With a better trip two weeks ago, CLASSIC EMPIRE might have given Kentucky Derby winner ALWAYS DREAMING a battle. But the only luck Classic Empire had in the Derby was bad luck. He bobbled and was wiped out at the break, ran 75 feet farther than the winner (according to Trakus), and finished fourth. Classic Empire lost by less than nine lengths. Under the circumstances, it was an outstanding performance. With a better trip in the Preakness, Classic Empire can turn the tables on the Derby winner.

The Preakness Stakes historically has been dominated by runners exiting the Kentucky Derby, but this year a couple of new shooters present interesting cases if you are inclined to take a shot against the likely favorites.

BALTIMORE – Always Dreaming, the Kentucky Derby winner, drew post 4 and his main rival, Classic Empire, will start right alongside side him in post 5, those two among a field of 10 set on Wednesday to go in the 142nd Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico.

The post draw sets up a potential early battle between Always Dreaming, who was near the front throughout in the Derby, and Classic Empire, who was wiped out at the start of the Derby and was shuffled back early.

Kentucky Derby winners often are well backed in the Preakness, but they have been deserving of their mutuel support. Ten of the last 20 Preakness Stakes have been won by the Derby winner, with seven other Preakness winners being beaten runners from the Derby.

ALWAYS DREAMING was dominant in the winning the Derby, albeit with a smooth trip, but as a horse with controllable speed (at least in the afternoons), that isn’t unusual. Sure, he is a keen horse in the mornings, but it seems best to attribute that to him simply being a good-feeling horse.

BALTIMORE – New Mexico horse owner and breeder Tom McKenna did the practically unheard of when he skipped the Kentucky Derby with Conquest Mo Money and let someone else take his spot in America’s most famous race. On Saturday, Conquest Mo Money will jump back into the pool as one of the longer prices in the Preakness.

Saturday’s Preakness might simply be a matter of Always Dreaming just being that much better than everyone else. He certainly was when he won the Kentucky Derby.

Always Dreaming’s superiority in the Derby goes beyond the fact that after being involved in a strong early pace, he ran away from his 19 opponents to score by a decisive 2 3/4 lengths. A deeper appreciation of how good Always Dreaming really was two weeks ago is gained when you consider how soundly beaten the six others involved in the early pace were. Here they are, with their margins of defeat:

When a fresh face to the Triple Crown arrives on the scene at the Preakness, there is always a degree of interest, with people wondering, “Is this perhaps the horse who can beat the Kentucky Derby winner?”

Yet far more often than not over the past 20 years, these new shooters have been horses to avoid in the win betting for the Preakness. Since 1997, just three Preakness winners did not race in the Kentucky Derby: Red Bullet in 2000, Bernardini in 2006, and the filly Rachel Alexandra in 2009.

BALTIMORE – For a guy who hasn’t spent much time here over the years, Todd Pletcher sure is making up for it as he approaches the Preakness Stakes on Saturday with Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming.

Pletcher has been at Pimlico for a week now, and his dinner choice has been as consistent and exacting as the way he approaches training every morning.

Drawing the dreaded rail post in the cavalry charge that is the Kentucky Derby is a daunting prospect for more reasons than are obvious at first glance. That became apparent to Lookin At Lee, who began the May 6 Derby from post 1, and his trainer, Steve Asmussen.

BALTIMORE – Gunnevera tacked a three-furlong open gallop onto the end of his Wednesday morning gallop at Pimlico in his final serious work for the 142nd Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

Gunnevera, the Fountain of Youth winner and seventh in the Kentucky Derby, came onto the track from the gap at the three-sixteenths pole at 6 a.m. and backtracked around the track to the finish line. He then galloped a leisurely 1 1/8 miles under 145-pound exercise rider Victor O’Farell before quickening his pace from the seven-eighths pole to the half-mile pole.