THE PREAKNESS : The Top Two Will Keep It to Themselves

The 114th running of the Preakness probably will be a re-run of the 115th Kentucky Derby two weeks ago.

When the flag goes up today at Pimlico, eight 3-year-olds will be running in the $674,200 stakes, but there doesn’t appear to be a Deputed Testamony in this field. A Maryland horse all the way, Deputed Testamony was vanned into Pimlico from a nearby farm only hours before the 1983 Preakness and, at 14-1, pulled off an upset of the ailing Derby winner, Sunny’s Halo.

This Preakness, however, shapes up as a two-horse race--the same as the Derby--and no matter what trainer Wayne Lukas says about Houston, or what owner Shelly Meredith says about Hawkster, Derby winner Sunday Silence and Derby runner-up Easy Goer should be running at each other for the first money of $438,230.

The 1-2 Derby finishers are also running for a lot more:

--Sunday Silence for a $5-million bonus if he should win today and sweep the Triple Crown by winning the Belmont Stakes in three weeks;

--Each for the $1-million bonus that goes to the horse with the best finishes in the three races if there’s not a Triple Crown champion.

Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, who were separated by 2 1/2 lengths in the mud at Churchill Downs, will be closer than that in today’s betting by the crowd of 80,000. After the first two, however, the odds will shoot up to about 10-1 on the next horse, probably Houston.

The other starters are Pulverizing, Rock Point, Dansil and Northern Wolf. Awe Inspiring, Easy Goer’s stablemate and the third-place finisher in the Derby, was entered but will not run.

Houston ran eighth in the Derby after leading the race for a mile. At 1 3/16 miles, the Preakness is a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the Derby, and although Lukas suggests that his horse will give a better account with a slightly different riding style from Angel Cordero, Houston is overmatched.

For one thing, this will be his third race in three weeks, a grueling schedule for a horse who had run only four times in his life before he won the Derby Trial the week before the Derby. For another, Sunday Silence has beaten Houston soundly twice, by almost 17 lengths in the Santa Anita Derby and by 5 1/2 lengths in the Kentucky Derby.

However, Sunday Silence has had a tough week and comes into the Preakness under a cloud of doubt.

Trainer Charlie Whittingham is still saying that his colt is good enough to win the Triple Crown, but he hasn’t been saying it as loudly in Baltimore, not after Sunday Silence suffered a hoof injury a week ago and missed two days of training before returning on Tuesday.

Whittingham said that because Sunday Silence had already been prepared for the 1 1/4-mile Derby, he had enough conditioning after that race to be able to miss two days and still run today’s shorter distance.

At least one trainer, Ron McAnally, is skeptical of Sunday Silent’s chances. McAnally’s opinion is well-grounded because his Preakness starter, Hawkster, also stayed in the barn a couple of days because of a sore hoof. Hawkster had a miserable trip while finishing fifth in the Derby.

“It’s not good to miss two days of training,” McAnally said. “It’s just not good for any horse, whether it’s Charlie’s horse, my horse or anybody else’s horse. It is not a good sign. I think the race will be to the advantage of Easy Goer because of this situation.”

Shug McGaughey, who trains Easy Goer, says he hopes both his colt and Sunday Silence will be fully fit today in order to provide an honest rematch of the Kentucky Derby.

McGaughey was asked if he ever brought a horse into a big race with problems such as Whittingham has been battling this week with Sunday Silence.

“It’s not completely the same,” McGaughey said. “But a few days before the Woodward last year, Personal Flag came up with a quarter crack (in his hoof). He was dead lame for a couple of days, and then we were able to work him and he looked all right. But he got beat by a length or so in the Woodward.”

Sunday Silence came back from the 48-hour layoff with a useful workout at Pimlico on Thursday morning. He was a handful for exercise rider Pam Mabes, but that work was not as good as the blazing exercise he turned in at Churchill Downs shortly before the Derby.

After putting protective bar shoes on Sunday Silence’s front hoofs--one for the injured hoof, the other for balance--Whittingham and his adviser, veterinarian Alex Harthill, mulled what to do for race day.

Finally, on Friday, they decided to file off the bar that connects the shoe at the open end. Whittingham said the procedure took about 20 minutes and, in effect, leaves Sunday Silence with four conventional shoes.

Easy Goer, meanwhile, is coming to the Preakness with the solid foundation that he lacked but Sunday Silence had for the Derby. In Louisville, Easy Goer had two workouts that might have done more harm than good. One was too fast, and after the other, McGaughey upbraided his exercise rider for hooking up with another horse in the stretch.

Easy Goer didn’t work at Pimlico, and it was just as well. The track was muddy through midweek, the kind of surface that McGaughey’s colt apparently abhors. Instead, Easy Goer worked a quick five furlongs at his home track, Belmont Park, on Tuesday and was vanned the 200 miles here shortly afterward.

The track was sloppy at Belmont but it had a good bottom, not the kind of goo there was for the Kentucky Derby. Easy Goer’s jockey, Pat Day, compared that surface to peanut butter.

The track today will be fast, the kind of surface that could result in another time like the one registered last Saturday by Blushing John, the 4-year-old who set a track record of 1:53 1/5 for 1 3/16 miles.

Neither Whittingham nor McGaughey has won the Preakness. Whittingham came here with Gone Fishin’ in 1958 and finished third, was fourth with Divine Comedy in 1960 and was second to Snow Chief in the 1986 Preakness with Ferdinand, the 76-year-old trainer’s first Derby winner.

McGaughey, 38, finished fifth with his only Preakness starter, Pine Circle, in 1984. Pine Circle was 53-1, the kind of horse that sometimes wins a Preakness. But not in 1984. And not today.

Horse Racing Notes

Easy Goer will open at 3-5 odds today, based on $58,664 that was bet on the Preakness at Pimlico Friday. Sunday Silence is 2-1 and the others are Houston, 6-1; Dansil, 20-1; Rock Point and Northern Wolf, both 30-1; Hawkster and Pulverizing, 60-1 each; and Awe Inspiring, 150-1. . . . Trainer Frank Brothers said that Dansil’s owner, John Franks, wanted to run in the Preakness and that he agreed. “This horse is versatile, he’s improved and I think he’ll be a factor,” Brothers said. Dansil ran fourth in the Kentucky Derby after winning the Arkansas Derby.

Wayne Lukas said that Houston probably will run slightly behind Rock Point in the early stages today. “But with Angel Cordero, you never know,” Lukas said. “I do think that he and Houston will go together like ham and eggs. It should be a good marriage, and I like the idea of him on the horse.” Cordero won the Preakness for Lukas with Tank’s Prospect in 1985 and replaces Laffit Pincay on Houston. Pincay is staying at Hollywood Park to ride Bayakoa in the Hawthorne Handicap.

Tom Gamel, the Hollywood Park shareholder who is seeking the ouster of Marje Everett there, is at the Preakness, bemoaning the fact that he didn’t buy Bayakoa. “We were told by the bloodstock agent that she had a bone chip, so we passed,” Gamel said. “Then Ron McAnally came along and bought her.”

Wind Splitter has gone from running in the Kentucky Derby to running in the first race today at Pimlico. He’s entered in a $40,000 handicap after finishing 11th in the Derby. . . . Seeking the Gold, making his first start since finishing a half-length behind Alysheba in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last November, runs today in a seven-furlong allowance at Belmont Park.

THE PREAKNESS FIELD

PP HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER 1 Hawkster Marco Castaneda Ron McAnally 2 Easy Goer Pat Day Shug McGaughey 3 Pulverizing Allen Stacy John Robb 4 Awe Inspiring Pat Day Shug McGaughey 5 Rock Point Chris Antley Sid Watters 6 Dansil Larry Snyder Frank Brothers 7 Houston Angel Cordero Wayne Lukas 8 Sunday Silence Pat Valenzuela Charlie Whittingham 9 Northern Wolf Jo Jo Ladner Hank Allen

NOTE: Awe Inspiring was entered for today’s race but will not run.

Pat Day was named as jockey for both Easy Goer and Awe Inspiring

WEIGHTS: Each 126 pounds. DISTANCE: 1 3/16 miles. PURSE: $679,200 if 9 start. First place: $441,480. Second place: $135,840. Third place: $67,920. Fourth place: $33,960. POST TIME: Saturday, 2:33 p.m. PDT; TELEVISION: Channels 7, 3, 10, 42 (Coverage starts at 1:30 PDT).

PP HORSE OWNERS ODDS 1 Hawkster Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Meredith 60-1 2 Easy Goer Ogden Phipps 3-5 3 Pulverizing Sylvia Heft 60-1 4 Awe Inspiring Ogden Mills Phipps 150- 5 Rock Point George Cheston 30-1 6 Dansil John Franks 20-1 7 Houston Beal, French and Lukas 6-1 8 Sunday Silence Hancock, Whittingham and Gaillard 2-1 9 Northern Wolf Hoffman, Cahill and Meeks 30-1

NOTE: Pat Day was named as jockey for both Easy Goer and Awe Inspiring.

WEIGHTS: Each 126 pounds. DISTANCE: 1 3/16 miles. PURSE: $679,200 if 9 start. First place: $441,480. Second place: $135,840. Third place: $67,920. Fourth place: $33,960. POST TIME: Saturday, 2:33 p.m. PDT; TELEVISION: Channels 7, 3, 10, 42 (Coverage starts at 1:30 PDT).