BALTIMORE – Bodemeister was the 7-5 favorite in early wagering for the 137th Preakness on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course, with Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another the 7-2 second choice.
As of 6:50 p.m. Eastern, and with $126,488 in the win pool, next in line in the advance wagering were Went the Day (9-2), Creative Cause (6-1), and Daddy Nose Best (13-1). A field of 11 3-year-olds is expected to start.
BALTIMORE – Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux was replaced by Ramon Dominguez aboard longshot Tiger Walk for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes after Desormeaux failed a Breathalyzer test at Belmont Park on Friday and was removed from his three mounts by that track’s stewards.
“We’re trying to run a professional operation and can’t have any distractions this weekend,’” Tom Millikin, general manager for Kevin Plank’s Sagamore Farm, the owner of Tiger Walk, wrote on Twitter. “We spoke with Kent and wished him well.”
Countdown to the Crown returns for a seventh season online as one of the most comprehensive handicapper’s scouting reports of the 3-year-old scene. Posted each Friday at DRF.com from Jan. 6 through the Belmont Stakes, Countdown keeps you apprised of the rising stars of the 3-year-old class from the maiden ranks through the Grade 1 stakes. You can access daily updates and interactive features at Countdowntothecrown.com as well.
3 things you won’t read anywhere else
On paper, the 137th Preakness is a four-horse race, a rematch among the 1-2-4-5 finishers in the Kentucky Derby. Those who finished farther back at Churchill Downs did so without any apparent excuse, and the new shooters in the field of 11 look hopelessly overmatched. So the question facing handicappers is whether the Derby established a clear pecking order among the top four Derby returnees, who were separated by only three lengths at the finish, or whether the race might unfold differently enough to jumble the order of finish from Louisville.
BALTIMORE – By training the winner of the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, Doug O’Neill arrived at the peak of his profession. He said it was confirmation that, given the opportunity, he could compete at the highest level of the sport.
BALTIMORE – It seems that no matter what I’ll Have Another does, he has to do it again. He has won 4 times in 6 starts, including his last three, the most recent being the Kentucky Derby, in which he outran 19 other 3-year-olds.
Richard Dutrow Jr., trainer of 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, will thrust himself into the national spotlight again on Saturday when he brings the 20-1 longshot Zetterholm to Pimlico for the 137th Preakness Stakes.
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BALTIMORE – He was second at the Kentucky Derby, but he will be the first choice at the Preakness Stakes. Despite being defeated as the favorite two weeks ago in the first leg of the Triple Crown, Bodemeister will be the favorite again on Saturday in the 137th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, in which he will try to deny the Derby winner, I’ll Have Another, from advancing to the June 9 Belmont Stakes with a chance to complete the Triple Crown.
BALTIMORE - Trainer Doodnauth Shivmangal did not enter Guyana Star Dweej in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes due to the combination of a grabbed quarter and a spate of wet tracks in New York that prevented him from being able to work the horse.
“I don’t like to breeze over a sloppy track,” said Shivmangal, who told Pimlico officials that a grabbed quarter had not sufficiently healed.
Guyana Star Dweej, a maiden winner from nine starts who likely would have been the longest shot in the field, will likely be pointed to the Belmont Stakes, Shivmangal said.
