It has been a pattern that has worked well for trainer Chad Brown. A horse runs in the Wood Memorial, skips the Kentucky Derby, and wins the Preakness. Cloud Computing did it in 2017. Early Voting again in 2022. Saturday, Brown will attempt the hat trick with Iron Honor, though circumstances are not necessarily similar. Cloud Computing had a pair of two-turn races, one a runner-up finish in the Gotham which that year was run at 1 1/16 miles over the now-defunct inner track, before running third, beaten seven lengths in the Wood Memorial. Early Voting had won the Withers at 1 1/8 miles before getting beat a neck in the Wood. Iron Honor, a debut winner going six furlongs in December at Aqueduct, won a modest renewal of the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at a one-turn mile before finishing seventh, beaten 4 1/4 lengths by Albus, in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial. Brown believes Iron Honor had a legitimate excuse in the Wood. Breaking from the outside post in the 12-horse field, he took a hard bump from longshot Red Zone Runner going into the first turn. Brown felt that bump put Iron Honor on the bit and he chased the pace three wide before failing to sustain his run from the three-sixteenths pole to the wire. :: Get ready for Preakness with DRF past performances, picks, and betting strategies! “I don’t expect him to be one of the top choices in the race because his one two-turn effort doesn’t look good on paper,” Brown said. “He’s got some excuses, but he also has some things to prove.” As one of just two graded stakes winners in the field and with Flavien Prat in the irons, Iron Honor could be one of the top choices in the field. Iron Honor has to prove he can run two turns. He’s a son of Nyquist, a Kentucky Derby winner, out of a Blame mare, Orencia. Blame won a Breeders’ Cup Classic, beating Zenyatta. “The look of the horse physically and his pedigree, he looks like he wants it, he’s bred to want it,” Brown said. “I think his last race sort of dirties the water a little bit. It just didn’t unfold right, It makes it look like he can’t do it, I’m hopeful he can.” The key to Iron Honor potentially getting the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles is getting him to relax. Toward that end, Brown is removing blinkers from the colt’s equipment. He has trained the horse without blinkers since the Wood Memorial, including a half-mile workout Saturday at Belmont Park. Iron Honor went a half-mile in 47.66 seconds in company with Blue Grass runner-up Ottinho, a horse who potentially could run in the Belmont Stakes. “We took the blinkers off the horse, gave him a chance to get that experience, he seems to be in a good place right now,” Brown said. One variable that weighs on Brown’s mind is the fact the Preakness is being run at Laurel Park as a project to rebuild Pimlico Race Course takes place. Over his career, Brown is 14 for 56 at Laurel, but he still has reservations. “I’m hopeful the horse can take his racetrack with him,” Brown said. Englehart to take a swing There is no doubting that Pretty Boy Miah will be among the longest shots in the field in the Preakness, but trainer Jeremiah Englehart wants to take his shot. Pretty Boy Miah, a 3-year-old gelding by Beau Liam, has won his last two starts after losing his first two. His wins have come in a maiden and a starter allowance, both run around one turn at Aqueduct. Both have come with the addition of blinkers. :: Get Preakness Betting Strategies for exclusive wagering insights, contender analysis, and more “We kind of always thought blinkers would be the answer,” Englehart said. “I didn’t want to put them on him right away, was hoping he would develop into not needing them and wanted to see. He was losing focus at times, and blinkers seem to help him as far as concentrating on what we want him to do.” Though Pretty Boy Miah has yet to run in a race of this caliber, Englehart said he and the owners – Shirl and Mary Ann Penney’s Team Penney Racing, Ken Ellis’s Echo Racing, Chris Garrie’s Flower City Racing, Anthony Bruno (CFO of the New York Yankees), and Chris Meyer – want to give the Preakness a try. “You only get a shot at these races once a year,” Englehart said. “I feel like I could have done more to try and get horses there. The ownership group is excited to take that chance, and I’m all for it. Whether or not it’s the smart answer, it doesn’t matter. If we can get in, we feel we want to take a shot.” This year, in a field with only two graded stakes winners in it, is as good a year as any to take a shot. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.