PREAKNESS STAKES : Storm Doesn’t Trouble Lukas, Thunder Gulch

A few days before the Kentucky Derby, trainer Wayne Lukas had a conversation at Churchill Downs with Lenny Hale, the vice president for racing at Pimlico.

Lukas told Hale that when he got to Pimlico, he didn’t want his horse to occupy the Preakness stall traditionally reserved for the Derby winner. Lukas preferred the opposite end of the track’s stakes barn, where his horses usually stay.

“Wasn’t that typical Lukas?” Hale said. “Get a load of that guy!”

On April 1, more than a month before the Derby, Lukas scheduled a chartered cargo flight from Louisville, Ky., to Baltimore.

“How about that for optimism?” Lukas said Wednesday, not long after that flight and a 20-mile van ride had brought his Derby winner, Thunder Gulch, to Pimlico.

Also in the nine-horse shipment were the other Lukas 3-year-olds that ran in the Derby--Timber Country, the third-place finisher, and Serena’s Song, the filly who faded to 16th after leading the 1 1/4-mile race for the first mile. Thunder Gulch and Timber Country will be running Saturday in the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, and Serena’s Song will revert to her own division, running in Friday’s Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

The Preakness is expected to be run in sunny, 75-degree weather over a fast track, but the weather in both Louisville and Baltimore was not favorable Wednesday for the Lukas entourage. At 5 a.m., Churchill Downs was experiencing an electrical storm with strong winds.

“It was wild,” Lukas said. “We looked at one another at the barn and wondered if we’d even be able to come.”

Lukas said that when they got to the Louisville airport, there was a backup of flights and the equine plane was 15th on the runway for takeoff.

“We got a good gate, though,” Lukas joked, alluding to the seemingly disadvantageous post positions his horses drew for the Derby. None of them broke inside No. 13, and Thunder Gulch was only the third Derby winner in the last 34 years to break from the auxiliary starting gate.

Lukas accompanied the horses for Wednesday’s 75-minute flight.

“We avoided any turbulence,” he said. “We got above the rough stuff shortly after we took off.”

Three other Preakness contenders--Talkin Man, Mecke and Our Gatsby--were also on the plane. Talkin Man led the Derby briefly at the top of the stretch before finishing 12th. With the ailing Jumron and Citadeed dropping out this week, the Preakness field has been reduced to 11.

Realistically, the 1 3/16-mile race narrows down to four legitimate contenders--the Lukas duo, Talkin Man and Derby runner-up Tejano Run. Any other winner would smack of a major upset. Two of the Preakness prospects--Pana Brass, who has raced only in Panama, and Itron, a Texas-bred who has never run beyond 1 1/16 miles or in a graded stake--appear to be seriously overmatched.

Thunder Gulch is the 2-1 favorite on the preliminary morning line, with Talkin Man 4-1, Timber Country 9-2 and Tejano Run 6-1.

“There’s the Kentucky Derby winner, getting his bath down there,” Lukas said outside his Churchill Downs barn about a week before the Derby. Trouble was, he was pointing to the hulking Timber Country, not the underdeveloped Thunder Gulch, who was a late foal, born on May 23, 1992.

Lukas said after the Derby that he didn’t talk as much about Thunder Gulch in the days before the race because the media were concentrating on Timber Country and Serena’s Song. That de-emphasis, combined with Thunder Gulch’s lackluster fourth-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes three weeks before the Derby, accounted for the $51 win payoff at Churchill Downs.

At Pimlico, Lukas is giving equal time to his colts.

“They both had good works on Monday [at Churchill Downs],” he said. “I think some of you quoted Pat Day as saying [five furlongs in :59 4/5] may have been Timber Country’s best work of the spring. It may be that he’s coming into himself right now.”

Of Thunder Gulch, Lukas said:

“You’ve got to remember that he won the Derby as a 2-year-old. I hope we’re all here to celebrate in grand fashion, but he’s the youngest horse. He has room to improve, and I think he came out of the Derby a lot sharper. . . . Whether that equates to a Preakness victory, who knows? You could overlook him in the Derby. On the other hand, let’s not be twice stupid.”

There’s a $5-million pot, counting purses and a bonus, to be won if Thunder Gulch sweeps the Triple Crown by adding the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes to his Derby victory. The Belmont will be run on June 10.

Thunder Gulch races for Michael Tabor. Timber Country is owned by the partnership of William T. Young, Graham Beck and Bob and Beverly Lewis.

“If I win this one with Thunder Gulch, the Belmont is going to be the tough one for me,” Lukas said. “Because I would be trying to knock myself out of the $5 million with Timber Country. If it’s Timber Country this time, or Thunder Gulch, so be it.

“If Timber Country looks like he’s the horse to beat in the Belmont, then Thunder Gulch is going to get down on his belly and try to do it. If he wins the second leg, he’s probably got a shot at it. Henry Kissinger couldn’t pull this off. I wouldn’t ask the Timber Country people to sit out the Belmont if Thunder Gulch had a shot at the $5 million. And if they said they’d want to sit out, I’d tell them, ‘Let’s not do it.’ ”

Horse Racing Notes

Julie Krone’s nine-wide ride in the Kentucky Derby might have cost her the mount on Suave Prospect, who is skipping the Preakness after running 11th at Churchill Downs. “I think we could have been second again to Thunder Gulch,” trainer Nick Zito said. “The Derby wasn’t one of her greatest rides.” Zito said that Pat Day probably will ride Suave Prospect in the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park on May 28. Zito is running Star Standard, winner of the Lexington Stakes, in the Preakness. . . . With Mike Smith riding Talkin Man on Saturday, Krone takes over on Sky Beauty in the Shuvee Handicap at Belmont.

Serena’s Song, who will be running less than two weeks after the Derby, drew the No. 7 post in an eight-horse field for Friday’s $200,000 Black-Eyed Susan. Others entered are Forested, Rare Opportunity, Post It, Stormy Blues, Conquistadoress, Quite Proper and Forever Cherokee. The only horse going into the race off a victory is Rare Opportunity, who beat an allowance field at Keeneland in her second start.