Tenfold looking to follow sire Curlin
20-to-1 shot for Preakness also didn’t race as 2-year-old; Lukas’ duo works lightly
Like Kentucky Derby winner Justify, Tenfold didn’t race as a 2-year-old. And like the heavy favorite in the 143rd Preakness, Tenfold started his 3-year-old season impressively with victories in his first two races.
But that is where the similarities could end and why Tenfold, who finished a disappointing fifth in last month’s Arkansas Derby, will come to Pimilco Race Course on Saturday as a 20-1 long shot while Justify is at 1-2.
But Tenfold has something Justify doesn’t — close bloodlines that go directly to the winner’s circle in the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. Tenfold’s sire, Curlin, won the 2007 Preakness.
Tenfold is even trained by Steve Asmussen, who saddled up Curlin 11 years ago in what turned out to be the tightest finish in Preakness history, winning by a head in front of Street Sense, who came in as the favorite after winning the Derby. Can history repeat itself? Assistant trainer Scott Blasi, who also worked with Curlin, said Tenfold has recovered well from the Arkansas Derby, where he was in contention going into the backstretch before fading badly and finishing way behind Magnum Moon.
“He’s a fresh horse. He’s put on weight since the Arkansas Derby,” Blasi said at Wednesday’s draw. “He trained really well at Churchill Downs. If the horse stays [in contention], the farther you go, the better he’s going to like it. I think he’ll appreciate the mile and 3/16ths.”
While Curlin was the second favorite at 3-1 going into the 2007 Preakness, Blasi knows that long shots have their own legacy at Pimlico, most recently with 15-1 Owbow winning in 2013.
“I think we’re bringing a fresh, physical, talented horse into this race that’s going to improve with racing,” Blasi said. “He broke his maiden so easily first time out, won again and then had a rough trip against some really good horses in the Arkansas Derby.
“I think he’ll continue to improve with his age. He’s a late-blooming colt. He’s going to mature. We just need to find out we’re capable of running in this type of race. An eight-horse field in the Preakness, you don’t have to worry about traffic as much as a 20-horse field in the Derby. His immaturity shouldn’t be as much of a factor.” Bravazo, Sporting Chance have light workouts on muddy track: D. Wayne Lukas wasn’t taking any chances Wednesday morning.
The Hall of Fame trainer of Preakness runners Bravazo and Sporting Chance didn’t think his horses “needed to do much,” especially on Pimlico’s muddy track, Good Magic, ridden by Walter Malasquez, gallops on the track Wednesday morning as students from Roland Park Country School get a front-row look. The Kentucky Derby runner-up “handled the track really well,” according to assistant trainer Jose Hernandez. so he schooled both in the paddock, familiarizing the horses with their environs, before backtracking them in a light workout.
“If you turn him around, he’s going to do too much on a track that I didn’t think was perfect,” Lukas said. “That’s something I do all my career. I like to cheat them a little bit, and if there’s nobody out there, you can do that, so I go backward and it confuses them like it does you, and we get a real soft gallop rather than a tough one.”
Bravazo, a sixth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, and Sporting Chance, a two-time winner in his seven career starts, both are long shots ahead of Saturday’s 143rd Preakness. Bravazo drew the No. 8 post and is 20-to-1, while Sporting Chance is 30-to-1 in the No. 3 post.
Lukas said inclement weather could continue to affect his training schedule.
“If we’re going to do something serious [on a muddy track], I want to get paid for it,” he said. “I don’t need to do much with them. We’re here, and I think that’s true of all of the guys that are in the Preakness. I don’t think we need to do a lot when we get this far, and this is Wednesday. We’re going to enter tonight, and Thursday and Friday are definitely light days, so we’ll see. I’m going to see how they feel tomorrow. If they’re a little sharp, I might turn them around.”
Kentucky Derby runner-up Good Magic galloped about 11⁄ miles later Wednesday morning, and Jose Hernandez, assistant to trainer Chad Brown, told the Daily Racing Form that Preakness favorite Justify’s top competition “was better today” than he was Tuesday, his first day on the track.
“He got a little hot yesterday, but it was his first day,” Hernandez said. “He looked good today. He handled the track really well.” Post Malone has a big fan in Baffert: Before shipping Kentucky Derby winner Justify to Pimlico for the Preakness, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert sat through a delay in Florida on Tuesday night. While waiting for his flight, there’s a pretty good chance Baffert was listening to Preakness InfieldFest headliner Post Malone.
“I’m glad to see Post Malone here,” Baffert told the Pimlico crowd at Wednesday’s post position draw, “because I really like his music.
“My kids are here. We met him at the Pegasus [World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January], and he’s a character. I actually, I really listen to his music.”
So how did Baffert, winner of five Kentucky Derbies, six Preaknesses, two Belmont Stakes and a Triple Crown with American Pharoah in 2015 — the first since 1978 — get exposed to an artist whose music Pitchfork describes as “mostly melodic trap” and whose breakout single is titled “White Iverson”? Probably the way everybody else did.
Post Malone’s new album, Beerbongs & Bentleys, is No. 1 in the country for the second week in a row after being certified platinum in just four days, and the rapper currently has 15 songs in the Billboard Hot 100, which takes sales, radio play and online streaming into account. The album’s single, “Rockstar” with 21 Savage — who will also perform at InfieldFest — was released in September 2017 and quickly rose to No. 1 on the Hot100. That’s all after his debut album, “Stoney,” went double platinum.
We’ll see whether Baffert takes time out of his busy Preakness day to partake in the infield debauchery.
The InfieldFest concert begins with DJ sets from Vice and Frank Walker before Post Malone, 21Savage and electronic music duo Odesza take the stage.