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Home , 2002 Preakness Stakes, Arrogate, Azeri (horse), Bee Bee Bee, Birdstone, Blue Grass Stakes

I am sure that the TV coverage will be the " Story" for the entire program instead of focusing on the horses, and the tradition of the Preakness. (Will they allow ", My Maryland" be played this year?)

Be that as it may, here is the field for the race if you haven't seen it already.

1. I, for one, am disappointed that D Wayne Lukas has entered Ram. He's shown a lot of promise in his last two races but dumping him in a Grade One at this point...well, I guess worse has been done. But, to me, it's Lukas' hope for "just one more". He's 85 years old. I guess it would be wonderful...and certainly this story might overshadow the Baffert one. But I doubt it. Anyway, the colt is by (remember him? Baffert does....)....so the pedigree on the sire side is there. The dam is unraced, having sold as a yearling for $250,000. She did produce stakes winner COAL FRONT (a $575,000 purchase as a two year old) and he did alright for himself at the races, earning 1.8 million $. His best races were at a mile or a mile and a sixteenth. When bred to Belmont winner , (Sire of Derby winner and Belmont winner, the ill-fated ), Miner's Secret produced another stakes winner, this one a gelding named Conquest Titan which won a 7 furlong stake in Canada a few years ago. She is also the dam of LAAFY, which was sent to Europe and tho he didn't burn up the track, he did finish 3rd in a 12 furlong minor stake race. Bred to American Pharoah's sire, , she foaled a filly who also was sent to England and she won her only start last year, that at 7 furlongs. The broodmare sire is MINESHAFT, a phenomenal distance horse (by A P Indy, another Belmont winner) & ultimate Horse of the Year who has been an exceptional sire. So, the pedigree is there. As for Ram, he is two for nine (won his last two starts, the last start being on Derby day). is Ricardo Santana Jr. 2. KEEPMEINMIND made his 7th career start in the Derby and he has a single victory (last November). Robertino Diodoro is the trainer & David Cohen returns as the rider. He ended up 7th in the Ky Derby after getting off slow and trailing for at least half the race. Then he pretty much passed tired horses but ended up only 9 1/4 lengths in back of the winner (well, the winner as of today anyway -- ) I gave you a thumbnail of him prior to the Derby. 3. MEDINA SPIRIT drew post 3 and will once again be ridden by Johnny V. I don't have to tell you who his trainer is unless you have lived under a rock for the past 48 hours. Never mind after the Derby win. Enough said, I guess. But he does come into this race with 3 wins in 6 career starts & 3 seconds. The pedigree as I noted before is unfashionable and he's a colt in a plain brown wrapper but as he showed in the Derby, he can run and he is tough. 4. CROWDED TRADE comes into the Preakness with a 1-1-1 record in three career starts, the last being a 3rd place finished in the Wood Memorial to the 72-1 Bourbonic. His sire is More Than Ready which was 4th in the and Haskell of 2000 and on the track was a much better 7 furlong horse. As a sire, he is a "shuttle" stallion who has made his mark in Australia as well as the . (and Hong Kong) and he pretty much gets foals that can win at any distance. His best in the US was the filly Rushing Fall which won at 9 furlongs, Eclipse Champion Uni which won at 9 furlongs as well, 2x Breeders Cup Sprint winner Roy H, & 2018 Travers winner . Down Under he begot New Zealand Oaks winner More Than Sacred (at a mile and a half), top sprinter/miler More Joyous, crack sprinter Phelan Ready, and so many more. Tho they seem to prefer grass they pretty much can run on anything and win at any distance. The dam is Maude S, a minor stakes winning daughter of Jump Start, which sired SW Prayer For Relief, winner Pants on Fire, 10 furlong Hollywood Gold Cup winner Rail Trip and others. He is trained by Chad Brown and will be ridden by (he rode Catholic Boy to win the Travers), and was the rider on Highly Motivated in the Kentucky Derby. 5. returns from his 6th place finish in the crowded Kentucky Derby and there was a jockey change from Mike Smith to Irad Ortiz Jr. in an ongoing jockey swap. He has an 8-2-2-3 record, a good distance pedigree. is the trainer. I gave a thumbnail of him prior to the Kentucky Derby. Do need to say that he did get bumped in the Derby, was far back and managed to work his way to a hard fought 6th. 6. was a come-from-behind winner of the at Golden Gate in his next-to-last start. He won by a neck as favorite but I looked thru the field he beat and he didn't beat much. They ditched rider Kyle Frey in favor of the more experienced Flavien Prat (who rode to a 3rd place finish in the Kentucky Derby). Also keep in mind that Golden Gate's course is synthetic. In his last start, he was 3rd to Derby favorite in the (1 1/8 miles) in what I still think was the best Derby prep. During the race, he was bumped and according to the charts his was "in tight" at the start which may provide him with excuses but he wasn't getting by the top two that day if Pegasus rode with him. His sire is the 9 furlong stake winning Twirling Candy, a son of the horse for all distances, (Arg). Twirling Candy's dam is House of Danzing who told her connections early she wanted nothing to do with the racetrack (was 2cd once in 2 starts). Her sire is the distance loving Chester House which preferred grass. House of Danzing did produce the 9 furlong winner Dubai Sky which is now at stud in Chile & winner Ethnic Dancer. Rombauer's dam is the unraced Cashmere who is also the dam of 2 other minor stakes placed horses. Cashmere is by Cowboy Cal who seemed to prefer turf but did finish second in the Blue Grass Stakes of 2008 and won the 9 furlong dirt . (BTW, "Cal" was 9th in the Kentucky Derby to and he was ridden by Johnny V. Rombauer's record is 6-2-1-1. Trainer here is Michael W. McCarthy who has trained 5 or 6 Grade One winners, including City of Light which won the Pegasus World Cup when that race's purse was dropped to 3 million from the 16 million dollar high a few years earlier). I include his middle initial only coz there are a few "Michael McCarthy" horse trainers. 7. FRANCE GO DE INA. I just shake my head at this entry but I do keep in mind that 50 years ago, Canonero won the Preakness after an unbelievable Kentucky Derby upset. Also in Preakness history is which cantered in the mud when put to the front in a race that was supposed to be a "given" to Kentucky Derby winner (you know, 's stablemate?). And then there was , trained by Chad Brown, which won the Preakness a couple of years ago in a Triple Crown series I'd like to forget. Certainly the worst in years. So....all those memories...and I still shake my head. This colt was bred in Kentucky and sold to Japan for $100,000. He raced 3 times in Japan, winning two races. Interesting, they were at a mile and an eighth but neither at stakes level and he didn't beat much. But he did win. So maybe that is why they went ahead and entered him in the UAE Derby in Dubai where he was 6th to an Irish bred horse named Rebel's Romance (who I think is 4 for 5 and could possibly start in the Epsom Derby in June). It was a 14 horse field (on dirt) and he was some 10 lengths in back of the winner. Not earth shattering or even attention getting. OK...so let's get to the good part about this colt (there must be one) and that is the sire, Eclipse Champion three year old , by 's Song. This colt won at 9 and 10 furlongs and even hung around to race and win stakes as a four year old (which in today's world isn't the norm...they usually shuttle them right to the stud farm while their good records are fresh on the brain...). Tho he has had winners in Japan, Russia and S Korea, his US offspring haven't really come into the spotlight. I'd guess the best of them is a colt named Manny Wah who is still racing after 5 years. He's strictly a sprinter. His daughter Will's Secret did with the 8.5furlong Honeybee this year. I still have hopes for him as a sire, if Kentucky doesn't give up on him. (BTW, he was trained by D Wayne Lukas). Dam is non winner Dreamy Blues and she is by Horse of the Year , himself a winner of the Preakness. In November, she was sold for $22,000 to Alliance Bloodstock. Have no info about the foal she was carrying at the time but "France" appears to be her only racing foal. Anyway, trainer is Hideyuki Mori. He started a horse in the Kentucky Derby in 1995 (14th). The story out about him and I am sure one that will be played up on TV is that he has won grade 1 races in Hong Kong, France as well as Japan and isn't afraid to take his horses to races and face all comers. Alrighty. Jockey, thank goodness is American based (won the Ky Derby on , the Breeders Cup Classic and many, many other Grade 1 races.). 8. UNBRIDLED HONOR is a trained one-race winner by Grade 1 winner Honor Code. The one race Unbridled Honor won was a Tampa Bay Downs. It was a mile and 40 yard maiden race in which he was favorite. Johnny V rode him and I don't think Johnny rides at TBD alot. After that, he was 4th to Helium in the Tampa Bay Derby coming from last to lose by 7 lengths. His last start was in the Stakes a month ago at and he ended up going four wide, driving to finish second (to King Fury which was withdrawn from the Ky Derby) by 2 3/4 lengths. Julian Leparoux rode him that day but it will be Luis Saez who is on him for the first time on Saturday. For the big races, it's always jockey roulette. Pedigree wise, his sire was one of my favorites in recent years. Honor Code (by A P Indy) won the 9 furlong Whitney defeating Belmont winner among others and the Remson Stakes as well as a couple other graded stakes at a mile. His best racing son in his short career thusfar has been Honor A P which won the & was retired after finishing 4th in last year's Kentucky Derby. He is also the sire of Max Player which was 3rd in last year's (& 5th in the Ky Derby). His 3rd crop of foals is making it to the races this year. The dam of Unbridled Honor is Silvery Starlet who has a handful of brothers and sisters who did well on the track, including millionaire and Haskell winner . As a race horse herself, Silvery Starlet showed promise in winning her first start ( in Florida in 2014) and got one second and two thirds in a sparing three year campaign before they sent her off to become a mama. She cost a million bucks to the deep pockets of Whisper Hill Farm and is a broodmare there. This is her first foal. Her sire was Unbridled's Song which I've mentioned before. Saez goes from riding the Ky Derby favorite (Essential Quality) to this one. Heck, I love grey horses. 9. RISK TAKING is the second entry for Chad Brown and he'll be ridden by Jose Ortiz. This colt has 2 wins in 5 starts and would have been favored in the featured last weekend at Belmont but he was withdrawn in favor of this race, in lieu of all the Derby defections I am sure. BTW, Saez rode Promise Keeper for Todd Pletcher to win that race. Anyway, this colt has my attention. He won a 9 furlong maiden race at Aqueduct (ridden by Jose Lezcano) in December (Unbridled Honor was 4th) and then won the Grade 3 Withers at the same track, same distance by almost 4 lengths (ridden by Eric Cancel) & then was the starting favorite in the Wood Memorial and showed absolutely nothing (ridden by Jose's brother Irad). Toss out that race. The chart says he bobbled at the start and had no response. (Heck, I've had days like that!) He was four- wide at one point and six-wide at another so it's safe to say he ran alot further than the race distance of 9 furlongs. The Preakness is a mile and 3/16ths--9.5 furlongs--, keep in mind. Medaglia D'Oro is the sire. His stud fee if $150,000 which says alot, plus he's been a top ten sire for many years. Sire of HOTY (Preakness winner in 2009), Ch , Canadian HOTY , Australian Ch Vancouver, French Ch Passion For Gold and on and on. He himself won the Travers (10 furlongs), the Whitney (9 furlongs). He was 8th in the 2002 Preakness (to ). The dam is stakes placed Run A Risk and she has had 4 foals, 2 of which have run with the one winner being Risk Taking. 10. CONCERT TOUR will be on the outside in this ten horse field and once again his story is not about him, but about his in- the-spotlight trainer, Bob Baffert. I'm saying no more here. I know that Jimmy Barnes travelled with Concert Tour and Medina Spirit so they could not be in better (or safer) hands. And speaking of hands, the indomitable (in my eyes) Mike Smith. Mike, as you know if you read my thumbnails for the Derby (you did, didn't you?) rode Midnight Bourbon in the Kentucky Derby (look page on this page and you'll see Irad is on him Saturday). Mike is 55. So what!? He's the best. The jockey of , , Midnight Bisou, Songbird, , Azeri and so many more outstanding horses. Not enough adjectives in the world. With Justify, he of course won the Preakness but he also won this race with (in 1993!). OK....I'll calm down now and talk about the horse. A one time candidate for the Kentucky Derby, they skipped it to opt for the Preakness. He's had 4 starts with 3 wins and has won over $800,000 in his short racing career. He's owned by Gary and Mary West who owned , who was DQd in the Kentucky Derby, remember? They have also owned top horses like , , Power Broker, and many more. No Preakness winners. After a six furlong maiden win in his first start, Concert Tour won the Grade 2 San Vincente (7 furlongs), the Grade 2 (8.5 furlongs), and then was 3rd in the won by Super Stock, w/Caddo River second. Baffert's other starter in that race was last. In 2020, he won both divisions of the race (I won't get into the drug positive on Nadal) and in 2015 with...guess who?...American Pharoah. As the .30 favorite, Concert Tour's loss was a surprise. He and Caddo River were providing all the pace (Speed, speed and more speed-Baffert's creedo) but he flattened. Toss it out? Joel Rosario rode him that day...hmmm...and he's on France Go De Ina on Saturday? Must be like a job demotion....if I keep making sully comments like this about FGDI, he'll win and I'll have the proverbial egg on my face won't I? Anyway, Concert Tour's daddy is Kentucky Derby winner (remember Borel's fantastic ride that year?!?!?) Street Sense was in the money 12 of his 13 starts, winning 6 including the Breeders Cup Juvenile and the Travers. He now stands at Darley in Kentucky for $60,000. He shuttled to Australia and stood in Japan for a bit as well, siring stakes winners in both places. He is the sire of millionaire Sweet Reason (which won at a mile), 9 furlong stakes winner Wedding Toast, Canadian turf specialist Tower of Texas, the 6 for 7 (currently) stakes winning Maxfield, and others. The dam is the maiden winner Purse Strings and this is her second foal to race, second winner. She is by the outstanding sire , who progeny include Ch , Ch Stardom Bound, Ch , Ch Unique Bella, Belmont winners Tonalist, and ....no Preakness winners.

Since the forecast was initially for rain, I checked the winning races for all the entrants to see if we have any that like the mud just in case. Ram's maiden win was on a track labeled "wet-fast" (which usually means the water is on the surface and the track itself isn't mud); in January, Medina Spirit won on a Santa Anita track labelled good (it rained the night before) and that's that. In my opinion, most of the time nowadays when the tracks come up muddy, there are alot of defections for some reason. They did change the forecast earlier today for to be in the lower 70s & sunny. Perfect for racing.

And no one asked...heck, I wonder if you all read this thru or do I "talk" too much?...in my opinion, Secretariat's best race was the Preakness in 1973. Sec broke last, settled into stride and passed 2 horses by the first turn. The the backstretch, wow....what a move!....he powered past and accelerated with Sham the only one staying with him but even that was short lived. Sec pulled away by 2 1/2 lengths. Sham was 2cd and Our Native was third...the same finish as the Kentucky Derby 2 weeks earlier. What a race! There were only 6 entered BTW, the purse that year was $182,400! (It's a million this year). The attendance (over 61,000) was at the time a record for the race.

Considering all that has happened this week, it doesn't matter if either of Bob Baffert's horses win or lose...it will be met with sarcasm. Didn't win?- was afraid to use drugs. Did win?-better check them for drugs. This whole thing is a sad, sad state of affairs and I cry for in general. That being said, I intend to watch ---and enjoy---the race, it's history and celebration. (Please don't let them have "hollywoods" on the telecast...ugh!!!)

Oh...and by the way...I do NOT copy anyone's column, posting or whatever else is out there. My research is my own, the comments are my own.

PREAKNESS STAKES 1 3/16m (

PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L

1 Ram (KY) Ricardo Santana, Jr. 126 D. Wayne Lukas ‐

2 Keepmeinmind (KY) David Cohen 126 Robertino Diodoro ‐

3 Medina Spirit (FL) John R. Velazquez 126 Bob Baffert ‐

4 Crowded Trade (KY) Javier Castellano 126 Chad C. Brown ‐

5 Midnight Bourbon (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 126 Steven M. Asmussen ‐

6 Rombauer (KY) Flavien Prat 126 Michael W. McCarthy ‐

7 France Go de Ina (KY) Joel Rosario 126 Hideyuki Mori ‐

8 Unbridled Honor (KY) Luis Saez 126 Todd A. Pletcher ‐

9 Risk Taking (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 126 Chad C. Brown ‐

Bob Baffert 10 Concert Tour (KY) Mike E. Smith 126