Slick-Track Excuse Doesn’t Hold Water, Orseno Claims

It annoys trainer Joe Orseno that his counterpart, Neil Drysdale, is using the slick track as an excuse for Red Bullet’s stunning upset of Fusaichi Pegasus in Saturday’s Preakness.

“The track at Aqueduct was more greasy the day they ran the Wood Memorial,” Orseno said. “But we didn’t make that our excuse then.”

Red Bullet was undefeated in his only three starts when Fusaichi Pegasus soundly beat him in the Wood, run April 15 on a track labeled wet-fast.

Orseno did use a fast-pace factor as an excuse at Aqueduct, but he thought he simply ran the better horse at Pimlico, where Fusaichi Pegasus, at 3-10 odds, finished second, beaten by 3 3/4 lengths, in one of the biggest upsets in Preakness--or Triple Crown--history.

The only other 3-10 shot to lose the Preakness was another Kentucky Derby winner, Riva Ridge, in 1972. Bee Bee Bee led almost all the way to win that year as Riva Ridge finished fourth on an off track.

Riva Ridge rebounded to win the Belmont, a race Bee Bee Bee didn’t run in.

At Pimlico on Sunday, where the drizzling rain of the previous two days continued, there was some doubt whether Red Bullet and Fusaichi Pegasus would have a rematch in the Belmont Stakes on June 10.

Fusaichi Pegasus, scheduled to be vanned to Aqueduct, Drysdale’s favorite New York track for training, either today or Tuesday, would seem reasonably certain of running, but Orseno said there’s only a 50-50 chance that Red Bullet, who’s regularly stabled at Belmont, would be part of the field.

“There are some minuses,” Orseno said. “Running him back in only three weeks. Running him on a new track.

“Even though we’re stabled at Belmont, he’s never run a race there and he does all his training on the training track, not the main track. And the mile-and-half distance is also a factor.”

Orseno’s goal, however, is to win the 3-year-old championship, and by year’s end Eclipse Awards voters might penalize a horse that skipped two-thirds of the Triple Crown. Red Bullet was withheld from the Derby because Orseno thought the Wood had taken too much out of him.

If Red Bullet doesn’t run in the Belmont, his mid-season goals would be the Haskell at Monmouth Park on Aug. 6 and the Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 26.

Frank Stronach, who bred and races Red Bullet, was off to Austria on business after the Preakness. Orseno said that he and Stronach would discuss the Belmont on the phone, probably today, and a decision could be made in about a week.

“I didn’t feel there was any pressure about running in the Derby, and I feel the same way about the Belmont,” Orseno said. “We’ll make the decision, and then we’ll stick to our guns.”

The presence of Red Bullet might affect the size of the Belmont field, but there could be 10 or more starters either way.

With Impeachment, the first three finishers from the Preakness could run.

Three Derby horses--Aptitude, Wheelaway and Curule--are possibles, after not running in the Preakness. Others on Belmont Park’s long list include Tahkodha Hills, Unshaded, Chief Seattle and Globalize.

Globalize was scratched from the Derby when his stable pony kicked him two days before the race.

Unshaded, winner of the Lexington Stakes, was not nominated for the Triple Crown races and his owner, James Tafel, was unable to supplement him because there were 20 nominated horses ahead of him. That supplement would have been $150,000; it’s a $100,000 penalty to supplement to the Belmont, and Tafel and his trainer, Carl Nafzger, will wait to see how Unshaded runs in the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont on May 27 before they commit.

Going into the Derby, this group of 3-year-olds was widely perceived as one of the deepest in years, but is it a compliment or a knock for the crop that Aptitude and Impeachment are considered viable Belmont threats because of their late-running styles?

While third in the Derby and the Preakness, Impeachment has lost seven consecutive races and has only one win in eight starts.

Aptitude, who was second, 1 1/2 lengths behind Fusaichi Pegasus in the Derby, has won only one of five starts. Neither colt has won except against maidens.

Trainer Wayne Lukas said Sunday that he would send High Yield back to Santa Anita, where he’ll prepare to run in the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park on July 23. High Yield, after winning the Blue Grass, has been 15th in the Derby and seventh in the Preakness, but Lukas still thinks he might be one of his Travers horses. Meantime, Lukas is considering Commendable, another colt who has beaten only maidens, for the Belmont.

Just as Lukas cautioned against prematurely canonizing Fusaichi Pegasus after the Derby, he wasn’t singing hosannas about Red Bullet in the aftermath of the Preakness.

“A fresh horse that had an affinity for that peanut-butter surface came through and got the money,” Lukas said about the Preakness. “It was a very demanding track, and the Derby horses had to come back in only two weeks and run on it. Red Bullet had five weeks. His margin was impressive, but I think if you put him in the gate 10 times with the others, he wouldn’t necessarily dominate.”

Alex Solis, who rides Aptitude, will have extra incentive in the Belmont. Red Bullet’s win under Jerry Bailey, who took over after Solis had ridden the colt in his two previous races, heightened the scrutiny of Solis’ ride in the Wood. Even on Sunday, Orseno was still talking about it.

“I’ve got a push-button horse,” Orseno said. “But in the Wood, Alex pushed the wrong button.”

Horse Racing Notes

Neil Drysdale said that Fusaichi Pegasus suffered a small cut under one of his knees, probably after being hit by another horse. “He was bumped when a horse ran by him, but it really didn’t mean anything,” the trainer said. . . . Besides Unshaded, Tahkodha Hills and Globalize may run in the Peter Pan. Tahkodha Hills, third in the Florida Derby and fourth in the Flamingo, beat a third-rate field to win the Lone Star Derby on April 22. Globalize won the Turfway Park Spiral and was second to Unshaded in the Lexington. . . . Chief Seattle and Curule both race for Sheik Mohammed of Dubai. Curule was seventh in the Derby. Chief Seattle, who took ill when he was shipped from Dubai to Kentucky, causing him to miss the Derby, was purchased by the sheik after he ran as a 2-year-old in the U.S. He was second behind Anees in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and at Belmont Park ran fourth in the Futurity and second in the Champagne. . . . Trainer Nick Zito, who won the Derby twice and the Preakness once in the 1990s, apparently will not run a horse in any of the Triple Crown races. He has been second four times in his hometown race, the Belmont. Asked if he had a Belmont horse, Zito said: “Are you allowed to run 4-year-olds?” . . . Joe Orseno said that the next race for Frank Stronach’s Golden Missile, winner of the Pimlico Special on May 13, would be the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs on June 17. Orseno said that Golden Missile would not be considered for the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9.