No stopping Smith and Bodemeister in the Preakness Stakes
Zayat Stables’ Bodemeister ran a remarkable race in the Derby, where he kicked away at the top of the stretch, carving one of the fastest fractions to be recorded ever in the Kentucky Derby, but all that hard work deserved a first place finish, but Trinniberg, the other blessed with pace in the Derby ran Bodemeister out of gas, and in the clutch time I’ll Have Another took advantage of a slowing down Bodemeister and won the Derby by 1 ½ lengths on 5 May at Churchill Downs.
“The way he moves over the ground, he doesn’t look like he’s going that fast,” Baffert said. “At the quarter pole, it looked like he was giving everyone the slip. At the eighth pole, he had a little surge. But at the sixteenth pole, he was stopping.”
It doesn’t matter that the son of Empire Maker was defeated as the favourite in the Kentucky Derby, because he is going as a favourite in the Preakness Stakes despite finishing second in the first leg of the Triple Crown.
Installed as the 8 to 5 favourite, breaking from post number 7, I’ll Have Another on the other hand has been declared the second choice at 5 to 2, Mike Harrington trained Creative Cause will be sent as the third choice.
The thing that makes Bodemeister the favourite for the Preakness Stakes is that there is no Trinniberg in the race, in fact there is no one like Trinniberg who can bother Bodemeister in the Preakness.
With Hansen abandoning the race, Bodemeister will be a lone sprinter, probably going all the way. If Baffert and Mike Smith agree to seize the initiative after a clean break just like they did in the Kentucky Derby, then it will be very hard for anyone to reel this rampant colt down.
“Looking at it over and over,” Smith said, “maybe there’s some things you’d change, but if not for Trinniberg, I think we’d have stolen the race. I’m proud of him. That sucker ran good.”
Bodemeister was lucky to bounce off the race in good health, and that is what prompted Baffert to go for the Preakness, and it could turn out to be a massive decision in the end.
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