Justify to start Preakness from No. 7 post as 1-2 favorite
BALTIMORE (TNS) – Kentucky Derby champion Justify will start from the seventh post as a 1-2 favorite in the morning line for Saturday’s 143rd Preakness at Pimlico Race Course.
Trainer Bob Baffert’s previous four Derby champions have all won two weeks later in Baltimore. And Justify is coming off a commanding 2½-length victory over a muddy track at Churchill Downs.
A little over an hour behind schedule, Justify arrived at Pimlico on Wednesday afternoon.
Despite a spitting rain, a large crowd of reporters and fans waited for Baffert’s horse to emerge from the van that shipped him and other horses from Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-washington International Airport.
Baffert, looking for his seventh Preakness win and 14th Triple Crown victory, said Justify was not the worse for wear after making the trip. Justify is scheduled to have his first Pimlico workout Friday morning.
“He shipped really well,” Baffert said. “We just walked the shed row this morning (at Churchill Downs) because we didn’t want to do too much with him. He looks like he came off the van in great shape.
Baltimore Sun (TNS) After a commanding win at the Kentucky Derby, Justify is the early favorite to win Saturday’s 143rd Preakness Stakes.
He’s really full of himself. I could tell by the way he was dragging me around. He’s on his game. That’s (what) you want to see a few days out.”
Asked if there’s a little more tension for him coming in as the trainer of the Derby champion, Baffert said: “I like when I have
the Derby winner because I know that I have a pretty good horse. It’s fun for everybody. I’ve come in here getting beat in the Derby and been lucky enough to win (the Preakness). Every time I came, I was always in awe of the Derby winner.”
Derby runner-up Good Magic will start from the No. 5 post as a 3-1 second choice in the morning line. His trainer, Chad Brown, won the Preakness last year with Cloud Computing.
Two other Derby horses will try to turn the tables on Justify, sixth-place finisher Bravazo and eighthplace finisher Lone Sailor.
Lone Sailor’s trainer, Tom Amoss, has said Justify does not appear vulnerable but that his horse ran well enough to deserve another chance. He’ll go off from the No. 2 post as a 15-1 choice.
Bravazo is one of two horses 82-year-old trainer D. Wayne Lukas will saddle for the Preakness. He’ll start from the No. 8 post as a 20-1 choice. Lukas’s other horse, Sporting Chance will start from the No. 3 post as a 30-1 choice.
If one of the pair pulls an upset, Lukas would tie the all-time record of seven Preakness wins, a mark Baffert could also reach if Justify wins.
Among the fresh horses challenging Justify is Arkansas Derby runner-up Quip, who like the Derby champion is owned by Winstar Farm and the China Horse Club. Quip will start from the No. 1 post as a 12-1 choice.
Diamond King, winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park, will also take his first shot at the Derby champion, starting from the No. 4 post as a 30-1 choice.
Finally, Tenfold, saddled by Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, will start from the No. 6 post as a 20-1 choice.
At eight horses, the field is on the small side for recent Preaknesses, matching the one American Pharoah beat on his way to the Triple Crown in 2015.
143RD PREAKNESS STAKES