Thoroughbred Racing

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Preakness Stakes 2017: Always Dreaming, the Draw, Contenders and More
By VICTOR MATHERMAY 17, 2017

Maybe Always Dreaming will race to glory and win horse racing’s Triple Crown at Belmont Park next month. But to get that chance, he will first have to win the unpretentious middle jewel of the series, the Preakness Stakes, in Baltimore.

Here is what we know about this year’s Preakness:

POST TIME: Saturday, 6:45 p.m. Eastern.

DISTANCE: One and three-sixteenths miles, a little less than the Kentucky Derby’s one and a quarter miles.

TV: NBC, starting at 5 p.m. Prerace coverage, NBCSN, 2:30 to 5 p.m.

STREAMING: At NBCSports.com or on the NBC Sports app.

CROWD: 130,000 or so (compared with the Kentucky Derby’s 160,000).

WEATHER FORECAST: Cloudy and 70 degrees. A repeat of the Derby’s sloppy track is not expected.

DRAW: The Derby winner, Always Dreaming, will break from the No. 4 post in the 10-horse field. Thirteen winners have started from that post, most recently Curlin in 2007.

Classic Empire, the early second choice at 3-1, will be next to Always Dreaming in post No. 5. Lookin at Lee, the Derby runner-up and the 10-1 third choice, drew the No. 9 post.

The full field: 1. Multiplier; 2. Cloud Computing; 3. Hence; 4. Always Dreaming; 5. Classic Empire; 6. Gunnevera; 7. Term of Art; 8. Senior Investment; 9. Lookin at Lee; 10. Conquest Mo Money

PURSE: $1,500,000 guaranteed, with $900,000 to the winner.

TRADITIONS: The Derby has “My Old Kentucky Home”; the Preakness has “Maryland, My Maryland.” Instead of roses, the Preakness winner receives black-eyed Susans.

THE DERBY WINNER: Always Dreaming, who has won four races in a row, including the Florida Derby and the Kentucky Derby, is an early 4-5 favorite for the Preakness. He has been winning impressively, but conditions will be different in Baltimore. The field will be smaller, the weather warmer and the track drier. He will also be racing on only two weeks’ rest, having typically gotten a month between races.

OTHERS FROM THE DERBY: Classic Empire was many people’s Derby favorite off his Arkansas Derby win. He struggled with the 20-horse Derby field but finished a creditable fourth. Lookin at Lee, a 33-to-1 shot, charged up the track fast in the Derby to finish second. Seventh-place Gunnevera and 11th-place Hence will also be back.

NEW CHALLENGERS: Conquest Mo Money, beaten by Classic Empire by half a length in Arkansas, tops the field of newcomers. Also taking a shot are Cloud Computing, who was third in the Wood Memorial; Multiplier, the Illinois Derby winner; and Senior Investment, who won the Lexington.

FORGET ABOUT IT: Term of Art is 0 for 4 this year and was a soundly beaten seventh in the Santa Anita Derby his last time out.

JOCKEYS: John Velazquez, 45, is back aboard Always Dreaming. He has won the Kentucky Derby twice and the Belmont twice, but never the Preakness. Javier Castellano will ride Cloud Computing. He won the Preakness in 2006 on Bernardini, his only Triple Crown race win.

TRAINERS: Always Dreaming’s trainer, Todd Pletcher, has had tremendous success over the years but has never won a Preakness. Steve Asmussen, the Preakness winner in 2007 with Curlin and in 2009 with Rachel Alexandra, trains both Lookin at Lee and Hence.

OTHER RACES: Also on Saturday are the Dixie Stakes, for grass horses, and the Maryland Sprint Handicap. The Black-Eyed Susan, for 3-year-old fillies, is Friday.

MISSING: Bob Baffert, a six-time Preakness winner who has been ubiquitous in the Triple Crown races in recent years, has no entrant, as in the Derby. Victor Espinoza, after riding two of the last three Preakness winners, including American Pharoah, will sit this one out. Kent Desormeaux, who won last year on Exaggerator, does not have a mount.

PIMLICO: Home of the race since 1873, Pimlico Race Course may be in its final years. Its location is poor, and the facility is far outshined by suburban Laurel. Pimlico gets fewer race dates every year: This year, it will host only 12, down from 28 last year and 37 in 2015. Ownership says that to keep the Preakness at the track, it will need hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/sports/preakness-stakes-draw-contenders.html?