BALTIMORE – Different venue, same surface.
The sloppy track that was in play for the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago at Churchill Downs has greeted horsemen this week at Pimlico as preparations continued Wednesday morning toward Saturday’s 150th Preakness.
Led by Kentucky Derby runner-up Journalism, seven of the nine horses entered in the Preakness were on the main track Wednesday morning at Pimlico, most going at a controlled pace over an extremely wet surface.
Journalism, who arrived in Baltimore on Tuesday, galloped one mile Wednesday morning, seemingly going well enough to the eye of trainer Michael McCarthy.
“He was fine today. First look around, he was just taking everything in, seemed like he was moving fine,” McCarthy said. “He’s got incredible mechanics. Just the way he moves for a big horse, he’s very graceful.”
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McCarthy said the wet track at Churchill “may have played a little bit” into his horse finishing second to Sovereignty, but he feels more strongly about the fact the horse lost position early in the race when things got crowded due to the actions of jockey Martin Garcia on Citizen Bull, who broke from the rail.
“I’d rather have turned up the backside and been four or five lengths off the lead than where we were,” McCarthy said. “In California, we can’t touch [a wet track]. He’s a smart horse, he’s very adaptable. He’s obviously very classy to go ahead and put up the effort like he did.”
Heart of Honor, who is here from England after shipping to Churchill and vanning to Pimlico, has trained over a wet track for two consecutive mornings here.
“God only knows,” trainer Jamie Osborne said when asked his thoughts about how his horse handled the wet track. “It’s pretty alien. We come from a country that’s famous for its rain, but we haven’t had any for about eight weeks. We had to come here to find some.”
Heart of Honor has made five of his six career starts on dirt, but all on fast surfaces in Dubai. He is coming off a nose defeat to Admire Daytona in the UAE Derby.
“Obviously, you’re highly unlikely to get a sloppy track in the Middle East, so he’s never run on one,” Osborne said. “We’re here, we’ll take what we get, but I wouldn’t have a clue what it actually means to his chances.”
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Trainer Mark Casse thought the wet track played a part in Sandman’s disappointing seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, but he felt that was more due to the kickback than whether his horse handled the slop.
“I’m sure he can handle slop. That’s not the issue,” Casse said. “The issue in the Derby was 18 horses throwing mud at you. If you’re up very close to the horse in front of you, the kickback isn’t as hard, but you get about 10 yards behind and when it hits you, it means something and it hurts. And he just never got comfortable.
“I knew we were in trouble going [through the stretch] the first time. That’s why we’re here and we’re going to throw that one out. Hopefully, we get a better track on Saturday, and even if we don’t, we’re only going to have eight horses throwing mud back at us. So, big difference.”
American Promise, who was the first Preakness horse to train Wednesday morning, might have felt the most at home on the surface as he galloped pretty strongly just after the track opened at 6 a.m.
“He broke his maiden over a track just like this,” said trainer D. Wayne Lukas, referring to American Promise’s first win in the mud on Dec. 29 at Oaklawn Park.
Gosger and Pay Billy both put in gallops over the sloppy track Wednesday. Goal Oriented just jogged once around.
Clever Again, who arrived at Pimlico mid-afternoon Tuesday, simply walked the shed row Wednesday while River Thames did not train before shipping from New York to Baltimore Wednesday morning.
The rain that permeated the area mid-week is expected to subside by the weekend. Though there is a 60 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms Friday morning, the forecast for Saturday calls for mostly dry conditions with temperatures in the upper 80s.
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