USA TODAY US Edition

Clear sailing?

Smaller field, less traffic in Preakness could boost Classic Empire’s chances of victory,

- Chris Korman @ChrisKorma­n USA TODAY Sports

Classic Empire was there at the end of the Kentucky Derby, the 4-1 morning-line favorite turning toward the stretch with enough mud in front of him to win it.

Then, as has been the case during the colt’s 3-year-old season, something got in the way. Another horse veered into him — he’d been jostled for most of the race — and his stride slowed. He had nothing left. His fourth-place finish still might have been the most impressive run of the day, given all he’d gone through.

Now Classic Empire has come to Pimlico Race Course in search of a clean, fair shot at beating Always Dreaming and ending his drive toward the Triple Crown on Saturday. That is what happens in the Preakness Stakes: After a champion emerges from Kentucky — often because it managed to not be unlucky — the clutter falls away, the course shortens slightly and the role of fate fades, at least a bit.

“We really think a lot of Always Dreaming, because he’s a supertalen­ted horse,” said Norman Casse, who trains Classic Empire with his father, Mark. “We really respect his connection­s, and we always have. But we’re bringing a horse that has a legit chance to beat him, and I think what we’re hoping for everybody, for all fans and everybody included, that they both get fair trips, they both are eyeing each other at the quarter pole and they can sort it out down the lane.”

NBC horse racing analyst Randy Moss does not buy the longheld narrative that the second leg of the Triple Crown produces a more honest result, calling it “factually incorrect and tremendous­ly overblown.” But he does think Classic Empire’s troubled trip in the Derby prevented him from running as well as he could have.

“The hit he took coming out of the gate, it was like an NFL line of scrimmage,” Moss said. “Having the gap between gates meant there was tremendous momentum built up by the time the horses collided.”

Classic Empire had drawn the No. 14 post, the last stall of the primary gate. The six-horse auxiliary gate is a few feet away and angled ever-so-slightly toward the middle of the course. That means Classic Empire and McCraken in No. 15 were both trying to get ahead of the field and away from the mud that would be kicked up by it and were both running for the same lane.

Classic Empire jockey Julien Leparoux initially thought the force of the collision might have unseated another rider. It didn’t, but it ended Classic Empire’s chances. The colt was jostled for much of the 11⁄ 4- mile trip, unable to stalk the leaders as he would have preferred.

“That was really the worst thing about that early trouble,” Moss said. “The fact that Leparoux had to break from the colt’s preferred style and then had to take him wide meant that he traveled about 75 feet further than Always Dreaming. That’s a difference of between 6 and 7 lengths.”

Classic Empire finished 83⁄ 4 lengths behind Always Dreaming, whose trainer, Todd Pletcher, said he thought Classic Empire and several other worthy horses were compromise­d by the start at Churchill Downs.

Casse thinks his colt, who arrived Monday at Pimlico and took his first gallop around the track Tuesday, is heading toward the best race of his career. Classic Empire earned a reputation for being abrasive or not serious, depending on the interprete­r, when he threw his rider and pulled an abrupt U-turn during an important race at Saratoga last summer. He spent part of the winter refusing to go out on training runs.

While the colt was originally branded as hardheaded, his trainers now think injuries explain the unusual behavior. At Saratoga, he came away from the race with a swollen ankle. This spring, he suf- fered from an abscess on his hoof that led to a sore back that caused him to miss training time. He was the morning-line favorite in the Derby after winning the Arkansas Derby in April.

So Norman Casse knew the Derby would have to break perfectly for Classic Empire to run his best race. It didn’t. He does not anticipate the same problem in the Preakness, which has 10 entries heading into Wednesday’s post-position draw.

“Always Dreaming will not be that far away from us,” he said. “There won’t be an easy lead. It won’t be like that. We’re going to be sitting right off of him regardless, or he’ll be right off of us, and I can imagine it’s going to be a showdown early.”

 ?? GEOFF BURKE, USA TODAY SPORTS ??
GEOFF BURKE, USA TODAY SPORTS
 ?? GEOFF BURKE, USA TODAY SPORTS ?? Classic Empire gallops on the track during a morning workout Tuesday in preparatio­n for the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.
GEOFF BURKE, USA TODAY SPORTS Classic Empire gallops on the track during a morning workout Tuesday in preparatio­n for the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States