Preachinathebar Is Out of the Kentucky Derby

Preachinathebar was declared out of the Kentucky Derby on Thursday after he worked six furlongs in 1:14 4/5 over a sloppy track at Churchill Downs.

Trainer Bob Baffert said Preachinathebar was not training well enough to win the Derby on May 1. Preachinathebar, a son of Silver Charm, who won the Derby for Baffert in 1997, won the San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on March 14. In a more recent start, however, he ran seventh, beaten by more than 30 lengths, in the Blue Grass at Keeneland.

Preachinathebar is owned by Mike Pegram, who won the Derby with the Baffert-trained Real Quiet in 1998. Pegram said that Preachinathebar might run in the Preakness, the middle leg of the Triple Crown, at Pimlico on May 15.

Baffert, who won his third Derby with War Emblem in 2002, will be represented this year by Wimbledon, the Louisiana Derby winner and fifth in the Santa Anita Derby.

With Preachinathebar out, Song Of The Sword moves up on the money list and would appear to have enough graded-stakes earnings to run. With trainers of more than 20 horses hoping to run, the field will be determined by earnings.

Also short on earnings is Rock Hard Ten, running Saturday at Churchill in the $100,000 Derby Trial Stakes.

This is the projected Derby field: The Cliff’s Edge, Action This Day, Friends Lake, Smarty Jones, Tapit, Castledale, Limehouse, Lion Heart, Read The Footnotes, Wimbledon, Pollard’s Vision, Imperialism, Minister Eric, Birdstone, Borrego, Sinister G, Quintons Gold Rush, St Averil, Master David and Song Of The Sword.