BALTIMORE — Bob Baffert says there’s a common thread to the five Preakness winners he has trained in the past 14 years.
“I’ve always won it with the best horse in the crop,” said the Hall of Fame conditioner, who notched Preakness No. 5 last year with Lookin At Lucky.
That won’t be the case in today’s 136th edition of the middle leg of the Triple Crown. Even Baffert acknowledges that.
“I think I would feel better having The Factor in here,” he said, referring to his speedy 3-year-old star.
Instead, Baffert has returned to Pimlico with a horse he can’t quite figure out — and one that has managed to subject him to the highs and lows of his business in a four-week stretch.
Midnight Interlude, a late bloomer who was unraced at 2, won a depleted Santa Anita Derby in just his fourth career start, and off a maiden score. Bet down to 9-1 in the Kentucky Derby, the son of War Chant was a disinterested 16th in the 19-horse field, never once threatening.
And so Baffert, who usually commands the spotlight at Triple Crown races, has spent this week-plus in the East as an afterthought. Midnight Interlude is listed at 15-1 in the morning line in the 14-horse Preakness field. Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom is the 2-1 early favorite.
“We had a loaded gun, but apparently we didn’t have any gunpowder,” Baffert said of Midnight Interlude’s Derby. “I think he just lost interest. It was really inexplicable. I was puzzled by the effort.”
Though Baffert says Midnight Interlude appears to have bounced back, he acknowledges Animal Kingdom will take some beating in the mile and three-sixteenth Preakness. Short-priced winners are the rule in this leg of the Triple Crown, with 10 of the past 11 going off as either the favorite or second choice.
And Animal Kingdom has never been worse than second in five career starts.
“He’s peaking. He’s in the zone,” Baffert said of trainer Graham Motion’s gelding. “Horses that win like (he did in the Derby), you can keep them for two weeks like that. This is the easiest race (in the Triple Crown).”
Motion wouldn’t agree with that contention, but he does like what he has seen from Animal Kingdom.
“I’m very confident with how the horse is doing,” he said. “I can’t dictate the pace, and I really can’t predict if he’s going to bounce, but he’s given me no indication of any of those things happening.”
But Animal Kingdom, despite his impressive 2 3/4-length Kentucky Derby victory, hasn’t scared anyone off in a year that has seen most of the top 3-year-olds (Uncle Mo, Toby’s Corner and Premier Pegasus) sidelined by injuries.
The maximum 14 starters will go postward for just the second time since 1993.
Motion takes no umbrage at the apparent lack of respect for his horse, who has done little wrong in his five-race career.
“No doubt, he has exceeded my expectations,” he said, “so I imagine there are still many people waiting to be convinced.
source : http://www.nj.com
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