“That’s what we wake up every morning for”, said Brisset, who went out on his own a year ago, said during Thursday’s Alibi Breakfast.
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Also like the Derby, the Preakness has built a series of events around its actual race to enhance the experience. “They’ll run a mile-and-a-quarter for the first time in their life”. “I’d just as soon be next to him”.
The Preakness Day card – with a total of 14 races beginning at 10:30 a.m. including a multitude of undercard stakes races – is annually one of the year’s best race cards.
I hate touting odds-on horses, but logic dictates Justify.
There have been many comparisons drawn between American Pharoah and Justify in the two weeks between the Kentucky Derby and Saturday’s 143rd Preakness.
Asked whether the forecast makes him a little unsettled, Baffert said: “No, that’s something that you can’t control”.
Asked to assess the chances of both his entrants Saturday, Lukas shrugged his shoulders and saluted Justify’s impressive performance at the Derby. Other than that this horse has not made much noise. “I just knew he was capable of this”. His trainer, Chad Brown, won the Preakness previous year with Cloud Computing.
Trained by Rodolphe Brisset and ridden by last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic victor Florent Geroux, Quip captured the Tampa Derby in March before finishing second in the Arkansas Derby. That’s what makes him so great. Remember 3-5 chalk Nyquist in 2016?
The chestnut colt, greeted by a throng of admirers and reporters when he arrived at Pimlico racetrack in Baltimore from Louisville on Wednesday, is coming off a commanding 2 1/2-length victory in the Kentucky Derby.
Preakness Day will be a day of four…
Despite those caveats, the #RJhorseracing handicappers showed no hesitancy in predicting that Justify will roll in the Preakness. “We’ll see what happens”.
Justify doesn’t need that. No. 2 Lone Sailor is 15-1, No. 6 Tenfold and No. 8 Bravazo are 20-1 and No. 3 Sporting Chance and No. 4 Diamond King are 30-1 on the morning line. He ran well enough after that to finish fourth. Even the good California Chrome could not fairly land the third leg after successful the Derby and Preakness in 2014. His sire, Tiznow, had his quirks on the track and his offspring in general take a while to mature.
“I’ve seen rain here before in my 38 years”, the trainer and six-time Preakness victor D. Wayne Lukas said Thursday morning under cover inside the Pimlico Stakes barn. Then you’re throwing 160,000 people that have been drinking and they’re pretty noisy, and you put that factor in. And Quip could complete a four-horse trifecta box, but you’ll have to sneak him or Sporting Chance into the top two if you want a good price. We all know how well he handled the sloppy conditions at Churchill Downs. Quip, a victor of the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby, is the lone newcomer among a suspect group that has earned a graded stakes victory this season. And, as mentioned, he is the only closer in the field. “He won a Breeders’ Cup Classic in it”.
Good Magic will return to test Justify as part of an eight-horse field in the Preakness.
“We took him out there and we backed him up to near the half-mile pole and just went easy around there”, Baffert said. And right now most people believe that is a foregone conclusion.
Baffert said he didn’t mind any added pressure of bringing the Derby victor to the Preakness with a Triple Crown still on the horizon.
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But he’s got a few notable challengers in the Preakness. There are some intriguing scenarios to be played out.
