Second leg of American Triple Crown comes two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, so the winner doesn’t have much time to recover. Again, it will be on the same day in Final Furlong and in real life.
“The Preakness is the second leg in American thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown series and almost always attracts the Kentucky Derby winner, some of the other horses that ran in the Derby, and often a few horses that did not start in the Derby. The Preakness is ​1 3â�„16 miles, or ​9 1â�„2 furlongs, compared to the Kentucky Derby, which is ​1 1â�„4 miles / 10 furlongs. It is followed by the third leg, the Belmont Stakes, which is ​1 1â�„2 miles / 12 furlongs.
As soon as the Preakness winner has been declared official, a painter climbs a ladder to the top of a replica of the Old Clubhouse cupola. The colors of the victorious owner’s silks are applied on the jockey and horse that are part of the weather vane atop the infield structure.”
[align=center]The FF Preakness Stakes info:
Date
2022-05-19
Location
Pimlico
Race
Preakness Stakes (Gr. 1)
Surface
Dirt
Distance
9.5 furlongs
Age
3yo
Purse
$1,000,000[/align]
Links:
@PreaknessStakes - Twitter
Preakness - home page
Preakness Stakes - Wikipedia
Past winners in real life:
- 2015 - American Pharoah - 1:58.46
- 2016 - Exaggerator - Time: 1:58.31
- 2017 - Cloud Computing - Time: 1:55.98
Past Final Furlong winners:
- 2019 - [color=blue]NCh. Devil’s Heir, Track: Good Time: 1:48.395 SF: 259. Did not run in Kentucky Derby, and that year’s Derby winner skipped the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.
- 2020 - [color=blue]Ch. Effervescent, Track: Good Time: 2:02.860 SF: 206. He did not run in the Kentucky Derby. Still a racehorse. That year’s Kentucky winner, GCh. Magical Debate, ran in the Preakness and he finished 3rd. He also finished 6th in that year’s Belmont Stakes.
- 2021 - [color=blue]Ch. Breez of the South, Track: Good Time: 1:54.960 SF: 224. He made only three starts that year, the other two in Australia. Still a racehorse but did not run this year. That year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Ch. Power of Secrets, finished 9th in the Preakness and did not run in Belmont Stakes.
This year, we have Kentucky Derby winners Ch. Local Haunt in Final Furlong, and Justify in real life to try winning the second leg of American Triple Crown in two weeks. Good luck!
I just checked if my stallions participated in American Triple Crown - only NCh. Space Chips ran in the Belmont Stakes, and he finished 5th.
Checking in on the runners…
Derby runners Bele (4th), Bong Bong Bong (3rd), and Local Haunt (1st) are the only ones to have shipped to Pimlico so far. Raw Gem (7th) has gone home. Entered are G3 Swale Stakes winner Ch. Fivel, G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Ch. Northern Invasion who was originally entered in the Derby but scratched, and Ch. What A Circus who has two G2 wins this year.
Oaks winner Daiquiri went home, along with Dita Von Teese (3rd), Solar Highway (7th), Queen of the Air (9th), Isle Royale (12th), Paradise Falls (13th), and Hopestein (14th). Harken (2nd), Ghostly Gift (5th), Tottenham Dancer (6th), and Born to Dream (10th) are all at Pimlico. Currently entered is G1 Las Virgenes Stakes winner Ch. Itinerant, G2 UAE Derby winner Flaming Key, and Dangerous Scent who ran 3rd in the UAE Derby.
Interesting! Fresh horses will probably have better chances…
Current plans are for our two Derby runners, [color=blue]Bele (4th) and [color=blue]Bong Bong Bong (3rd), to run in the Preakness, as well as [color=blue]Victor’s Podium, who didn’t run in the Derby.
As for the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, current plans are for all three of our Oaks runners, [color=red]Ghostly Gift (5th), [color=red]Tottenham Dancer (6th), and [color=red]Born to Dream (10th), to run.
Decided to take a chance and enter my Kentucky Derby runner, Hollywood Linen (5th). He finally bounced back to A/A and had a good workout today so why not?
Fingers crossed! This is worse than the Derby for me.
I have a feeling Fivel will do better than Local Haunt, but here’s to hoping both do well. A Triple Crown sweep would be lovely, but I’m not holding my breath.
No American Triple Crown in Final Furlong this year, but there is a chance for it in real life! Justify won the Preakness Stakes on extremely foggy and rainy day:
“The conditions for the race were so poor that the Washington Post jokingly said the track “should have been downgraded from “sloppy” to “biblical””. After heavy downpours over several days, the rain finally stopped shortly before the race but then a heavy fog descended, limiting visibility to about a sixteenth of a mile.” - 2018 Preakness Stakes on Wikipedia
Race Replay on Youtube
We were much luckier in Final Furlong; the track was “good” here. However, the Derby winner Ch. Local Haunt finished 7th/10. Congratulations Lewis for winning the Preakness with [color=blue]Ch. Victor’s Podium!
Glad he managed to do it, he looked very sore after the Derby. Let’s hope he can do the TC.
It’s not a surprise that there aren’t many American TC winners (either in RL and in FF). It is tough to ask a 3YO to run 3 gruelling races against other top class 3YO’s in the space of 5 weeks. They need to be spread out over a longer period of time (even 4 weeks between each race would be better). In addition, you could have a horse that, while it may not be among the horses qualified to run (by earnings, etc) in the Derby (which usually has the maximum 20 runners), is able to run in the Preakness or Belmont because there are fewer runners. So the trainer decides that he will forget about the Derby and concentrate thehorse’s training on one of the other two races.
In the UK, while their TC races are spread out over longer periods (May, June and Sept), the problem is the variety of the distance of each race, 1 mile, 1 1/2 miles and 1 3/4 miles. The chances of finding a horse that is equally as good at a mile as it is over the longer distances is quite remote.
Having said that, I guess that we wouldn’t want to make it that much easier to win the TC as it would take some of the mystique out of winning it.
We haven’t had an English TC winner in RL since 1970, when Nijinsky won. Sea The Stars won the first two legs but didn’t contest the St Leger. Camelot came closest in 2012 wining the first two legs and finishing 2nd in the St Leger behind Encke. There’s already talk that this year’s 2000 Guineas winner, Saxon Warrior, could be a TC horse. It would be amazing if we finally have another TC winner here.
There is a very impressive photo by Barbara Livingston of Justify jumping a puddle during the race:
twitter.com/DRFLivingston/statu … 9996079104
also his body looks “twisted”, front legs to his right and hind legs to his left - good that he didn’t lose his balance!
Another great photo is by Alex Evers, Justify looking so clean at the finish (the sky blue shadow roll!) in front of horses covered with mud:
twitter.com/A_Evers/status/997994234111299585
That was a picturesque day if one had enough equipment and skills…