It’s official: The 1-2-3 finishers in the Kentucky Derby will run in the Preakness a week from tomorrow, following trainer Steve Asmussen’s confirmation yesterday that Curlin, the 7-2 morning-line favorite who finished third in the Run for the Roses, is Baltimore bound.
“We do plan on running him in the Preakness,” Asmussen said during a national teleconference. “The only hesitation was waiting for him to go back to the track. Heading off his first defeat, I was very curious where he would be mentally. You would expect them to be nervous, but he’s not shown any indication of that.
“His appetite has stayed good. He’s a big strong horse. [I am] very pleased with how he came out of the race physically and was very relaxed going onto the track [and] just wanted to make sure it was still him.”
Curlin did not make his first start until February, when he broke his maiden by 123/4 lengths, after which an 80-percent share in him was purchased privately for a reported $3.5 million by syndicate of owners. The chestnut son of Smart Strike then won the Rebel Stakes by 51/4 lengths and the Arkansas Derby by a record 10½ lengths.
Curlin headed for Kentucky trying to become the first horse that did not race as a 2-year-old to win the Derby since Apollo in 1882, and the first to win with just three prior starts since Regret in 1915. Sent off at 5-1 – a dime on the dollar short of the favorite and winner, Street Sense – breaking from post 2 under Robby Albarado, he dropped back in the pack in the early going and came on late for third, eight lengths behind Street Sense and 53/4 lengths back of pace-setting runner-up Hard Spun.
“The Derby is an experience like no other,” Asmussen said. “Not only do you have to be good enough, you have to be very fortunate. I think the race Street Sense ran was worthy of a Derby victory, and the race Hard Spun ran was worthy of being second. When you look at the race after the fact, you beat 17 of the best 3-year-olds in the country at one time. We just didn’t beat the other two.”
Curlin will ship to Baltimore on Wednesday, along with Street Sense, who galloped a mile-and-a-quarter yesterday for trainer Carl Nafzger. Street Sense will have a blowout at Churchill Downs on Tuesday, then be housed in Stall 40 of the Pimlico stakes barn, the traditional home-away-from-home for the Derby winner. Nafzger’s first Derby winner, Unbridled in 1990, was housed in Stall 40 before finishing second in the Preakness to Derby runner-up Summer Squall.
Hard Spun’s trainer, “Cowboy” Larry Jones, hopes history repeats itself, and said his colt is showing the signs he wants to see at his home base of Delaware Park.
“I couldn’t be more pleased,” said Jones, who regularly rides Hard Spun in the mornings. “He jogged three-eighths of a mile and galloped a mile-and-a-quarter. He’s very happy and relaxed right now.
“It’s amazing. This horse ran a mile-and-a-quarter, rode 10 hours in a van, and now we’re in the vicinity of Baltimore and he’s doing this well, this early. It’s very encouraging. I wouldn’t have expected him to be back to this stage until next Monday or Tuesday.”
Trainer Todd Pletcher has run just one horse in the Preakness (Impeachment, third in 2000 after running third in the Derby), and he won’t be sending any of the five-horse entry he ran in this year’s Derby, the best finish being Circular Quay’s sixth. But Pletcher, looking for his first winner in a Triple Crown race, will saddle King of the Roxy, who skipped the Derby to await the Crown’s middle jewel.
King of the Roxy won the Futurity and ran second in the Saratoga Special as a 2-year-old. This year, he won the Hutcheson and was second last out in the April 7 Santa Anita Derby. John Velazquez gets the mount.