Friday Morning Links
– Trainer Rick Dutrow’s confidence, which dipped regarding the Preakness immediately after Big Brown’s Derby win, has begun to return:
I might put it at 3-1. As Dutrow said, “if he runs like a 5,” the Preakness is no problem. The Belmont is another matter …
– Of course, the Preakness won’t be a breeze, not with the field swelling to nine. Recapturetheglory, fifth in the Derby, will be among the starters, and he’ll get a slight equipment change for the race — trainer Louis Roussel plans to stuff cotton in the colt’s ears to block out crowd noise at Pimlico and prevent a reprise of the colt’s Derby day bad behavior, reports TDN. Post positions will be drawn on Wednesday.
– No flattery here for an unseasonably tanned and gelled master of the universe: “The spirit of Gordon Gekko is alive and well … in the suddenly public persona of thoroughbred horse racing’s entrepreneur du jour, Michael Iavarone.”
– “When Bob Baffert shows up at Lone Star, a good horse race can’t be far behind.”
– Colonel John, apparently unscathed by his sixth-place Derby finish, could start next in the Swaps at Hollywood.
