St. Sense, Hard Spun to Preakness
Juvenile Champ and Chief Derby Competitor Set for Rematch May 19
Juvenile and Derby champ Street Sense will look for rival Hard Spun in the 132nd Preakness Stakes this Saturday. Curlin may be close. Some Derby entrants undecided.
Street Sense, Pennsylvania-bred Hard Spun, and Curlin, who finished 1-2-3, respectively, in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, most likely will get reacquainted in the 132nd $1 million Preakness Stakes on May 19. Todd Pletcher, trainer of five Derby entrants who all misfired, will bring on King of the Roxy, this year's Hutcheson Stakes champion.
Barbaro's Trainer Has New Preakness Entry
Other early prospects include Michael Matz (Barbaro) trained Chelokee, with Ramon Dominguez riding; C.P. West, a Nick Zito schooled colt, with Edgar Prado (Barbaro) aboard; two D.Wayne Lukas entries, Flying First Class, with Mark Guidry up, and Starbase, Carey Lanerie riding; Xchanger, trained by Mark Shuman and ridden by Joe Bravo; Zanjero, a Steve Asmussen stablemate to Curlin, guided by Shaun Bridgmohan in the saddle; and Teuflesberg, who ran early with Hard Spun in the Derby before fading to 17th. He is ridden by Stewart Elliott (Smarty Jones) and trained by Jamie Sanders.
Lukas Tops Trainers With Five Preakness Winners
Lukas is the master trainer of Triple Crown race winners, having sent off a record 31Preakness entries. He's won five times with Charismatic (1999), Timber Country (1995), Tabasco Cat (1994), Tank's Prospect, the 1985 speed record holder, and Codex (1980). Timber Country is the only Preakness champ who also won the Juvenile championship the previous year.
Baffert and Zito Also List Preakness Hopefuls
Zito, who along with Lukas and Bob Baffert, has dominated Triple Crown races in recent years but had no Derby trainees, will enter C.P. West, the Withers Stakes runner-up. Teuflesberg trainer Sanders was a longtime Zito assistant. Elliott, Teuflesberg's jockey, won his first and only Preakness guiding Smarty Jones in 2004.
Zito won the 1996 Preakness with Grindstone, sire of Smarty Jones' Belmont conqueror, Birdstone. Baffert has won the Preakness three times: Real Quiet (1998), Point Given (2001), and War Emblem (2002).
First Time Trainers Abound for 2007 Classics
The Derby yielded five first time trainers in Larry Jones (Hard Spun); William Kaplan (Storm in May and Imawildandcrazyguy); Darrin Miller (Sedgefield and Dominican); Doug O'Neill (Great Hunter and Liquidity); and Sanders (Teuflesberg). O'Neill had a third hopeful, Notional, who suffered an ankle fracture three weeks before the May 5 classic.
Training on artificial surfaces (Polytrack), long layoffs before the Derby, and first time trainees in the first leg of the triple challenge are all very much part of the 2007 Triple Crown story. Along with that, Street Sense has already crushed the Juvenile-champ-can't-win-the-Derby jinx.
Peak Derby Attendance, 1974
In addition, race attendance and wagering have increased in the Sport of Kings in recent years. In 1974, a year after the Secretariat love affair, attendance for the Derby peaked at 163,628 in its centennial year. This year's crowd topped out at 156,635.
Street Sense is the headliner for the Preakness. He is the 2007 hope to end the 28-year drought between Triple Crown championships.
