Quote:
Originally Posted by King Glorious
Trainers don’t prepare for the TC anymore. They train only for the Derby and as much as I hate to say it, if you don’t win the Derby, the Preakness is not a good spot to return in. More likely than not, none of the horses has ever run back in two weeks in their career and to ask them to do so after what was probably their toughest race ever is a shock to their systems. I know that the argument will be that the high majority of those that win the Preakness are horses that exit the Derby (or the Oaks in the case of Rachel Alexandra) but I believe it has more to do with the lack of competition in the Preakness rather than a sign that running back that quick led to their repeat performance.
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This is poorly argued in the face of 37 of the last 45 Preakness winners having exited the Derby.
I can't recall more than a handful of those Preakness' being won in a landslide (Hansel, Funny Cide, Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex) and even then only the Funny Cide Preakness had a weak field devoid of any significant Derby runners (although Peace Rules was quite accomplished both before and after).
Meanwhile, since it is such a shock to the system for a horse to run back 2 weeks after the Derby, I figure history would be replete with tales of glory of uber-successful Derby also-rans that skipped the Preakness. But there aren't too many. Holy Bull (who won the Met Mile about a week after the Preakness), Lemon Drop Kid (who used the Peter Pan as a prep for the Belmont), and General Challenge (who utilized a now defunct 3yo stakes program at Hollywood Park to regroup from his Derby debacle) are all I could find as far as I looked. Maybe there have been a bunch in more recent years.