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[StarDust Bum]

Preakness Stakes odds favor Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom will start its run for the Preakness from the No. 11 post.
The second race in horse racing’s Triple Crown is set for Saturday afternoon at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland with Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom the 2-1 morning line favorite. It will be a full field of 14 on Saturday in the 136th running of the Preakness Stakes.

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Saturday’s race will be the first time since 2005 that the Preakness has had a full field of 14 horses. Many trainers want to take a shot at Animal Kingdom since he won the Kentucky Derby at long shot odds.

It does look like one of the weakest Preakness fields in memory as only three horses are listed at single-digit odds. Animal Kingdom is 2-1 followed by Dialed In at and Mucho Macho Man at 6-1. The two other horses from the Derby that are back for the Preakness are Shackleford who is 12-1 and Midnight Interlude who is 15-1.

There will be nine horses who will be trying the Preakness after not running in the Derby.

Unlike the Kentucky Derby which was run at a snail’s pace, the Preakness is going to have some early speed. Astrology will go from the rail and be challenged for the early lead by Flashpoint and Shackleford. A faster pace should help Dialed In but it should also benefit Animal Kingdom.

Both betting horses will start from the outside and should be perfectly positioned to make a late run.

A couple of interesting longshots could be Midnight Interlude for trainer Bob Baffert who has won the Preakness five times including last year with Lookin at Lucky and Dance City for trainer Todd Pletcher.

Here is the field for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes:

Post Horse Jockey Trainer Odds
1. Astrology Mike Smith Steve Asmussen 15-1
2. Norman Asbjomson Julian Pimentel Chris Grove 30-1
3. King Congie Robby Albardo Tom Albertrani 20-1
4. Flashpoint C. Velasquez Wesley Ward 20-1
5. Shackleford Jesus Castanon Dale Romans 12-1
6. Sway Away Garrett Gomez Jeff Bonde 15-1
7. Midnight Interlude Martin Garcia Bob Baffert 15-1
8. Dance City R. Dominguez Todd Pletcher 12-1
9. Mucho Macho Man Rajiv Maragh Kathy Ritvo 6-1
10 Dialed In Julien Leparoux Nick Zito 9-2
11 Animal Kingdom John Velazquez Graham Motion 2-1
12 Isn’t He Perfect Edgar Prado D. Shivmangal 30-1
13 Concealed Identity Sheldon Russell Eddie Gaudet 30-1
14 Mr. Commons Victor Espinoza John Shirreffs 20-1

[StarDust Bum]

Preakness betting odds favor Animal Kingdom

The 136th running of the Preakness Stakes is set to take place at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Saturday with an expected post time of 3:15 p.m. (PT). Television viewers will be able to view the full 14-horse field for the 1 3/16-mile test of three-year-olds with NBC’s coverage running from 1:30-3:30 p.m.

All eyes will be set on Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, who has been installed as the early 2-1 favorite and landed the No. 11 post on Wednesday.

“It’s great. I couldn’t be happier,” trainer Graham Motion stated about the post position. “I would just rather be on the outside than stuck down on the inside.”

Saturday will actually mark the first time since 2005 that 14 horses are set to run in the second leg of the Triple Crown series. It’s important to note that just two winners since 1926 have come out of the No. 11 hole, the last being Point Given trained by Bob Baffert in 2001.

Animal Kingdom raced out of the No. 16 post in his 2 3/4-length victory at Churchill Downs.

The success of favorites has been well-documented in the history of this race, as 70 have won in the previous 135 runnings, including two recent winners in Rachel Alexandra (2009) and Big Brown (2008).

Dialed In (9-2) failed as the Kentucky Derby favorite two weeks ago and has drawn just inside of Animal Kingdom in the No. 10 post. The three-year-old colt out of Mineshaft had never finished worst than second in his previous four races and trainer Nick Zito is expecting a major performance.

“I love my horse. I’ll defend him to death,” Zito said outside his barn at Pimlico. “He came with his run in the Derby. He had the fastest half-mile. It was a very unusual race.”

Certainly the connections of the second choice on the morning line will be anxious come post time, as the horse stands to earn $6.1 million if proving victorious, which includes $600,000 for the winner’s share of the race plus a $5.5 million bonus.

Longshot bettors may look no further than playing Bob Baffert trainee, Midnight Interlude (15/1), breaking from the No. 7 post. He showed absolutely no interest in racing over the dirt track underneath the Twin Spires, but Baffert believes that may have been partly his fault.

“Maybe he just didn’t have it in the Derby,” he commented. “When I trained him for the Derby, that was a bad track and I couldn’t get a line on him. He looked like a horse that wasn’t ready to go a mile-and-a-quarter.”

Last year, Baffert won the Preakness for the fifth time with Lookin at Lucky, a horse that had no chance of winning the Derby due to running out of the No. 1 hole. It’s definitely not out of the question that he can get his three-year-old out of War Chant into the winner’s circle Saturday.

Horse-for-the-course players may take a chance at high-priced Concealed Identity (30/1), entering with two straight wins over the Pimlico Race Course’s dirt oval. Both of those wins came at a distance of 1 1/16-mile and jockey Sheldon Russell in the irons.

Weather forecasts suggest that Saturday will be the only dry period over the next five days in the Baltimore area, with expected highs in he low-80s.

[StarDust Bum]

My take on the Preakness:

Well who would have thought, looking at that derby field, they would run the 1st 6F in the slowest time in 43 years (113 and change) killing all the closers chances except, Well the winner, he closed into those slow fractions and won by 3. Looks like the same thing on paper here the 1,2,4, &* 5 and perhaps a couple others should be out there winging on the front end. 14 signed on here, Hoping there will be a Triple Crown winner, I'm thinking the public will over bet Animal Planet. So I'm using Mucho Macho Man and Dailed in on top. Will box those 2 in a exacta. Then use MMM and Dailed In on top in exacta's and Tri's. Watch the derby replay again and you will see MMM change leads and accelerate in like the last 75 to 100 yards of the race putting him 3rd over Shackelford but w/to much to do to get 2nd or win. A June foal, MMM is still learning and maybe, just maybe, the light came on for him late in the derby 2 weeks ago. As for Dailed In, remember he won the Holy Bull and the Fla Derby, and if he wins the Preakness he wins a bonus of 5.5 million dollars + the winners share (600k) of the 1 Million $ Preakness stakes purse. Even though Nick Zito the trainer and Bob LaPenta have more money than god, Dailed in is running for 6.1Million bucks saturday. Maybe that's why he didn't close in the Derby, is it all about the Benjamin's or about the Hardware. We report you decide.

This is a good betting race, Dailed in and MMM boxed and on top in exacta's to Midnight Interlude (Bafferts), Animal Kingdom and Astrology. As for the bombers Look at the #3 King Congie (a unique story about a guy named Congie who had like MS, confined to a wheelchair and was reluctantly hired to work at Westpoint stables and through his efforts despite his handicap, put them on the internet map increasing their business and touching lives, well Mr Congie recently passed and West point Named The silver deputy colt "King Congie" in his honor) He ran 3rd in the Blue grass. #4 Flashpoint, who may get used up in the pace, but I'm not throwing any Wesley Ward out of the money. If Shackelford wins this he gets a 500k bonus since he ran in the Holy Bull and the Fla Derby. He led the Ky Derby all the way around and ran 4th at the wire. Ah yes those 10 cent supers.

Best of Luck in "The Run for the Black Eyed Susans" Weather is supposed to be warm and clear in Baltimore

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