by Jeff Apel

With his original plan foiled by insufficient graded stakes earnings, trainer Reade Baker is determined to win the $1-million Preakness Stakes (G1) with Grade 1-placed winner Kentucky Bear.

Baker and owner Dan Dion of Bear Stables originally planned to run Kentucky Bear in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) on May 3 at Churchill Downs. After being excluded from the 20-horse Derby field because of a lack of enough graded stakes earnings, Baker and Dion shifted their focus to the Preakness on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course.

“When Danny Dion hired me, he wanted to win the Kentucky Derby. He didn’t mention anything about the summertime,” Baker said. “So we thought we had a brilliant horse. We still do.

“Without risking the horse’s future, I was going to try and get to the Derby. That’s what I did.”

Unraced at two, Kentucky Bear will make his fourth career start in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness, for which 12 horses have been confirmed as starters as of Friday. Harlem Rocker remains under consideration for the second leg of the Triple Crown, which can have a maximum field of 14 horses.

Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown is expected to face a field that, in addition to Kentucky Bear, includes Behindatthebar, Giant Moon, Hey Byrn, and Icabad Crane. Racecar Rhapsody, Recapturetheglory, Riley Tucker, Stevil, Tres Borrachos, and Yankee Bravo are also confirmed starters.

Baker watched Big Brown post a 4 3/4-length win in the Derby on Churchill's main track, which was renovated following the previous day's heavy rain. With Kentucky Bear excluded from the field, Baker worked the Mr. Greeley colt five furlongs in :59 handily on Derby day at Keeneland Race Course.

Baker said being excluded from the Derby was not easy.

“It was very, very difficult,” the trainer said. “Because when the rain started, it played to horses laying fairly close. It was very difficult for those coming from way out of it.”

Kentucky Bear rallied from sixth in a field of 12 and finished third in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1) on April 12 at Keeneland in his most recent start. Jockey Jamie Theriot, who rode Kentucky Bear for the first time in the Blue Grass, has a return call for the Preakness.

“I think there was a slight miscalculation on the jockey’s part in the Blue Grass,” Baker said. “He thought those horses would be easy to reel in in front of him, and he didn’t want to go to them too early. I think [Theriot] left him too much to do.

“When he rides him back in the Preakness, he’ll know him a lot better.”

Kentucky Bear joined Baker’s barn at Palm Meadows Training Center in January after recovering from bucked shins. The chestnut colt made his first two starts on the main track at Gulfstream Park and posted a 6 1/2-length debut win in a maiden special weight race on January 21 prior to finishing unplaced in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) on February 24.

Baker said going from a maiden win to the Fountain of Youth was a matter of necessity for Kentucky Bear, who needed to compile graded stakes earnings in a hurry to make the Derby field.

“The way the Triple Crown is set up you have to take those chances to get in the Derby. We failed to do that,” Baker said. “That wouldn’t have been my choice or the owner’s first choice.

“You have no choice at that point. You either go for the money to try to get in or you’re not getting in.”

Kentucky Bear arrived at Pimlico on Thursday and is scheduled to work five furlongs on Saturday if weather permits. Big Brown jogged one-mile on a sloppy track on Friday at Churchill.

Jeff Apel is a Thoroughbred Times assistant daily news editor