Not Everyone Is Running From Smarty Jones

Skeptics saying that the sloppy track at Churchill Downs facilitated Smarty Jones’ victory in the Kentucky Derby apparently don’t include trainers of most of the beaten horses, who are avoiding the next Triple Crown race in droves.

Of the seven probable starters, besides Smarty Jones, for the Preakness, only three will be horses outrun by the Derby winner last Saturday in Louisville.

Martin Ciresa, who trains Little Matth Man, doesn’t get it. Not conceding the Preakness to Smarty Jones, Ciresa said Thursday there was an 80-20 chance Little Matth Man would run at Pimlico on May 15. Ciresa said he liked that he might have only six horses to beat, even though one of them is the 2 3/4-length Derby winner.

“We were going to run in the Belmont [on June 5],” Ciresa said, “but all of the major players seem to be conceding the Preakness to Smarty Jones, and then try to beat him in New York. There will be less traffic and a ton of speed in the Preakness. We’ve had excuses in our last three races and want to give it a shot.”

Ciresa is hoping to get Jose Santos to ride Little Matth Man. Santos won his first Preakness last year with Funny Cide, who also won the Derby.

Little Matth Man will be a longshot. He has won three of 12 starts and was seventh on April 10 in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. Before that, at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., the New York-bred colt ran second in the John Battaglia Memorial and was third in the Lane’s End Stakes.

Besides Smarty Jones, other Derby horses expected in Baltimore are Lion Heart, who was second; The Cliff’s Edge, fifth, and Borrego, 10th.

They’ll be joined by Eddington and Rock Hard Ten, horses who were shut out of the Derby because they were short on graded-stakes earnings; Little Matth Man; and the gelding Water Cannon, the inevitable Maryland-based hopeful who won the Federico Tesio at Pimlico on April 17.

The average field for the Preakness in the last 20 years has been 10 horses.

This year’s turnout could reach that number. Instead of running Cheiron, Imperialism’s stablemate, trainer Kristin Mulhall might send the real thing, who was a late-running third in the Derby.

“We’ll know by Saturday,” said Steve Taub, who owns Imperialism. “He went to the track [Thursday] and acted as though he hadn’t run in the race.”

On Thursday at Philadelphia Park, about 100 miles from Baltimore, Smarty Jones jogged with a pony for the second day. He is scheduled to gallop on his own today.

Said trainer John Servis: “Right now we’re leaning toward running in the Preakness and all situations are go. But if he’s not 110%, the Chapmans [Roy and Patricia] are in agreement that we won’t go. He won’t need a workout between now and the Preakness. He’s dead fit. Now I just have to keep him happy.”

Jockey Stewart Elliott, who won the Derby with his first mount in the race and his second mount ever at Churchill Downs, is the leading Philadelphia Park rider with 91 victories, more than double those of the next jockey in the standings.

Elliott, 39, rode at Delaware Park on Wednesday and Saturday he’s got the mount on Whirlwind Charlott in the $200,000 Nassau County Stakes at Belmont Park.

“I’ve seen Stewart ride every day like he rode my horse in the Derby,” Servis said. “He’s picked some heads up, and a large stable in New York is interested in using him.

One of the dark sides to this Derby is that I might not have Stewart to ride my horses at Philadelphia Park anymore.”

Smarty Jones will probably be vanned to Pimlico a day or two before the Preakness. Lion Heart is in training at Keeneland and will be flown to Baltimore next Wednesday.

Said Patrick Biancone, who trains Lion Heart, “I said to [Lion Heart’s owners Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith] that the Derby would be a two-horse race, and that’s the way it turned out.The horse who recovers the best from the Derby has the best chance to win the Preakness. We’ll try to reverse the situation, but it will be very difficult.”

Rock Hard Ten, who will be the least experienced and most rested horse in the Preakness, continues to train at Churchill Downs. He also will arrive at Pimlico on Wednesday.

Rock Hard Ten, who has run only three times, hasn’t raced since April 3, when he finished second but was disqualified and dropped to third in the Santa Anita Derby.

In 1980, Codex went from the Santa Anita Derby to winning the Preakness, but that was a gap of five weeks, compared to the six-week layoff Rock Hard Ten will have had.

Rock Hard Ten, ridden by David Flores in the Santa Anita Derby, will be reunited with Gary Stevens, who rode the colt in his two victories. Stevens will take leave from his summer-long commitment in France to ride in the Preakness for the 15th time, tying Eddie Arcaro on the list. The Preakness record of 17 mounts belongs to Pat Day, who still doesn’t have a mount for this year’s race.

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Congaree, who earned $3.2 million, winning five Grade I races, including the Hollywood Gold Cup and the Cigar Mile twice, has been retired. The 6-year-old, who was third in the 2001 Kentucky Derby, ran fourth in the Churchill Downs Handicap last Saturday.

Ten Most Wanted won’t run in the $500,000 Pimlico Special next Friday. Expected to run are Funny Cide, Southern Image, Evening Attire, Dynever and Midway Road.

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Facts

* What: The 129th Preakness

* Where: Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore

* When: May 15

* Post time: 3 p.m. PDT

* Television: Channel 4 (coverage starts at 2 p.m. PDT)

* Purse: $1 million

* Distance: 1 3/16 miles

* Stakes record: 1:53.40, shared by Louis Quatorze (1996) and Tank’s Prospector (1985)