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With top Derby finishers out, trainers have to like their odds in Preakness

BALTIMORE — Hall of Fame trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert sit in the corner of the stakes barn at Pimlico Race Course sizing up the Preakness.

“A lot of speed in there,” Baffert says. Lukas responds without missing a beat, “My horse is fast.”

“There’s some nice horses in here,” Baffert says. “Pretty evenly matched.”

The banter sums up this year’s Preakness.

For the first time since 1996, the Preakness doesn’t have the Kentucky Derby winner and therefore no Triple Crown possibility. Baffert-trained Improbable opened as the favorite — because, Baffert said, some horse had to be favored — and without any of the first four horses to cross the finish line at the Derby, the Preakness feels like almost anyone’s $1.5 million race to win.

“There’s four or five horses that can win it,” Improbable co-owner Elliott Walden said Friday. “It’s kind of like the NCAA Tournament. Just because Duke got beat, the No. 1 seed, didn’t mean they didn’t have a Final Four.”

Unlike when Baffert brought Justify to Pimlico a year ago looking Triple Crown-caliber, this isn’t a one-horse race. Improbable and War of Will are among the legitimate contenders to become just the 19th horse all time and first since Afleet Alex in 2005 to fall short in the Derby but win the Preakness and Belmont.

Trainer Mark Hennig said the absence of Maximum Security, who crossed the finish line first in the Derby, and Country House, who was declared the winner after Maximum Security was disqualified, helped him make the decision to enter Bourbon War.

“Here’s the rule: If there’s one horse, always run. If there’s two, look at it critically. If there’s three, maybe,” Lukas said. “I’m talking about really superstar horses. Things happen to one or two horses in these races. We saw that two Saturdays ago.”

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