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Preakness favorite Super Saver draws post eight

Posted: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 5:16 PM

SUPER SAVER

PhotosByZ.com/Thoroughbred Times

by Jeff Lowe

The top two choices on the morning-line for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) began at opposite ends of the starting gate. Two weeks later, the Derby favorite, Lookin At Lucky, and Derby winner, Super Saver, will start right next to each other.

Super Saver drew post eight, and Lookin At Lucky will be directly to his inside in post seven in the 135th edition of the $1-million Preakness Stakes (G1) on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course.

Posts were drawn in an infield tent late Wednesday afternoon, a few hours after Super Saver, Lookin At Lucky, and seven other Preakness horses arrived at the track following a flight from Louisville.

The only horse not yet on the scene at Pimlico is Schoolyard Dreams, who will ship in the morning of the race from Monmouth Park.

A few days ago, an overflow field appeared possible for the Preakness. The latest defection on Wednesday morning of The Cliff’s Edge Derby Trial Stakes (G3) winner Hurricane Ike reduced the cast to a dozen horses, two short of the maximum.

With Hurricane Ike out because of a hind leg injury, the Preakness also lost an early-speed candidate in a race devoid of an obvious pacesetter.

Super Saver grabbed the early lead in four of his first five starts, but he has been content to rate behind blazing speed in his last two races at the discretion of jockey Calvin Borel. He relaxed in sixth place early in the Derby.

“I think [post] eight is perfect, really,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “It gives Calvin the opportunity to kind of survey things inside and outside and see who is doing what. He’s tactical enough that I think he’s going to land in the first tier. There are a couple of horses in here who I think have a little bit of sneaky speed, a horse like Paddy O’Prado could show some speed if [jockey Kent Desormeaux] wanted him to. We’re not committed to anything, just letting him run his race.”

Borel won the Preakness last year with Rachel Alexandra from post 13. She set a pressured pace and held on to win by one length over the Derby winner, Mine That Bird. Borel also had post eight in 2007 with Derby winner Street Sense, who rallied from eighth place in a field of nine and finished a head short of Curlin.

Borel said Super Saver’s tactical speed would be especially advantageous at Pimlico. Pimlico oddsmaker Frank Carulli installed him as the 5-to-2 favorite.

“He’s not like a horse like Street Sense who’s got to come out the back door,” Borel said. “He doesn’t have to be on the lead—if they give it to me, good; if they don’t; no. That’s a big plus.”

Trainer Bob Baffert was relieved with post seven for Lookin At Lucky, after the reigning champion two-year-old male endured a horrendous trip from the rail in the Derby. He finished sixth as the 6.30-to-1 favorite. Sidney’s Candy, the 5-to-1 second choice on the morning line, finished 17th from post 20.

“I like the seven,” Baffert said. “I wanted seven, eight, or nine. I like those post positions here. … We’ll know more of what Calvin is going to do. I know how these jockeys think, so we’ll have to map out the race for Martin Garcia, who is riding this for the first time.”

Lookin At Lucky is 3-to-1 on Carulli’s line. Paddy O’Prado, the third-place finisher in the Derby, is the third choice at 9-to-2.

“I think the horses coming out of the Derby, Lookin At Lucky, Dublin, and Paddy O’Prado, are the horses that you would be most concerned about,” Pletcher said. “I think [Super Saver] is doing as well as he could possibly be doing. We were very pleased with the way he ran in the Derby and I think he’s the horse to beat.”

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer

$1-million Preakness Stakes (G1)
Saturday, Pimlico Race Course