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Triple Crown Archive

Barbaro Hurt; Bernardini Wins

One bad step. That’s all it takes. Triple Crown dreams disappear in an instant, replaced by one wish: “Let’s just hope Barbaro lives.”
The Derby winner was pulled up on the stretch in front of the Pimlico grandstand shortly after the start of Preakness with an injured right hind leg. “During the race, he took a bad step and I can’t really tell you what happened,” said jockey Edgar Prado. “I heard a noise about a 100 yards into the race and pulled him right up.” The noise was the sound of a catastrophic injury:

Barbaro was taken back to his stall in the Pimlico stakes barn. After he was sedated and stabilized, the colt was transferred to the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he’ll undergo surgery on Sunday. The injury is life-threatening.
More: “In the record crowd, an instant diagnosis could be made of 118,402 broken hearts“; “Startling injury at Preakness ends Barbaro’s quest“; “Preakness reminds us what’s really at stake.”
Photos: Barbaro is held by jockey Edgar Prado and a track assistant after being pulled up; Prado stands over the saddle taken off Barbaro; Bernardini approaches the finish line, running past the injured favorite; wearing a splint, Barbaro is loaded into the equine ambulance.
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The lightly raced Bernardini, in only his fourth start and his first around two turns, won the Preakness by 5 1/4 lengths. “I knew at the three-eighths pole this horse would win,” said jockey Javier Castellano. ”I had plenty of horse and the two horses in front of me [Sweetnorthernsaint and Brother Derek] started tiring. At the quarter pole, when I asked him, he took off.” Bernardini ran “a phenomenal race” to earn a 113 Beyer speed figure. Sweetnorthernsaint was second, Hemingway’s Key third.

Posted in Triple Crown on May 21, 2006

Preakness Post Positions

2007 Preakness post positions are on the homepage: Click here
The Preakness field, with jockeys and morning line:

Posted in Triple Crown on May 17, 2006

Don’t Crown Barbaro Yet

Sounds like the giddiness that followed Barbaro’s Derby victory and had sensible people everywhere all but conceding the colt the Triple Crown is fading:
“Frankly, I’ve seen better horses than Barbaro travel this road and fail in the attempt to collect the Triple Crown’s famous jewels … As good as he is, Barbaro may not be quite as good as he appeared in Kentucky. The Kentucky Derby can be like one of those curved mirrors in the fun house at the state fair. Barbaro won by more than six lengths, but he probably wasn’t six lengths better than any other 3-year-old that day.” – Gary West
“He simply enjoyed the most perfect of trips: He never hit a bump, never caught a red light, never had to hit the breaks to avoid so much as a twig in his path. Cruising a few lengths behind two speedsters with small tanks, he inherited the lead when they ran out of gas, and then he charged home. Barbaro ran significantly faster in Louisville than he has in his brief career, and therein lies the rub: he might have run too fast. Counter-intuitive? Can a horse be compromised by running too fast? The answer has been proven time and time again: yes.” – Bob Neumeier
“Barbaro is a very good horse and his Kentucky Derby win was indeed tremendous. But nothing is a foregone conclusion, not the Preakness and certainly not the Triple Crown. This is a horse who still has several major obstacles to overcome before he justifies the overwhelming hype that seems to grow larger by the day. In fact, he is a ‘bet against’ in the Preakness …” – Bill Finley
“If you truly believe that Barbaro is all but a slam-dunk in the Preakness, then go ahead and key him in the top slot in the exotics and try to add betting value with the horses you link him with in those bets. But before you commit to that strategy, you have a few issues to ponder.” – Steve Klein

Posted in Triple Crown on May 17, 2006

Preakness Field Grows to 9

– The list of Preakness probables has grown to nine, now that trainer Steve Klesaris has decided to enter allowance winner Diabolical, and two other longshots — Greeley’s Legacy and Platinum Couple — are also expected to enter. “I think he has the ability to compete,” said trainer George Weaver of Greeley’s Legacy, who finished fourth in the Gotham. “If I can get back to his Gotham race, I think we can be right in the thick of things. That’s what it boils down to. I think he fits, the timing is right and the horse is right.”
– One horse that won’t start is Ah Day. Trainer King Leatherbury decided the $100,000 it would take to supplement the Federico Tesio winner into the race was too much. “I wasn’t going to put it up,” said Leatherbury. “I was working on a deal with someone else whereby they would put up the $100,000 and we would split any purse money the horse earned. We couldn’t make it work out.”
– Bernardini turned in his final workout for the Preakness this morning at Belmont, going five furlongs in 1:01.3 over the muddy main track.
– Post positions will be drawn for the Preakness today, and ESPN will televise the event starting at 5 p.m. Andrew Beyer asks trainers to consider inside posts at today’s draw, while Mike Watchmaker dispels a couple of myths about the Pimlico track: “The turns at Pimlico are almost identical to the ones at Churchill Downs … As for the Preakness favoring speed horses, that’s baloney, too.”

Posted in Triple Crown on May 17, 2006