Race 1 marked the debut of Pacific, a $1.8 million in-training purchase as a 2-year-old who was bet to 3-5 for Todd Pletcher. The pricey purchase never fired, however, and checked in a distant fourth.
With several one-dimensional speeds entered, plotting the race flow of the 139th running of the Preakness is relatively straightforward. The obvious candidates to make the lead are Bayern and Social Inclusion, and the presence of that pair alone would be enough to ensure a quick, contested pace. Fairly elementary, at least on the surface.
Eddie’s First deserved to be favored Sunday in a maiden turf race, the fifth start of his career. Whether he is a deserving record-holder is a different debate.
In a fun-with-numbers exercise, draw a line through Dynamic Impact’s close second at Keeneland as a second-out maiden and see that on dirt he has never taken a backward step.
I try to avoid taking prohibitive favorites coming off perfect-trip wins, but I will make an exception for California Chrome.
The final numbers might have been slow, but there is little doubt that California Chrome was superior to his competition in the Kentucky Derby, and none of the new faces signed on Saturday look any better than the group he handled rather easily at Churchill Downs on May 3.
California Chrome, a winner of five straight, including blowout victories in the Santa Anita Derby and Kentucky Derby, enters with one major knock – price.
California Chrome just defeated a more talented, deeper group in the Kentucky Derby, recording his fifth straight stakes victory, and if he runs to his potential at Pimlico, he will win again in the Preakness.
DRF Plus handicapping analysis for Churchill Downs on Thursday, May 15.
DRF Plus handicapping analysis for Belmont on Thursday, May 15.
