THOROUGHBRED RACING : Brocco Has Numerous Reasons to Skip Preakness for Belmont

Brocco, fourth in the Kentucky Derby after a terrible start, will skip the Preakness on May 21 and wait for the Belmont Stakes three weeks later.

Trainer Randy Winick said the Santa Anita Derby and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, who was beaten by just over five lengths by Go For Gin last Saturday, came out of the race in good shape, but he decided to give the son of Kris S. the extra time rather than come back in two weeks.

“He’s the kind of horse who does much better when he has a month between races,” Winick told the Daily Racing Form. “I think he’d run well in the Preakness, but he was tired for two or three days after the Derby and lightened up a little bit and if I ran him back in two weeks it could knock him out.

“The timing of the Belmont is better and the Broccolis (owners Cubby and Dana) live in New York. It’s usually a smaller field, and other than Strodes Creek, I don’t think you have as many horses to beat as you’ve got in the Preakness. It’s a long year, and I don’t want to (wear) him out right now.”

Earlier, trainer Charlie Whittingham had said Kentucky Derby runner-up Strodes Creek would skip the Preakness and also wait until the Belmont. Whittingham will be represented in the second race of the Triple Crown by Numerous, winner of the Derby Trial.

Only five of the 14 horses who started in the Derby are expected to run in the Preakness. Besides Go For Gin, the others are Blumin Affair, who finished third; Tabasco Cat, who finished sixth; eighth-place finisher Powis Castle and beaten choice Holy Bull, who finished 12th.

The newcomers in the second race of the Triple Crown are Arkansas Derby winner Concern, Polar Expedition, who won the Jim Beam at Turfway Park; Silver Goblin and Looming.

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Making his first start since June 24, 1991, Patchy Groundfog finished eighth of nine in Thursday’s fifth race, a $32,000 claiming race at 5 1/2 furlongs.

Put back in training by owners Lamont Isom and Bob Fisher after his stud career tailed off, the 11-year-old Instrument Landing horse will best be remembered for being the last horse Bill Shoemaker rode on Feb. 3, 1990.

Patchy Groundfog finished fourth that day, but he has won 16 races in his career and earned more than $708,000.

Horse Racing Notes

Hollywood Park will simulcast the $600,000 Pimlico Special on Saturday. The race will be shown between the second and third races. Devil His Due is the 7-5 favorite. . . . Flawlessly, yet to make her 1994 debut, worked a mile in 1:41 2/5 on turf Thursday morning. . . . Soviet Problem easily defeated Lazor in their $33,000 winner-take-all match race Thursday at Golden Gate Fields. Ridden by Russell Baze, Soviet Problem covered the six furlongs in 1:08 2/5 in the first match race in that track’s history.