses in the
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) and in two races at Sunland Park are not indicative
of his ability.
“I think he’s a good horse,” Baffert said. “He was the Canadian champ. He
went to Santa Anita and just didn’t run. He went to Sunland Park, which is a
speed-biased track; you’ve got to be up close. I think he’s rounding back into
form. A lot of people don’t give (trainer Chip Woolley) credit for getting him
back to form. He wants to be ridden a certain way and Calvin was a perfect fit
for him. He’s the only one who could have won it for him, the way he rode that
horse. He rode him with confidence. He rode him to get a piece of the pie and he
got the whole pie. A bad horse does not win the Kentucky Derby.”
Baffert said it makes sense that RACHEL ALEXANDRA’s (Medaglia d’Oro) new
owners are planning to start the star filly in the Preakness.
“I would have taken a shot at the Derby with her,” he said. “There wasn’t a
lot of speed in there. I saw her work the Monday before the Derby — incredible.
I watched all the Derby horses work and I said, ‘man, I’m glad she’s not in the
Derby.’ She’s a tremendous athlete. I would have taken a shot.”
Baffert has run some of his standout fillies against males and understands
“She’s a good filly,” he said. “These Classics are huge. There’s not a lot of
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas’ Preakness horses, FLYING PRIVATE (Fusaichi
“It’s good. We really have settled in good,” he said. “No problems at
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Though much has been made about Preakness favorite Rachel Alexandra
drawing the outside post in the field of 13, Lukas said it’s an ideal
spot for the standout filly.
“The best horse in the race drew the best,” he said. “Everything has
kind of fallen in line for her. The rest of them, I don’t think it made
a lot of difference, but it did with her. She was the one who needed to
draw good and she did.”
Lukas said leaving from post 13 will help the filly avoid trouble.
“If you ask these trainers and they bared their souls,” he said, “they’ll
tell you what they’d like to see is her have some pressure, have horses around
her, dirt in her face, something like that. Now she’s out there and can kind of
cruise out there and maybe go right to the lead.”
Lukas has a record-tying 13 victories in Triple Crown races, but hasn’t been
“People are just starting to realize that Bill Young and Bob Lewis had passed
“But our business has just gone bananas here in the last year. People are
Larry Jones, trainer of FRIESAN FIRE (A.P. Indy), sang the praises of
“You’ll have this situation two out of 10 times when a horse heals up
Jones reported that the healing process was aided by Eclipse, a cream
Friesan Fire, who had swept all three Kentucky Derby preps at Fair
“Hopefully, he’s going to rebound. He wasn’t the Derby favorite for no
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Owner/trainer Tom McCarthy dropped in on Lukas at the Preakness Stakes Barn
Thursday morning to borrow an exercise rider for GENERAL QUARTERS’ (Sky Mesa)
morning gallop. Despite the recent success of his Blue Grass (G1) winner,
there’s still not a lot of pomp and circumstance in the former high school
principal’s operation. The one-horse stable operates primarily with McCarthy
doing most of the hands-on work. He’s been getting a little help from part-time
groom Billy Bass and former student Jerry Hills, a retired chemist who latched
onto his former mentor after the Blue Grass and has been hanging around the barn
ever since.
“I know I probably won’t have another one like him,” the 75-year-old
McCarthy claimed General Quarters for $20,000 nearly a year ago and
“He loves this track; it’s just like Tampa,” McCarthy said after
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McCarthy said he’s tossing out the Derby performance, in which his
colt was banged a couple times before the first turn and later came back
with a sizeable clog of mud under an eyelid and a blockage in one
nostril.
“My goodness, it was terrible,” McCarthy said before heading back to
the barn to cool out his star.
Track oddsmaker Frank Carulli made him 20-1 for the Preakness from post 8. He
was sent off at 10-1 in the Derby, the first time jockey Julien Leparoux was
aboard. Leparoux will have the mount again on Saturday.
MUSKET MAN (Yonaguska) galloped 1 1/2 miles at Monmouth Park Thursday
“He’s doing great,” said Ryan, who plans to ship to Pimlico early
The procedure will be a little different from his Derby routine,
“First one to the Derby, last one to the Preakness,” Ryan said. “I’ll
Musket Man drew post 3 for the Preakness and was listed at odds of
“I’m good with it (the post),” he said. “There’s good speed to the
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Musket Man has never been worse than third in seven career starts, five of
them victories. His only defeat other than in the Derby came in the Sam F. Davis
S. (G3) at Tampa Bay on February 14, when he was third to Preakness opponent
General Quarters.
Not unlike his father before him, trainer Gary Stute plans to send his first
Preakness runner PAPA CLEM (Smart Strike) out for a final tune-up the morning
before the big race.
“We’ll probably blow him out an eighth of a mile, let him gallop to
Stute said exercise rider Emundo Cedeno will be aboard, unless jockey
“I’ve had a lot of morning glories in my life,” Stute said. “This is
Stute said his father, Mel, worked Snow Chief twice between his
“He would send him three-eighths and let him roll,” Gary said,
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“I see it just about the same as the Derby,” Stute said. “I think maybe Big
Drama and her (Rachel Alexandra) will go out and, hopefully, I’ll be laying
third or fourth.”
Stute said he’s committed to completing the Triple Crown series as long as
all goes well on Saturday.
“Even if I run second to her (Rachel Alexandra) and win the Belmont (G1) —
that’s the good thing about her being a filly — I should still get
three-year-old of the year, three-year-old colt.”
The Preakness entries show that Starlight Partners’ TAKE THE POINTS (Even the
Score) will have an equipment change, blinkers on, for the seventh start of his
career.
“In the Santa Anita Derby (G1), Alex Solis felt like he was a little bit
intimidated by horses surrounding him,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “We took
that into consideration; put some blinkers on him in one of his breezes; and we
thought we saw a little bit of improvement. Maybe that’s all we need, just a
little bit of improvement. We felt like there were no negative parts to it. He
wasn’t too rank or anything like that, so we felt like it could possibly help
us.”
Take the Points had enough graded stakes earnings for a spot in the Kentucky
Derby field, but Pletcher and the owners decided to skip the Derby with the
fourth-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby and wait for the Preakness. The
Preakness has drawn what appears to be a strong, deep field of 13 runners, but
Pletcher said that the composition is not out of the ordinary.
“You expect the winner to come back and sometimes the horses that are second,
third and fourth take a pass and wait for the Belmont,” he said. “Other times
they run back. So I can’t say it’s dramatically different, but I’m still happy.
With the little bit of extra time I think our horse has improved. The Santa
Anita Derby form held up pretty well for the Derby itself and now we’re catching
those horses back on two weeks rest when we’ve had six weeks rest. That could
swing the pendulum in our favor and we’re trying to pick up a couple of lengths
on those horses. Hopefully, the blinkers will contribute to that and hopefully
the additional time between races and catching those horses on short rest will
be in our favor.
Take the Points galloped at Belmont Park Thursday morning. He will be shipped
to Baltimore early Saturday morning. Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado has the
mount in the Preakness.
Trainer Al Stall Jr. was happy with TERRAIN’s (Sky Mesa) 1 1/2-mile gallop
“The most important thing for him is that he’s getting back on a preferred
Jeremy Rose will ride Terrain for the first time in the Preakness.
“I’ve met him, but I don’t know much about him except — like everyone else,
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Trainer Bill Komlo decided not to put a work into TONE IT DOWN (Medaglia
d’Oro), the show finisher from the Federico Tesio S., before the Preakness,
while scheduling a 1 1/2-mile gallop and a visit to the starting gate Thursday
morning at Laurel Park.
“We had a request from (Pimlico and Laurel starter) Bruce Wagner to bring the
horse over to the gate and stand him,” Komlo said. “I guess that’s a
prerequisite for all the horses running in the Preakness, so we galloped around
one time and went over and stood him in the gate and then took him back to the
barn.”
Tone It Down is one of three Preakness runners listed at odds of 50-1 on the
morning line, but Komlo is confident he will be able to outrun the
prognostication with new rider Kent Desormeaux in the saddle. Mario Pino had
been aboard for the dark bay colt’s first six starts, but Komlo felt he was too
close to the pace in the Tesio at Pimlico on May 2.
“I haven’t talked to him (Desormeaux) yet, but we’ve got four horses in
tomorrow,” Komlo said. “He rides a horse for us in the 3RD race (Riddles and
Rhymes), so I’ll try to get over to the jocks’ room before we run.”
Desormeaux has won the Preakness twice, including last year’s edition with
Big Brown. The former Maryland riding champion also took the 1998 Preakness with
Real Quiet.
Tone It Down was a $100,000 purchase by Komlo’s daughter Deborah and
son-in-law Michael Horning at Timonium’s two-year-old in training sale last May.