Frankel’s Cloak of Darkness

Just about the time some of the Preakness revelers were locating their pillows, a horse van was pulling in at Pimlico this morning, having made a 225-mile trip from New York. The van was carrying Medaglia d’Oro, who’s only the morning-line favorite today. Another Triple Crown race, another late arrival.

With an unusual plan, trainer Bobby Frankel is hoping Medaglia d’Oro does better than Johannesburg and Castle Gandolfo, who were only Churchill Downs rumors two weeks ago until they arrived from Keeneland, 70 miles away, on the day of the Kentucky Derby. The Irish imports ran eighth and 12th in the Derby, on a day when Medaglia d’Oro lost most of his chance with a poor start and finished fourth, eight lengths behind the longshot War Emblem.

Jerry Bailey, who has ridden five Triple Crown event winners, most recently Red Bullet here in 2000, takes over for Laffit Pincay as Medaglia d’Oro and 11 others try to prevent War Emblem from winning the second leg of the Triple Crown. The series windup, the Belmont Stakes, will be run June 8 in New York.

Frankel doesn’t see Medaglia d’Oro’s 4 a.m. race-day arrival, only 14 hours before post time, as avant-garde. He says that, for years, he has been successfully shipping last-minute horses a longer distance, from his Southern California base to Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields near San Francisco. But this is the Preakness, and Pimlico barn crawlers are used to seeing the showcase horses in advance. In fact, the last time a horse won the Preakness after not showing up until race day was 1983. Deputed Testamony was vanned in after completing his Preakness training at a Maryland farm about 40 miles from the track.

Deputed Testamony and Red Bullet are the only horses in the last 19 runnings to have won the Preakness after skipping the Derby.

“That’s enough of a record to keep you from buying the fresh-horse theory,” trainer Wayne Lukas said. “The Preakness is not known for surprises.”

Lukas is running two horses today--Proud Citizen, who was second, beaten by four lengths in the Derby, and Table Limit, stepping into stakes company for the first time. A victory by either would be Lukas’ 14th in a Triple Crown race and enable him to break the record he shares with the late Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons.

Besides War Emblem, Medaglia d’Oro and Proud Citizen, there is only one other Derby returnee--Harlan’s Holiday--in the 127th Preakness. Harlan’s Holiday, a modest 6-1 favorite, did virtually no running in a seventh-place finish at Churchill Downs.

Frankel, like Lukas, is a member of the Racing Hall of Fame, but has been comparatively underexposed in Triple Crown races, which is a polite way of saying he has never won one. Medaglia d’Oro, who races for Edmund Gann of Rancho Santa Fe, is only Frankel’s second Preakness starter, 27 years after Native Guest’s seventh-place finish in 1975. Two years ago, Frankel had a Preakness possibility, Aptitude, who had finished second in the Derby. But Frankel bypassed Pimlico and saddled the colt for another second, to Commendable, in the Belmont.

“I might not have even brought Aptitude to the Preakness if he had won the Derby,” Frankel said. “Medaglia d’Oro is a much sounder horse than Aptitude. He can take it.”

If there is a downside today to Medaglia d’Oro, it is that the Preakness will be his third taxing race in five weeks. He was second, between Buddha and Sunday Break, in a tight three-horse finish in the Wood Memorial, and in the Derby he had to work hard--encountering trouble in the stretch as well as at the start--to finish fourth. Medaglia d’Oro was about the only Derby horse to greatly improve his position over the 11/4 miles. Today’s distance is a sixteenth of a mile shorter.

The Wood-Derby-Preakness grind would be demanding for any horse, perhaps more so for Medaglia d’Oro. When Gann bought him in February he had raced only twice overall and once this year.

“He took a step backwards in the Derby,” Frankel conceded. “I can’t predict what he’ll do in the Preakness. He’s more seasoned than the five races might indicate. In the Derby, because of what happened, he got more experience than a horse might get in four or five races.”

In another intriguing twist, Frankel hasn’t seen Medaglia d’Oro since Louisville, He runs two divisions, in California and New York, and after the Derby he returned to California to tend to his horses there. But Frankel knows that Medaglia d’Oro has been in good hands, with Ruben Loza and Jose Cuevas, who were to accompany the colt on his four-hour trip to Pimlico. Loza has been with Frankel for 27 years.

“A big reason I’ve had so much luck in recent years is because I’ve got such great help--some guys who have been with me a long time,” Frankel said. “When the horses are with guys like these, I can sleep at night.”

Bailey was introduced to Medaglia d’Oro on Thursday at Belmont Park, where the colt shook out any lingering cobwebs with a 35-second, three-furlong breeze. That has been the colt’s only workout since the Derby.

“He’s plenty fit,” Frankel said. “If no other horses go with War Emblem early, we’ll go, but I can’t see it as a race where everybody takes back [as was the case in the Derby]. My horse is not a run-off horse. When he makes the lead, he relaxes. We’re not going in depending on other horses. Jerry will ride his horse. He’ll ride his own horse and not depend on anybody else.”

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The track may be wet-fast for the Preakness. Thundershowers were in the forecast until noon today. Temperatures will be in the 60s.... Bailey rode favored Chamrousse to a 21/4-length victory over Shop Till You Drop in the $200,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. Autumn Creek was third in a field cut to six by two scratches, one of which, Take Charge Lady, would have been favored.... Other stakes winners at Pimlico were Summer Colony, who nosed out Dancethruthedawn in the $148,500 Pimlico Distaff Handicap, and Merry Princess in the $75,000 The Very One. Fleet Renee, high weight in the Distaff, was scratched.

With only $178,000 in the win pool, War Emblem was 2-1 for the Preakness, followed by Medaglia d’Oro, 3-1, and Harlan’s Holiday, 9-2. Booklet was 8-1 and the nine others were 10-1 or higher.... The Preakness is the 12th race on a 13-race card that starts at 7:30 a.m., California time. Post time for the Preakness is 3:09 p.m.

Rumors have resurfaced that Frank Stronach, the owner of Santa Anita and other tracks, is close to a deal that will net him Pimlico and its sister track, Laurel Park.... Gary Stevens, who rides Table Limit in the Preakness, has switched agents, moving from Brian Beach to Craig O’Bryan. There was a minor flap early in the week when an irate Nick Zito said that he had planned on Stevens riding Straight Gin, one of his two starters. Robby Albarado wound up with the assignment on Straight Gin.