CLOUD FINE! a FIRST WEARY by Bill Finley the Best Horse Didn=T Win the GI Preakness S
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SUNDAY, MAY 21, 2017 IN THE PREAKNESS, THE RESTED AND THE CLOUD FINE! A FIRST WEARY by Bill Finley The best horse didn=t win the GI Preakness S. Saturday. That=s CLASSIC FOR BROWN not a knock on the victorious Cloud Computing (Maclean=s Music). He ran a big race, but he won this not because he was better than Always Dreaming (Bodemeister) or Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile), but because he had what is clearly a huge advantage in horse racing: rest. I don=t get it and I don=t like it. But modern day horses and, more so, modern day trainers, just can=t handle running horses back in anything less than four or five weeks. Cloud Computing hadn=t run in six weeks. The two horses who dominated the wagering--Always Dreaming and Classic Empire--were coming back two weeks after racing in the GI Kentucky Derby. Is there any other way to explain why a horse that was so electric in the Kentucky Derby beat just two horses home in the Preakness or that the 2-year-old champion looked like he had the field put away at the eighth-pole yesterday, but couldn=t hold off the late charge of a 13-1 shot whose only prior win had come in a maiden race? Cont. p6 Cloud Computing (left) outfights Classic Empire | Horsephotos IN TDN EUROPE TODAY by Alan Carasso RIBCHESTER ALL THE WAY IN THE LOCKINGE Apparently the Apollo curse doesn=t apply to the GI Preakness S. Ribchester (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}) posted an impressive all-the-way While no horse has won the GI Kentucky Derby absent a start score in Saturday’s G1 Al Shaqab Lockinge S. at Newbury. as a 2-year-old since Apollo some 135 years ago, Klaravich Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. Stable and William H. Lawrence=s Cloud Computing (Maclean=s Music--Quiet Temper, by A. P. Indy) became just the second horse in modern PREAKNESS FULL ORDER OF FINISH times to win the 1 Cloud Computing second leg of the 2 Classic Empire Triple Crown with as 3 Senior Investment 4 Lookin At Lee few as three starts-- 5 Gunnevera and none at two-- 6 Multiplier after the $200,000 7 Conquest Mo Money Keeneland 8 Always Dreaming September yearling 9 Hence purchase managed 10 Term of Art to grind his way past reigning Eclipse Award-winning juvenile Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile) in the final strides Saturday at Old Hilltop. Senior Investment (Discreetly Mine) rallied from last in the field of 10 to snag third money. Cont. p3 Filly o/o Waltz With Chester Colt o/o Sheisinittowinit Breeder: Brian Knippenberg Bred by Millennium Farms Colt o/o I Think So | Breeder: WinStar Farm Classic-Placed 3YO G2-Winning 4YO 109 Beyer – 2 ¾ Ragozin A.P. Indy – Flaming Heart | $7,500 S&N 3-Time GSW of $962,237 More than Pulpit, Malibu Moon, Flatter, and other influential sons of A.P. Indy (859) 873-1717 | WinStarFarm.com FIRST CROP CLASSIC WINNER FOR MACLEAN’S MUSIC. THIS IS HOW IMPORTANT SIRES START THEIR CAREER. Congratulations to Cloud Computing’s owners William H. Lawrence and Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables, trainer Chad Brown, and agent Mike Ryan on your spectacular win in the Preakness. 640 N. Yarnallton Pike, Lexington, KY 40511 (859) 255-8290 • fax (859) 281-6148 www.hillndalefarms.com LGB, LLC 2017 / Photo: Photos by Z/Courtney Stafford PRESIDENT & CO-PUBLISHER Barry Weisbord @barryweisbord [email protected] SR. V.P. & CO-PUBLISHER Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] Sunday, May 21, 2017 EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Assistant Editor Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Michelle Benson Crowd computing. These fans weren’t the only ones enjoying the Pimlico infield on Saturday. The Maryland Jockey Club announced that the 2017 Preakness crowd of Photo Editor/Dir. of Distribution 140,327 broke last year’s attendance record of 135,256. | Horsephotos Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist WORLD APPROVAL EASILY IN THE DIXIE 8 Justina Severni Grade I winner World Approval (Northern Afleet) made it look easy, capturing Saturday’s GII Longines Dixie S. by 2 1/4 lengths beneath Director of Customer Service Julien Leparoux. Vicki Forbes [email protected] TODAY’S GRADED STAKES Director of Information Technology EST Race Click for TV Ray Villa [email protected] 2:40a Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks)-G1, TOK --------------- ------ 8:30a Premio Carlo d’Alessio-G3, CAP --------------- ------ WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 10:45a Premio Tudini-IITRIS-G3, CAP --------------- ------ International Editor 11:05a Mehl-Mulhens-Rennen-German 2000 Guineas-G2, COL --------------- ------ Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] 11:15a EMS Copiers Lacken S.-G3, NAA --------------- ------ European Editor 12:00p Derby Italiano-Sisal Matchpoint-G2, CAP --------------- ------ Emma Berry 4:55p Selene S.-GIII, WO TJCIS PPs TVG [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 14 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • MAY 21, 2017 Preakness S. cont. Not Exactly From the Clouds... It all started innocently enough for Cloud Computing, the most With Derby fourth Classic Empire drawn outside of expensive of 38 yearlings to sell from the first crop of his sire (by GI Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming (Bodemeister), Distorted Humor--Forest Music, by Unbridled=s Song). Sent off many analysts surmised that Julien Leparoux would give last the $1.15-1 favorite for a maiden over the Aqueduct inner track year=s GI Breeders= Cup Juvenile winner a positive ride, and so it Feb. 11, and overcame a studder-step beginning and some early proved, as Classic Empire hounded Always Dreaming to the traffic trouble, swept four wide into the lane and leveled out outside through an opening couple of furlongs in :23.16 over a impressively to graduate by 1 1/4 lengths. Thrown to the wolves track that began the day as muddy and though listed as fast by in the GIII Gotham S. three weeks later, the dark bay raced in the Preakness post time, was still in the drying-out process. The close attendance to fast early fractions and while heavily early shape of the race was altered some when the favored El Areeb (Exchange Rate) faded tamely after setting the supplemented Conquest Mo Money (Uncle Mo) did not break pace, Cloud Computing kept on admirably well, finishing second sharply, and instead of being part of the early pace, was ridden to >TDN Rising Star= J Boys Echo (Mineshaft), who had the race along into a midfield position by Jorge Carreno while three or run to suit his closing style. The 12-5 second choice in the four wide under the line for the first time. Always Dreaming led GII Wood Memorial S., attracting more pari-mutuel attention the field into the backstretch, but Classic Empire remained glued than >TDN Rising Star= and prior GSW Irish War Cry (Curlin), to his outside and the duo had clocked :46.81, with Cloud Cloud Computing was three wide around the first turn and wide Computing and Javier Castellano continuing to lick their chops on a track that was kind to speed on the day. He slipstreamed while saving ground from just off the fence. With the half-mile Irish War Cry into the stretch, but couldn=t match strides late pole in the rear-view, they hit the far turn, and John Velazquez and managed a third-place effort. While the chief protagonists took a quick look to his right to see that Classic Empire was not in Saturday=s Preakness were back on two weeks= >rest,= Cloud going away. Computing was a fresher animal, drew perfectly in gate two, and the rest--they say--is history. Cont. p4 s o t o h p e s r o H | . S s s e n k a e r P d n 2 4 1 e h t n i g n i n n u r d n a f f O TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 14 • THETDN.COM SUNDAY • MAY 21, 2017 Preakness 142 cont. AWe huddled up and said this horse is really special and he can More or less on even terms passing the three-eighths, Classic go that far. How do we get to the Derby? And it just didn't work Empire was cut loose by Leparoux with 2 1/2 furlongs to travel, out in the Wood. We just ran out of time. Looking back on it, it a move that at the time seemed a confident one, ifBperhapsBa was a bit of a speed-biased track that day, and he was one of sixteenth of a mile premature. With Always Dreaming now back- the only horses that closed ground really. After that it really pedaling, Castellano swung Cloud Computing away from the rail wasn't a hard decision. We had the points and we got together and out into about the three path and the stage was set. Roused and we just really zeroed in on this race, and thankfully it left-handed at the furlong grounds, Classic Empire dug in and worked out.@ was clearly giving everything he had, but Cloud Computing kept Brown, the 2016 Eclipse Award-winning conditioner, also paid up his relentless rally, dueled heads apart for about 50 yards and tribute to his mentor.