Derby winner Rich Strike to skip Preakness
Rich Strike, the 80-1 long shot who thrilled the racing world with his late charge to victory in the Kentucky Derby, will skip the Preakness, owner Rick Dawson said.
Rich Strike’s absence will rob the race of its customary tension, with no Triple Crown narrative at stake and no debate over the historic underdog’s chances to do it again. Ratings on NBC plummeted 29% in 2019, when none of the top three Derby finishers ran in the Preakness.
“It’s disappointing,” said NBC racing analyst Randy Moss. “Clearly, we would prefer that Rich Strike run in the Preakness, because he did capture the imagination of the sports public with the way he won and the improbability of it all. Not to mention that the people involved with Rich Strike are so likable and so humble, with a lot of meat on that bone from a storytelling perspective.”
Preakness organizers had hoped this year would represent a return to normal for Baltimore’s largest annual sporting event after the coronavirus pandemic pushed it to October in 2020 and limited attendance last spring. The event’s infield festival will be back after a two-year absence, with no limit on the crowd, which hit a record high of 134,487 in 2018.
Dawson said he and trainer Eric Reed originally planned to run Rich Strike in the Derby and come back five weeks later for the Belmont Stakes.
The decision to skip the Preakness is unusual but not unprecedented.
Technically, Mandaloun was the last Derby winner not to run in the Preakness, and that was just last year. But Medina Spirit was considered Derby champion at the time and lost his title nine months later only because of a medication violation. Medina Spirit did run at Pimlico Race Course and finished third.
Country House, who won the 2019 Derby after Maximum Security was disqualified, did not travel to the Preakness because of a cough and never raced again. Before his defection, it had been 23 years since a Derby champion failed to take a shot at the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Justify in 2018 was the last horse to win the Derby and the Preakness, and he went on to take the Triple Crown.
Trainers and owners are increasingly reluctant to run their horses on two weeks’ rest, the customary gap between the Derby and Preakness. Such busy schedules were common in past eras, but rest periods
of a month or more are the current norm for elite thoroughbreds.
Moss said the decision on Rich Strike should prompt serious discussion of extending the Triple Crown schedule, with the Preakness on Memorial Day weekend and the Belmont Stakes closer to July 4.
“Something like this was inevitable,” the NBC analyst said. “The spacing of the Triple Crown races should have been changed 15 years ago. It’s a complete anachronism for 2022.”
ETC.
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