Your browser does not support iframes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Astrology has a sufficient bankroll to crack the Kentucky Derby field. But his connections know the horse doesn’t have the sufficient bottom to be at his best for the May 7 Run for the Roses.

Mr. Commons, third in the Santa Anita Derby on April 9, may start in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 21, trainer John Shirreffs said.

Mr. Commons does not have sufficient graded stakes earnings to secure a berth in the Kentucky Derby field on May 7 at this point, leaving Shirreffs to point for the second leg of the Triple Crown.

“There are a lot of options for a promising 3-year-olds,” Shirreffs said. He described the Preakness as “possible.”

The marquee meet of Maryland’s racing season begins Friday, when Pimlico opens for eight weeks, culiminating with the closing-day $1 million Preakness Stakes.

More than the usual excitement could surround the 136th running of the middle leg of racing’s Triple Crown, depending on the outcome of Sunday’s Florida Derby and next weekend’s Santa Anita Derby. At this point, five horses expected to run in those two stepping-stones to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness remain eligible for a $5.5 million bonus.

A significant purse boost for the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes and the return of the Grade 3 Allaire du Pont Distaff are the two biggest changes on the proposed spring stakes schedule at Pimlico.

The schedule, released Wednesday by the Maryland Jockey Club after it was endorsed by both the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and Maryland Horse Breeders Association, still must be approved by the Maryland Racing Commision, which meets Feb. 15 at Laurel Park.

Golden Gate Fields has yet to finalize its 2010 fall meet stakes schedule or its 2011 schedule, but has already set Feb. 12, 2011, as the date for the Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby.

The winner of that race could eventually earn a $5.5 million bonus with a victory in the Preakness through MI Developments’ recently announced Preakness bonus program.

Golden Gate is hopeful the bonus program could pay dividends for the 2011 running the El Camino Real Derby, which, with apologies to the Grade 2 San Francisco Mile, is arguably Northern California’s most important race.

The winner of the 2011 Preakness Stakes, to run May 21 at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland, will earn a $5 million bonus if the horse has also won a series of Triple Crown prep races at tracks also owned by Pimlico’s parent company, MI Developments, the company announced on Friday.

In addition, MI Developments says it will raise the purses of two of the key races involved in the bonus series, the Florida Derby and the Santa Anita Derby.

The bonus will be awarded to the Preakness winner under three different scenarios, MI Developments said: