Reed feels validated in skipping Preakness
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Eric Reed, trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike, began this week with 9,115 starts spread among 44 different tracks in his 37-year training career, but zero at Pimlico. And after watching the 147th Preakness from his old Kentucky home Saturday evening, he has no regrets.
“The way the race turned out, I’m glad we weren’t there,” Reed said Sunday. “You saw what happened to Epicenter, and he has a whole lot more early speed than us.”
Front-running types dominated most of the main-track races on the Preakness card at Pimlico, including Early Voting, prominent from the start in winning the Preakness. Epicenter, second as the favorite when unable to overcome a less-than-ideal break, was among those victimized by the way the Pimlico track seemed to play.
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Reed felt the stretch-running Rich Strike would have been at a major disadvantage under such conditions, underscoring the decision he and owner Rick Dawson made in skipping the Preakness.
“Plus I didn’t think the horse would’ve been mentally ready anyway,” said Reed.
Instead of competing in the Preakness, Rich Strike breezed some 12 hours earlier Saturday at Churchill Downs, where the colt was sent last week from Reed’s primary base at the Mercury training center in Lexington, Ky. With Gabe Lagunes aboard, the colt went a purposeful half-mile in 47.20 seconds over a fast track, marking his first work since his 80-1 upset of the May 7 Derby.
Reed watched the work from the Churchill frontside, with Dawson and jockey Sonny Leon alongside. He said he thought Rich Strike “might have been a touch too eager” early in the drill, going his first quarter in 22.80 seconds.
“It takes him a while to settle down,” said Reed. “He’s still sharp. That’s why he needs more than two weeks between races. I’m definitely satisfied with our decision to wait for the Belmont.”
Reed said Rich Strike will work once more prior to the June 11 Belmont Stakes, for which the colt figures as one of the betting favorites. He’ll breeze May 30 at Churchill, then ship out the next day for New York. “We’ll have eight or nine mornings to gallop him over the track there,” said Reed.
Rich Strike was the fifth Derby winner to be withheld from the Preakness since Gato Del Sol in 1982. That includes Mandaloun, who was named winner of the Derby last year after the disqualification of Medina Spirit but was not the Derby winner at the time the Preakness was run.
Rich Strike’s absence created something of a furor, “but I can’t help what people think,” said Reed.
“I had to do what’s right for our horse,” he said.
Leon, based primarily in Ohio, has never ridden at Belmont, but Reed said he is “working with a couple of agents” to get the jockey a few mounts during Belmont week so that Leon can familiarize himself with the track known as Big Sandy.
Reed said one of his happier moments in the last two-plus weeks occurred four nights after the Derby, when he was playing in his regular Wednesday poker game with friends in Lexington.
“I got a text notification on my phone that all the tests came back clean from the Derby, and when I read it, I went, ‘Ohhh!’ ” said Reed. “One of the other guys said, ‘What, you’ve got a good hand?’ And I said, ‘Nope, I just got some really good news.’ They can’t ever take the Derby away from us now.”
Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article misstated that Rich Strike was the fifth healthy Derby winner to skip the Preakness since Gato Del Sol in 1982. He was just the fifth Derby winner since Gato Del Sol to skip the Preakness. Grindstone and Country House missed the race due to injury.