BALTIMORE (AP) — For a short time there, it looked as if the Preakness was shaping up to be a runaway victory for Kentucky Derby winner Orb.
Orb's hunt for the Triple Crown received a necessary jolt Wednesday when trainer Shug McGaughey's horse came the rail for Saturday's race. McGaughey tried to brush off the development as a simply inconvenience, but he couldn't altogether mask his disappointment around starting inside eight other horses with the smallest Preakness field since 2007.
"Obviously, if I was going to pick it out, I wouldn't have picked that 1, " McGaughey proclaimed. "But with only nine horses in there to run a mile and three-sixteenths, with your rider like Joel (Rosario), he will figure out what to complete. He'll have him in the right spot. "
That's the plan. Yet, if Orb doesn't let yourself be in front early, he risks becoming pinned on the rail or pushed with the back of the arena. The inside post is more serious in the Derby, where this year there were 19 horses in the field.
"If it had emerge the 1 in your Derby, you'd almost have felt like your story needed to go property, " McGaughey said. "But I don't think way here. "
Nevertheless, history suggests Orb's advantage in this race has dwindled, even though he had been made the even-money favorite each morning line. Only twice since 1950 carries a horse won from that No. 1 post — Bally Pain in 1960 and Tabasco Cat in 1994.
"Out of that nine numbers, the 1 is amongst the one you want the lowest amount of, " said Al Not work Jr., the trainer of Departing.
Mylute, who begins from the No. 5 post as being the second-favorite at 5-1, trailed Orb for high of the race in Kentucky. This approach race could develop fairly differently with Orb inside.
"We need to make up 3 to 4 lengths, and that may be one of several factors that helps people, " said Todd Quast, standard manager of GoldMark Farm building, co-owner of the Derby's fifth-place finisher.
Quast claimed, "We're ecstatic about the application. With this horse, irrespective of as much, but it sure is nice getting inside, a little bit toward the center, and then having Orb inside us and Departing on the inside us, the two substantial threats. It's great to remain outside of them. "
Departing, a bay gelding, won the Grade 3 Illinois Derby on July 20 and skipped this Kentucky Derby because Stall do not think the horse had been ready. The trainer thinks perhaps an advantage at that Preakness.
"In this era, the modern thoroughbred seems to like some time in-between races. I need to know why, " Stall proclaimed. "So we're fortunate enough of having 28 days between the Illinois Derby also now. It gave us time for you to improve and he certainly has improved. You can observe it on a day-to-day basis when you train him. "
"The post doesn't really matter in such type of race, this type of track by having a nine-horse field, " he said. "It's just a very good party to come to help. "
Orb won the Derby by 2½ lengths and has now won five straight events, so he's certainly worth to be the favorite in spite of his starting position.
"I do not know that the rail's all those things bad, " said Hallway of Fame trainer N. Wayne Lukas, who has three horses in the race: Oxbow, Will Carry Charge and Titletown All five. "Orb is still the sole to beat. "
This field, from the rail, with odds in parenthesis: Orb (1-1), Goldencents (8-1), Titletown Six (30-1), Departing (6-1), Mylute (5-1), Oxbow (15-1), Will require Charge (12-1), Govenor Charlie (12-1) and Itsmyluckyday (10-1).
"I really enjoy mine. I thought that it was real good, " they said. "Oxbow for a change got inside a small amount. He'll be forwardly positioned. We shouldn't have almost any trouble. I'm going to have to create a different excuse whenever we get beat. "
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