Lookin at Lucky, Super Saver won't run in Belmont

Lookin at Lucky will probably aim for the Haskell (EquiSport Photos) Trainer Bob Baffert broke form the morning after the Preakness S. (G1), beating several reporters to the stakes barn. Rarely an early bird, Baffert's appearance shortly after 6 a.m. (EDT) was a far bigger surprise than LOOKIN AT LUCKY's (Smart Strike) victory by three-quarters of a length in Saturday's 135th Preakness. Baffert said that the colt came out of the race in good condition, but was being given some time off and would not compete in the final leg of the Triple Crown, the June 5 Belmont S. (G1). However, there may be a Baffert-trained horse in the Belmont -- Lone Star Derby (G3) winner Game on Dude (Awesome Again). Noting that Preakness runner-up FIRST DUDE (Stephen Got Even) was likely to go on to the Belmont, Baffert said it would be the "Battle of the Dudes."

While Lookin at Lucky was being prepared for the van that would take him to the

airport and the next leg

of a journey to California, Baffert leaned against a fence answering questions

and occasionally chiding late-arriving members of the media.

"You missed it all," he said. "You have to get out of bed. When Bob Baffert

beats you to the barn, that's

not a good thing."

Baffert had plenty of reasons to be happy about the Preakness. With new

jockey Martin Garcia aboard,

Lookin at Lucky had finally emerged from the bad karma that had enveloped him

this year: a victory

despite a troubled trip in the Rebel S. (G2); a third with a world of problems in the

Santa Anita Derby (G1) and a sixth

after starting from the inside post in the 20-horse Kentucky Derby (G1) run over a

sloppy, sealed track.

"It was so easy to get up this morning," Baffert said. "At Churchill after

the Kentucky Derby, it was hard to

get up. I felt like I'd gone a mile and a quarter in the mud. That alarm went

off and I jumped out of there

like, 'Yes, I've got to go talk about it."

Baffert opted to give Lucky a rider switch to Martin Garcia (Harold Roth/Horsephotos.com) And talk Baffert did. He said he did not have a problem with the Belmont S., where Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998) and War Emblem (2002) all failed to complete their Triple Crown sweep. "I like the Belmont. It's a tough, long race," he said. "When I ran my other horses for the Triple Crown, I had to give them a break. It's tough on them. I want to keep this horse around." Baffert said that he didn't have a plan in place for the colt, but that the Haskell Invitational (G1) on August 1 at Monmouth Park was a likely target. Between the Derby and the Preakness, Baffert changed jockeys, dropping the heralded Garrett Gomez for 25-year-old relatively inexperienced Martin Garcia; drew the favorable post 7 and caught a fast track. Garcia provided a solid ride. "He got the trip that you need to win a classic," Baffert said. "The trip is all-important. His post positions were just killing him. The post position was the whole key. He finally was in a spot where he could negotiate a little bit. And Martin rode him with a lot of confidence." Baffert said the jockey switch was not a shot at Gomez. "It was just trying to shake something up, trying to change my luck," he said. "I felt bad about taking Garrett off; I still feel bad about it. I felt bad for Garrett last night. He's a good friend. It's got to be tough for him to see his horse win a classic. You don't get very many chances."

Baffert said he had reached out to Gomez after the race.

"I texted him last night and said I'm sorry how it worked," he said. "I'll

find some other good horses for

him. He's made me a lot of money. I've made him a lot of money. He's been the

recipient of some jockey

changes. He's still a great rider."

The 2010 Preakness win was Baffert's ninth in a Triple Crown race, but his

first in eight years since War

Emblem won the 2002 Preakness.

"It seemed like 12 years until yesterday," Baffert said. "When we hit the

wire it seemed like about three

years since we'd won it."

And it seemed like a long time since Lookin at Lucky, the 2009 juvenile

champion, had caught a break in a

race.

"I was just happy for that little horse," Baffert said. "He deserved to win.

He's been a true warrior."

Super Saver's ultimate target is the Breeders' Cup Classic (EquiSport Photos) Trainer Todd Pletcher's Preakness horses, the Kentucky Derby winner and Saturday's beaten favorite SUPER SAVER (Maria's Mon), and AIKENITE (Yes It's True), left the stakes barn early in the morning for the van ride to Belmont Park. "Both horses came out well," Pletcher said by phone at 11:30 a.m. "Both have already arrived at Belmont in good order and are settling in there. I left at 6 and they left right around the same time." Neither will run in the Belmont, Pletcher said. Super Saver, Pletcher's first Derby winner, stalked the pace for a mile in the Preakness under jockey Calvin Borel, but ran out of energy and finished eighth.

"Like I said, after the race we wanted to win the Preakness," Pletcher said.

"There's nothing more that I

would have loved to have done than to come back to Belmont with a chance at the

Triple Crown, but we

are so happy about the way he ran in the Derby and so thankful about that, that

it would be hard to be

disappointed about anything he ever does from this point on. I think it softens

the blow a bit.

"You can

always look back and know you won the Derby and that's paramount. Any time you

lose a race and don't

run as well as the horse is capable of, it's disappointing, but it's no

reflection on how good of a horse he is

and we're glad to have him."

Pletcher said the stress of getting to the Derby, running a strong race and

coming back in two weeks in the

Preakness probably took a toll on Super Saver.

"Sometimes you can look at all the signs on the outside and while he's eating

well and he's training well

and acts enthusiastic and energetic, someone asked me when do you know if two

weeks is enough time?"

he said. "Really, it's at about the three-eighths pole in the race when you

really know. He ran well up to

that point and when Calvin called on him for a response at that point he didn't

have that extra gear on the

day.

"It's not only the two weeks from the Derby to the Preakness, but it was

also back in three weeks off

the Arkansas Derby ([G1] on April 10, in which Super Saver finished a close

second). So he had two very good races close together. It probably wasn't enough

time for him to improve and put forth another top race.

"Super Saver came back well," Pletcher added. "I talked to Elliot Walden (of WinStar

Farm) briefly after the race, and

the only real decision that we've made so far is that he will not run in the

Belmont. We'll kind of freshen

him up, let him tell us. But we know that he loves Churchill and with the

Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) being at

Churchill this year, we'll focus on that and try to figure out the best game

plan on how to get there in top

shape."

Pletcher said he spoke with Cot Campbell, the president of Dogwood Stable,

after the Preakness about

plans for Aikenite, who finished 10th Saturday.

"We decided that he would come back to Belmont, we'd give it few days to see

how he came out of it and

come up with a game plan," Pletcher said. "He still has allowance conditions

left. It's possible we could

look for a softer spot. He's also possible for a race like the Pegasus (S. [G3]

on June 19)at

Monmouth and some other

opportunities like that. We probably won't come up with any concrete plans for

another week or so, but he

would be considered possible for all the obvious races this summer."

First Dude (right) is headed to the Belmont (EquiSport Photos) Everyone found out Saturday why trainer Dale Romans would have been upset if First Dude was excluded from the Preakness field, which was a distinct possibility early last week. The big bay, who wouldn't have qualified to compete in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown had 15 horses been entered on Wednesday, gave Lookin at Lucky all he could handle before grudgingly yielding to the 2009 juvenile champion in deep stretch. "I'm not disappointed at all. He had a big effort and he got beat by a champion," said Romans, whose second-place finisher broke alertly from the 11 post and showed the way into the stretch. "He did all the work up front and he still finished and they had to work to get by him." The late-developing First Dude set solid fractions of :22.91, :46.47 and 1:11.22 for the first six furlongs of the 1 3/16-mile signature race of the Pimlico meeting but still had a lot of fight in him through the stretch run. Romans gave jockey Ramon Dominguez the option to set the pace with the Donald Dizney-owned colt.

"If he broke sharp, I told Ramon, 'Feel free and go ahead and go if no one

else was going and just keep him

in the clear," he said. "I didn't want him to get stopped and to try to

re-start, he's such a big old horse.

When he's got the momentum going, you can't have him stopped and get him going

again."

His sparkling performance served as validation for high hopes Romans and his

staff have held for the colt since his arrival in the barn.

"We are proud of him," Romans said.  "We kept thinking all along that he

was this kind of horse, but he just had circumstances that kept him from running

a big, big race. Finally nothing went wrong and he put it all together and he

got beat by a champion."

Romans reported that his colt, who was shipped back to his Churchill Downs

base early Sunday morning,

came out of the Preakness in good order and will be pointed toward the Belmont

S.

"I think he's going to move forward again," he said. "The mile and a half

suits him, and we're excited to go

up there."

Paddy O'Prado is expected to revert to turf (EquiSport Photos) Among the horses he will likely meet in the final leg of the Triple Crown is Fly Down (Mineshaft), who beat him by a head and a half-length in two meetings. "It'll be the third time," said Romans of the growing rivalry with the stablemate of Kentucky Derby runner-up Ice Box (Pulpit). "Maybe the third time's the charm and we'll catch him." Although Preakness hero Lookin at Lucky and Derby winner Super Saver are scheduled to sit it out, the Belmont hasn't lost any luster for Romans. "I think it's a great race to win regardless. I think it's going to end up being a pretty good field of horses," Romans said. "With horses like Ice Box, Fly Down and my horse, it'll be a good race." Romans believes First Dude could well be the horse to beat in the big race three weeks down the road. "I think so, and so does Ramon," Romans said. The Kentucky trainer reported that PADDY O'PRADO (El Prado [Ire]), his third-place Derby finisher who ran sixth Saturday, checked out fine Sunday morning before joining First Dude on the trip back to Louisville, Kentucky.

"I don't know if he liked that racetrack; it was kind of sandy and deep," he

said. "I'm not saying he won't run on a fast, firm racetrack somewhere else, but

if I'd have to say right now, I'd probably say he'll go back to the grass.

"I'll talk with Jerry (Donegal Racing managing partner Jerry Crawford) later

in the day and see what we want to do with him."

Romans said he will have great memories of Preakness 135.

"It's a great event. They always treat you well at Pimlico. Even when we came

up for the undercard races,

they always bent over backwards to take care of us," he said. "We made it an

enjoyable vacation with the

two horses here. It was very exciting."

Jackson Bend (near side) is unlikely to go on to the Belmont (Reed Palmer Photography/Churchill Downs) Trainer Nick Zito, who had the best two legs of the Triple Crown of any trainer who didn't win either race, may be holding most of the aces for the upcoming Belmont. Zito, who finished third to Lookin at Lucky in the Preakness with JACKSON BEND (Hear No Evil) after a good second to Super Saver in the Kentucky Derby with Ice Box, could have as many as three runners in the Belmont. Jackson Bend came out of the Preakness in good shape, according to Zito, who said he wasn't about to make a decision about the Belmont after his colt's two tough races in two weeks. Both Ice Box and Jackson Bend, who finished a troubled 12th in the Derby, are owned by Robert LaPenta, which may make the decision easier. "He's a tough little horse," Zito said Sunday morning, pointing to the chestnut in his stall at the near end of the Preakness stakes barn. "I can say it a thousand times -- he's very, very, very tough. He wants to fight all the time."

Zito skipped the Preakness with Ice Box to train him up to the 1 1/2-mile

Belmont Stakes, but he may now

dominate the field if Jackson Bend rebounds from the Preakness and Dwyer S. (G2)

winner Fly Down stays

healthy over the next three weeks.

"I never say never, but I doubt it," Zito said of Jackson Bend's probability

of running in all three Triple

Crown events. "I think he needs a rest. But you never know with him."

Zito, who saddled Louis Quatorze for a victory in 1996, was seeking his

second Preakness success, and

Jackson Bend nearly delivered it. He was beaten by less than a length for all

the money, finishing a head

behind pacesetting First Dude for second. Ice Box was flying too late when

second in the Derby.

"It's up and down; it's a lot of rewarding things," Zito said. "You try to

put everything in a proper

perspective, but it's so hard, because you want to have peace, you want a little

peace. You get it if you win

those races because that's what we do it for. On the other hand, you've got to

be thankful and grateful for

how good they run and how good they come back.

"It's frustrating when you get

beat in these big races, and

believe me, I liked Lookin at Lucky yesterday. I always salute the winner, which

is the right thing to do,

and I hate making excuses. But a little break here and there…it might have been

a little closer or a lot

closer. We could have won the thing. You give us the horse and we're going to

try to get you there. The

good thing, unfortunately, is that victory needs no explanation."

Jackson Bend was loaded onto a New York-bound van Sunday morning.

The New York-bred YAWANNA TWIST (Yonaguska) was vanned back to

Aqueduct Sunday

morning after an eventful fourth-place finish for trainer Rick Dutrow and Steel

Your Face Stables.

"Not too bad," managing partner Jim Riccio said when asked how Yawanna Twist

exited the Preakness

after being steadied in the backstretch and racing five-wide through the

stretch. "I thought he ran big. He

was live. Going in, I really thought he was live. He showed up, so we were

happy."

Ridden by Edgar Prado, the lightly raced Illinois Derby (G3) and Gotham S.

(G3) runner-up finished

less than two lengths behind Preakness winner Lookin at Lucky. It was only his fifth career start. Riccio

said he spoke to Dutrow

Sunday, but no decision had been made regarding his next start.

DUBLIN (Afleet Alex), who closed for fifth in the Preakness after ducking out

badly at the start, is under consideration for the Belmont.

Caracortado will get a vacation back home in California (Benoit Photos) The California-bred CARACORTADO (Cat Dreams), who faded to seventh after vying for the lead at the top of the stretch, came out of the Preakness in good shape, said breeder/part-owner/trainer Michael Machowsky Sunday. "He's fine," said Machowsky, whose Preakness runner left Pimlico early Sunday morning for a cross-country flight back to California. Caracortado tracked the pace in fourth into the final turn, where jockey Paul Atkinson sent his mount after pacesetter First Dude. The Santa Anita-based gelding responded to enter contention at the top of the stretch, only to tire through the lane. "He maybe got tired a little more than we thought he would," Machowsky said. "When he went head and head with them coming off the turn, it gave us a little excitement." Machowsky said Caracortado would be given a break before returning to action.

Trainer Derek Ryan was back at his Monmouth Park base Sunday

morning,

his ninth-place Preakness finisher, SCHOOLYARD DREAMS (Stephen Got Even), having safely vanned back

to New Jersey

Saturday night.

"He shipped back good and came out of the race fine," said Ryan, who had a

more satisfying trip here last

year when Musket Man (Yonaguska) finished third. "Other than that, we got beat, we got beat.

Take your ball and go

home."

The Preakness was only the seventh career start for the bay, who will now get a break

from competition, according to Ryan.

"We'll probably go in the Pegasus that they moved to the middle of the

Monmouth meet," he

said. "It's a Grade 3. We'll go from there. We still feel pretty good about this

horse."

PLEASANT PRINCE (Indy King) came out of the Preakness in good

order, but will get

some rest after beating only one horse on Saturday for owners Ken and Sarah

Ramsey. Pleasant Prince left

for Louisville on a plane at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday and will not be considered

for the Belmont Stakes,

according to Ken Ramsey.

"I would say that my weekend was priceless," said Ramsey, a Kentucky native

who almost thoroughly

enjoyed his first trip back to the Preakness since Ten Cents a Shine suffered a

similar fate to Pleasant

Prince by finishing next-to-last in 2003. "I learned a whole lot. It was a good

experience, and I think I'll be

able to take something out of it and maybe come back and make a run on the

Triple Crown trail next year. I

always look at the glass as half-full, not half-empty."

Ramsey said he will do things a little differently next time. He said that in

his haste to get to the Kentucky

Derby, his ultimate goal, he may have pushed Pleasant Prince a bit too hard. He

needed more graded stakes

earnings after losing the Florida Derby (G1) by a nose, and failed efforts in the

Blue Grass S. (G1) and Derby Trial S. (G3) left

the Preakness as the more viable option.

"We had to hustle this horse to get him to the Derby," said the self-made

multi-millionaire during the cell

phone boom. "I'm not going to do that next year. WinStar (Super Saver owners)

had it figured out. You

need to put your two-year-olds and your young three-year-olds in these graded stakes

races and get the money so

you don't have to scramble around at the 11th hour like we did trying to make

it. I learned a whole lot. I'm

only 74, so most of my best memories are probably still ahead of me."

Ramsey said he will look for an allowance race at Churchill Downs and maybe

have Pleasant Prince in line

for a stakes like the Haskell Invitational.