If you thought the Kentucky Derby was a well watched event (highest rating on TV in years – tomorrow’s Preakness will be huge it appears. Everyone wants to see if the Mine That Bird score in the Derby was a fluke.
Or they want to see if the filly is as good and dominant as she appears to be. And there are other stories too….
(Cindy Pierson Dulay photo)
Study the Beyer Figures, study the sheet numbers, study the horses last races and the circumstances. In any way you look at it, RACHEL ALEXANDRA might be one of the best horses you will ever see. Indeed, Jerry Brown’s THORO-GRAPH SHEETS declares this gal the best 3yo filly to ever live (!).
But if we want to bet on the race, we need some exactor and triactor horses – check out my
PREAKNESS ANALYSIS in tomorrow’s TORONTO STAR!
I wouldn’t mess with her – RACHEL ALEXANDRA – monster filly. Cindy Pierson Dulay photo.
Preakness & the fillies
– Rachel Alexandra was made the 8-5 early favorite Wednesday for the Preakness, becoming the first filly to be favored since Winning Colors in 1988. Just three fillies have raced in the Preakness since 1980:
Genuine Risk 1980 2nd
Winning Colors 1988 3rd
Excellent Meeting 1999 DNF
It has been 85 years since a filly won the Preakness. The four winners:
Nellie Morse 1924
Rhine Maiden 1915
Whimsical 1906
Flocarline 1903
Preakness long shot’s backstory
– Tragedy, tenacity forge path to Triple Crown debut for trainer of 50-1 entry Tone It Down
By Brent Jones | brent.jones@baltsun.com
– William Komlo has spent the better part of his life juggling football and horse racing in a dogged pursuit to reach the highest levels of both sports.
Komlo, who will turn 74 this month, played fullback at the University of Maryland in the 1950s. He got a few feelers from the NFL but fell short of reaching football’s pinnacle.
A half-century later, as Saturday’s 134th Preakness approaches, Komlo has the chance to win on his other passion’s grandest stage, a Triple Crown race, the first one he has reached.
Komlo will see whether Tone It Down, owned by his daughter Deborah and her husband, Mike Horning, can pull off one of the biggest upsets in Preakness history. The Potomac couple bought the horse last May in Timonium for $100,000 and persuaded Komlo to train him. Two wins and two second-place finishes in four races showed Komlo the family had something special.
www.baltimoresun.com/sports/horseracing/bal-sp.komlo15may15,0,3327699.story
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED – TIM LAYDEN WRITES ABOUT THE FILLY, THE BIRD…
“Adolphus Morrison, the retired 75-year-old steel executive who sold Rachel Alexandra to Jackson five days after she won the Kentucky Oaks by 20 ¼ lengths, did not intend to run against colts in the Triple Crown, or, possibly, ever. Asked how he feels about Rachel Alexandra — who is named after Morrison’s 13-year-old granddaughter, a name straight out of Jane Austen — running in the Preakness Morrison said, “It’s doesn’t excite me. I’m afraid that this horse would kill herself trying to get there.””
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/tim_layden/05/14/rachel.alexandra/?eref=sircrc
BIG DRAMA FEATURE
BY BILL FINLEY
–BALTIMORE – David Fawkes’s plan unraveled one winter morning at Calder Race Course when his talented 3-year-old colt kicked himself in his stall. Big Drama was on his way to surgery, and not to the Kentucky Derby.
Fawkes, a trainer based in Florida, had hoped to run his horse in the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 31, continue on the path to Churchill Downs and then have a talented, ready horse for the Derby. It did not happen that way, but now he is optimistic he may yet come away with a major prize. Fully recovered from the incident on Jan. 24, Big Drama will enter the Preakness Stakes on Saturday with an impressive record, and, his trainer says, he is “ready to run a huge race.”
After surgery to repair the bone bruise, Big Drama…
www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/sports/othersports/15drama.html?ref=othersports
BLACK-EYED SUSAN STAKES TODAY
No Hooh, why? She’s coming to Woodbine!
– HOOH WHY, Grade 1 winner of the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland 2 starts ago, will bypass today’s Black Eyed Susan Stakes, where she was the 2 to 1 favourite, to race at Woodbine on Sunday in the La Lorgnette Stakes.
The spots look almost the same – although Hooh Why has run well on Woodbine’s Polytrack. She will be favoured in the La Lorgnette but it is not an easy race.
Friday, Pimlico, post time: 5:50 p.m. EDT
BLACK-EYED SUSAN S.-GII, $150,000, 3yo, f, 1 1/8m
PP HORSE (SIRE) TRAINER ML
1 Hooh Why (Cloud Hopping) Dupuy 2-1
2 Payton d’Oro (Medaglia d’Oro) Jones 5-1
3 Combinate (Volponi) Jenkins 30-1
4 Stone Legacy (Birdstone) Lukas 10-1
5 Bon Jovi Girl (Malibu Moon) Ritchey 12-1
6 Stage Trick (Distorted Humor) Goldberg 30-1
7 Casanova Move (Langfuhr) J Jerkens 3-1
8 Don’t Forget Gil (Kafwain) Hennig 9-2
9 Oro Blanco (Hold for Gold) Tullock SCRATCHED
10 Renda (Medaglia d’Oro) Arias 10-1
WOODBINE TODAY
– A pleasant spring day is forecast before a cold, rainy weekend. Don’t expect turf racing to start up tomorrow as scheduled.
The feature on today’s small 9-race card is the 4th, a blockbuster sprint allowance – optional claiming race featuring some nice ones. TRUE VINDICATION, a Live Oak fellow by Vindication, won his Woodbine debut for trainer Malcolm Pierce and he has the leading rider Pat Husbands aboard again. MR. FLATTER is a speed runner from Florida who is now trained by Frank Passero Jr., RAISED FOR SPEED is the first starter for trainer Steve Klesaris, who has a stable of horses at Woodbine. And CARRILERO debuts in Canada for Roger Attfield and he was 2nd in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes in Dec. 2007 to Johnny Eves. Previously owned by Gary Tanaka, Carrilero is a son of Royal Academy.
ASSINIBOIA DOWNS TRAINER-JOCKEY COMBO
Married and have almost 5,500 riding wins between them!
A story on Gary and Vicky Baze.
www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/other/new-threat-to-downs-jockey-king-44969952.html
EUROPEAN NOTES:
– TODAY’S feature is the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup featuring Ask, who raced in the Pattison Canadian International in 2007, beaten just a nose.
Friday, York, Britain, post time: 2:40 p.m.
EMIRATES AIRLINE YORKSHIRE CUP-G2, ,140,000,
4yo/up, 1 3/4mT
SC PP HORSE SIRE TRAINER WT
1 6 Ask (GB) Sadler’s Wells Stoute 125
2 8 Blue Bajan (Ire) Montjeu (Ire) Turnell 125
3 9 Geordieland (Fr) Johann Quatz (Fr) J Osborne 125
4 2 Percussionist (Ire) Sadler=s Wells Johnson 125
5 1 Royal and Regal (Ire) Sadler=s Wells M Jarvis 125
6 5 Veracity (GB) Lomitas (GB) bin Suroor 125
7 3 Centennial (Ire) Dalakhani (Ire) Gosden 124
8 4 Fiulin (GB) Galileo (Ire) M Botti 124
9 7 Washington Irving (Ire) Montjeu (Ire) Johnson 124
BLACK BEAR ISLAND MAKES BIG MOVE FOR EPSOM DERBY
Full brother to High Chaparral
Excerpt by Marcus Townend
The victory of Aidan O’Brien’s Black Bear Island (Sadler’s Wells-Kasora, Darshaan)in the Dante Stakes at York and eclipse of Brian Meehan’s Crowded House has left the betting for Epsom dominated by the Irish.
Shortest priced home contender is yesterday’s third Sans Frontieres, seventh best at 16-1.
The bad news for the Jeremy Noseda-trained colt is that no horse beaten in the Dante has ever won the Derby.
