Rain May Fall Today on Hard-Hit Preakness

It has been raining for two days here, and it may rain some more today. The overcast skies are in character with today’s running of the Preakness Stakes, a 109-year-old race whose future as the middle jewel in racing’s Triple Crown series is currently being painted as cloudy and gray.

Pimlico Race Course, host for the $545,700 Preakness and other than Saratoga the oldest race track in the United States, has taken more shots recently than nearby Ft. McHenry did from the British in the War of 1812.

Because Dennis and Linda Diaz, the owners of Kentucky Derby winner Spend a Buck, are bypassing the Preakness to run their colt for a potential $2.6-million pot in the Jersey Derby at Garden State Park May 27, alarmists are saying that the Pimlico race may no longer be as important as it once was.

Tom Bancroft, chairman of the board at Belmont Park, where the Belmont Stakes, the third race in the Triple Crown, is run, discussed the situation Friday morning at a breakfast at Pimlico.

“It’s premature to weigh the events of one year with the events of more than a century,” Bancroft said. “Just as it’s premature to think that there’s a quick fix available when a problem arises. However, the threat (by Garden State to the sanctity of the Triple Crown) cannot be ignored. I’m prepared to work with Pimlico and Churchill Downs (home of the Kentucky Derby) to insure the viability of these races for a long time in the future.”

Chick Lang, the general manager of Pimlico, has been trying to set up a Triple Crown bonus with Churchill Downs and Belmont Park for the past few years, and the decision to withhold Spend a Buck may finally push the latter two tracks into agreeing to some sort of a multimillion-dollar payoff for any horse that sweeps the series.

Besides Spend a Buck, Stephan’s Odyssey, the second-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, also isn’t here, the first time the Preakness hasn’t had the 1-2 Derby horses since 1951. Chief’s Crown, third in the Derby as the 6-to-5 favorite, is a good colt and will be about even money by post time in the Preakness, but other than Eternal Prince, winner of the Wood Memorial, and Tank’s Prospect, first in the Arkansas Derby, the 11-horse field is glaringly short of credentials.

Southern Sultan, for example, hasn’t won a race in eight starts. Skip Trial will be making his first start in a stakes. I Am the Game finished last, behind 12 horses, in the Derby. In the Wood and another New York stakes race this year, Cutlass Reality was beaten by 42 lengths. Even if the Preakness were won by Hajji’s Treasure, the winner of the California Derby, it would represent a major upset, since that colt has won only 3 of 11 starts in his lifetime.

Even the jockeys in the Preakness are a generally faceless group. This year ABC had the lowest Kentucky Derby ratings since it began televising the race, and the network will be hard-pressed to sustain interest in an hour-long Preakness telecast (2 p.m., Los Angeles time).

“Western civilization will not crumble because of the absence of Spend a Buck,” ABC’s Howard Cosell said Friday, but the ratings are likely to further deteriorate, and for some TV executives along New York’s Sixth Avenue, that’s just as serious as the survival of the race.

Only Chris McCarron, riding Eternal Prince for the first time, and Pat Day, replacing Gary Stevens aboard Tank’s Prospect, qualify as national names among this year’s Preakness jockeys. But neither McCarron nor Day has ever won a Triple Crown race, and Friday, McCarron was trying to cast aside the possibility of omens. The airline that flew McCarron here from Los Angeles lost one of his suitcases and the jockey borrowed a pair of shoes from Bill Hartack, a three-time Preakness winner as a jockey and now an ABC telecaster.

Only 4 of the 11 jockeys--McCarron, Day, Donnie Miller on I Am the Game, and Don MacBeth on Chief’s Crown--have ever ridden in a Preakness before.

Miller, a last-minute choice in 1983, won the race aboard Deputed Testamony. MacBeth would prefer forgetting his only previous Preakness appearance. In 1974, astride the long shot Buck’s Bid, his mount stumbled coming out of the gate and dropped him on the seat of his pants.

Even McCarron, who dominated the Maryland circuit, winning most of his record 546 races here in ’74 before achieving greater success in California, is in today’s race only as a result of circumstances. Richard Migliore, despite winning the Gotham Stakes and the Wood with Eternal Prince, was fired after the Derby because the colt broke so poorly and finished 12th, and Angel Cordero was the first choice as a replacement.

Despite having a stakes mount in New York today, Cordero might have been available, but Butch Lenzini, Eternal Prince’s trainer, wanted a jockey who could ride in both the Preakness and the Belmont June 8. Cordero could be riding Spend a Buck in the Belmont.

“When McCarron’s name was first mentioned, I wasn’t that high on him,” said Brian Hurst, who with George Steinbrenner owns most of Eternal Prince. “I had heard he was too nice of a guy. But then I talked to somebody who had played hockey with him, and found out what a competitor he was.”

The blueprint for the Derby didn’t materialize because of Eternal Prince’s poor start, which enabled Spend a Buck to wing to the lead under no pressure. The scenario for the Preakness isn’t that much different. Eternal Prince is expected to establish the early pace, with perhaps Skip Trial and Sport Jet trying to keep up. Chief’s Crown and Hajji’s Treasure won’t be far back, and Tank’s Prospect is considered the legitimate threat from out of the pack.

The possibility of an off track shouldn’t work against Chief’s Crown. In the slop at Belmont last fall, he rallied from far back to finish second by a length to Spectacular Love in the Futurity. Despite five stakes wins, trainer Roger Laurin continues to list that race as one of Chief’s Crown’s best as a 2-year-old.

THE PREAKNESS FIELD

PP HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER ODDS 1 Southern Sultan James Terry Ross Pearce 30-1 2 Tajawa Patti Cooksey Keith York 20-1 3 Chief’s Crown Don MacBeth Roger Laurin 8-5 4 Eternal Prince Chris McCarron John Lenzini 5-2 5 I Am the Game Donnie Miller King Leatherbury 20-1 6 Tank’s Prospect Pat Day Wayne Lukas 6-1 7 Sport Jet Ron Allen Daniel Perlsweig 20-1 8 Cutlass Reality Vince Bracciale Mervin Marks 20-1 9 Sparrowvon Wayne Barnett Hank Allen 15-1 10 Skip Trial Chris Antley Hubert Hine 10-1 11 Hajji’s Treasure Joe Judice Monty Jackson 15-1

Weights: 126 pounds each Distance: 1 3/16 miles Post Time: 2:40 PDT