Preakness 2012: Trinniberg will run if Bodemeister doesn’t

Owner Shivananda Parbhoo is so impressed with how well Trinniberg has come out of the Kentucky Derby that he said Tuesday if Derby runner-up Bodemeister doesn’t run in the Preakness, Trinniberg will run in the second leg of the Triple Crown.

“If Bodemeister is going to the Preakness, I’m not going to go,” Parbhoo said by phone Tuesday from Florida. If he’s not going, I’ll go to the Preakness.”

Trinniberg vanned from Kentucky to Calder on Monday and was full of himself Tuesday morning walking the shed, according to Parbhoo.

“He’s feeling that good,” said Parbhoo, who planned to return Trinniberg to the track on Wednesday. “This morning we had to put the lipshank on him. He’s very aggressive.”

It was Trinniberg who prompted Bodemeister through a quarter-mile in 22.32 seconds, a half-mile in 45.39 and six furlongs in 1:09.80 – all among the top five fractions in Derby history – before fading in the final quarter-mile. Trinniberg ultimately finished 17th, 31 1/2 lengths behind I’ll Have Another, who collared Bodemeister inside the sixteenth pole.

Parbhoo believes if it were not for Trinniberg, Bodemeister would have won the Derby and most likely, he believes the Triple Crown.

“I went into the race not to hurt anybody like that,” Parbhoo said. “I didn’t think we’d go that fast; I thought 47 [seconds] for the half and maybe 1:11 or 1:12” for six furlongs.

Parbhoo said that with a 1 1/4-mile race under Trinniberg’s belt, he doesn’t feel the 1 3/16 miles of the Preakness will be a problem for his horse, especially if Bodemeister doesn’t run.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in the race who would go with us besides him,” Parbhoo said.

Parbhoo said if Bodemeister does run in the Preakness, he will stick with his original plan of waiting to run Trinniberg in the seven-furlong Woody Stephens at Belmont Park on June 9.