Hard Spun Confirmed For Preakness
 

No free lunch for SS in that race...Thought he might wait for the Belmont.

http://tcm.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=38815

hmmm, no wildncrazy...and i forgot about xchanger and slew's tizzy. full field no doubt in two weeks.

why would he wait..the tc is out there.........you just cant give ss his do can you ...........

i'd really like to see o'neil ship great hunter straight to b-more. shorter race and better post he'd hit the board.

I realize I'm not an expert on this... *clears throat*... but, I thought that Great Hunter looked a bit ouchy all week at CD. Maybe he needs the break?

I expect Hard Spun to run but if I was his trainer I'd sure watch him closely...that was a gut-wrenching performance yesterday off a blazing work...I'd be looking for any sign of regression. At this point, if your horse isn't named Street Sense, the Preakness is another grade one race with a nice purse...winning it would be nice but doesn't mean any more than winning say the Travers later in the year, coming back in two weeks for either Hard Spun or Curlin is something to consider very carefully!

could well be the case.

Based upon the path they took with Hard Spun, I'd have to think that Larry Jones wouldn't risk this colt by running him back unless he felt he was 100%. Just a guess...

I'd hope no trainer would risk a horse that was less than 100%, just saying that the Preakness, for those not named Street Sense, is not the "road to glory" and I understand why many trainers choose to skip it.

it's ashame the preakness has become a "weekend off" for so many derby horses. as long as the horse is 100% run him back. just because May 5 , wasn't YOUR day maybe May 19 is? i'd just like to see more of the good horses.

As a fan, I would too...but as a horseperson, I understand, especially with today's thoroughbred, that running back in two weeks off the most grueling race of a young horse's life is something that I might have second thoughts about...so many TC horses disappear into the shed before the end of their 3yo season.

my thinking, the belmont is the one to skip because of the distance? and tougher to recover from?

I don't understand why they are going to run Hard Spun in 2 weeks. They thought he needed 6 weeks to ge ready for the Derby now they want what?

Hey, if the horse is 100% go for it.

just saying for someone that thought they needed 6 weeks now thinking 2 weeks is do-able?

Hard Spun
 

I would rather have seen Hard Spun skip the Preakness and freshen up for the Belmont, but can't blame connections for running. Live ones in the Preakness might be Chelokee, Slew's Tizzy, and the Lukas entries. Each of the 3 TC races might be radically different scenarios. Will make for a challenging TC effort for Street Sense.

one lukas runner will go in the preakness, the other in the barbaro stakes. cp west will go to one or the other.
i'm thinking they gave hard spun a breather between the lane's end and derby so as to not take too much out of the tank, so that he wouldn't be too tired to run back.
they may well have been thinking ahead.

nafzger on the other hand admitted that the derby was the only thing on his mind, said it's up to the horse to go on from here.

They never said he needed six weeks off, it was what they chose to do....they had enough graded earnings after the Lane's End and Jones saw no reason in hooking the field that was pointed to the Bluegrass he if didn't have to. They decided to see how he handled Churchill track and trained up to the race....

Confirm all they want but they are going to be contested the whole way with Lukas's rat and then another probably. SS will win this easily, and then we get 3 weeks to talk about Belmont and how easily he will win that race.

We need Drugs to work on Borel's stats at Belmont

Took the words right off of my fingers.

I think Hard Spun is more suited for this race than the Belmont. The shorter the distance the better. That 1/16 less of a mile added with slight traffic issues for SS, could give Hard Spun the Preakness. Remember too that SS is also lightly raced, so who knows how the 2-week turnaround will do for him too...

i don't think the belmont would be a problem for hard spun.