Bad Spot for Silverbulletday

Silverbulletday, the filly who is second choice on the morning line at 7-2, and Vicar, the Florida Derby winner who was a disappointing 18th in the Kentucky Derby, probably won’t run in Saturday’s Preakness at Pimlico after drawing the outside post positions Wednesday night for the Triple Crown race.

Silverbulletday, who has never faced colts while winning 10 of 11 starts, including the Kentucky Oaks the day before the Derby, is now expected to run in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, which is only for fillies, Friday at Pimlico.

Both trainer Bob Baffert and Mike Pegram, who owns Silverbulletday, were crushed when their filly came up with post No. 14 in the 14-horse Preakness field. Actually, Baffert and Carl Nafzger, who trains Vicar, flipped a coin for the final two post positions--probably something illegal, but which was only tut-tutted by Maryland racing officials--and Nafzger won, which gave his colt No. 13.

Under a new post-position draw system which was introduced for the Derby and the Preakness last year, starting-gate spots for the other 12 horses had already been taken by the time Baffert and Nafzger got their chance. Under the new system, a blind draw determines the order in which trainers can select their posts. Since Silverbulletday and Vicar are not expected to run, the coin toss and their post positions were probably academic.

Nafzger said there was little chance Vicar would run. “It’s the same as the Derby [when he was No. 17 in a 19-horse field],” Nafzger said. “I don’t want the horse to go through that again.”

Baffert and Pegram said before the draw that if Silverbulletday drew outside in the big field, she wouldn’t run Saturday.

“When I came [to the draw], I was 90% intent on running,” Pegram said after the draw. “Now I’m going out of here 90% sure of not running.”

Gary Stevens, scheduled to ride Silverbulletday in the Preakness, will now probably ride Stephen Got Even on Saturday. That mount became available when Chris McCarron suffered a foot injury while working a horse Monday at Hollywood Park.

Nick Zito, who trains Stephen Got Even, did not name a rider at the draw and said later he would wait to see about the Silverbulletday situation before he commits.

Although Charismatic won the Kentucky Derby, he was listed at 6-1, the fourth choice, by Clem Florio, the Pimlico linemaker. Menifee, beaten by a neck in the Derby, is the 5-2 favorite, followed by Silverbulletday, 7-2, and Excellent Meeting, 5-1.

Excellent Meeting, who was fifth in the Derby, is another filly trained by Baffert. A filly hasn’t run in the Preakness since Winning Colors, the Derby winner, ran third in 1988, and the fourth and last filly to win the race was Nellie Morse in 1924.

Wayne Lukas, who trains Charismatic and Cat Thief, 8-1 on the morning line after finishing third in the Derby, seemed happy about other horses getting lower odds.

“We’re still raving about our horses, and still nobody’s listening,” Lukas said.

While Baffert left the door slightly ajar for Silverbulletday, like Pegram he sounded as if the filly would run Friday instead of Saturday.

“Maybe it wasn’t meant to be,” said Baffert, who scored a Derby-Preakness double each of the last two years with Silver Charm and Real Quiet. “What it’ll do is make the Black-Eyed Susan a lot tougher race.”

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Preakness Draw

Post positions for the 124th Preakness Stakes Saturday, from Wednesday’s draw:

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PP Horse Jockey Trainer Odds 1. Torrid Sand Tim Doocy R. Morse 60-1 2. Kimberlite Pipe Shane Sellers D. Stewart 20-1 3. Cat Thief Mike Smith W. Lukas 8-1 4. Badge Mike Luzzi J. Aquilino 50-1 5. Menifee Pat Day E. Walden 5-2 6. Charismatic Chris Antley W. Lukas 6-1 7. Excellent Meeting Kent Desormeaux B. Baffert 5-1 8. Patience Game Corey Nakatani A. Hassinger 30-1 9. Adonis Jorge Chavez N. Zito 30-1 10. Worldy Manner Jerry Bailey S. Bin Suroor 12-1 11. Stephen Got Even Undecided N. Zito 10-1 12. Valhol Willie Martinez D. Keen 99-1 13. Vicar Robby Albarado C. Nafzger 30-1 14. Silverbulletday Gary Stevens B. Baffert 7-2

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(All carry 126 pounds with the exception of fillies Excellent Meeting and Silverbulletday, who carry 121 pounds.)

For 3-year-olds, 1 3/16 miles on dirt. Purse: $1 million. Site: Pimlico Race Course. Post time: 2:30 p.m. PDT.