Holy Bull to Skip the Preakness : Triple Crown: Beaten Derby favorite is being treated with antibiotics. The Metropolitan Handicap is expected to be next start.

Holy Bull, the beaten favorite in the Kentucky Derby, won’t run in the Preakness because of minor physical problems.

The gray colt’s blood count was off and he was being treated with antibiotics, owner-trainer Jimmy Croll said Friday.

“There were a couple of things wrong,” Croll said from his base at Monmouth Park. “Nothing drastic, but the vet said it would be better to give him seven or eight extra days (of rest.).”

Holy Bull finished 12th in the Derby after being bumped badly at the start and slammed again in the first turn.

Croll said Holy Bull will be pointed to the one-mile Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park May 30, 12 days before the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes, the final race of the Triple Crown.

Derby starters who appear set for the 1 3/16-mile Preakness next Saturday at Pimlico are Derby winner Go For Gin; Blumin Affair, third; Tabasco Cat, sixth; Powis Castle, ninth, and Ulises, last in the 14-horse field.

Other probables are Kandaly, the Louisiana Derby winner scratched from the Kentucky Derby because of the sloppy track; Numerous, winner of the Derby Trial; Concern, the Arkansas Derby winner; Polar Expedition, winner of the Jim Beam but last in the Illinois Derby, and Silver Goblin, third in the Arkansas Derby.