Eleven Entered in the Preakness

Eleven horses, one more than expected, were entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Preakness at Pimlico, but The Cliff’s Edge, adding to trainer Nick Zito’s spring of discontent, may not start because of a foot problem.

Zito, who won the 1996 Preakness with Louis Quatorze, listed The Cliff’s Edge, the fifth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, as tentative and said that a decision would be made today. Smarty Jones, who won the Derby as a modest 4-1 favorite, was made a much shorter 8-5 favorite for the Preakness. Five times in the last seven years the Derby winner has also won the Preakness, but none was able to win the Belmont Stakes and complete the Triple Crown, which hasn’t been swept since Affirmed did it in 1978.

Lion Heart, second in the Derby but beaten by 2 3/4 lengths on a sloppy track, is the second choice on the Preakness morning line at 3-1, followed by Imperialism (third in the Derby) at 5-1, Rock Hard Ten at 6-1 and Eddington and The Cliff’s Edge, both 8-1. Rock Hard Ten and Eddington are trying the near impossible, winning the Preakness after not running in the Derby. Since 1984, only one horse -- Red Bullet in 2000 -- has skipped the Derby and then won at Pimlico.

The 129th Preakness, which at 1 3/16 miles is 110 yards shorter than the Derby, picked up an unexpected contender when Song Of The Sword, the 11th-place Derby finisher, was entered. Song Of The Sword, 30-1 on the morning line, gets a new jockey in the veteran Jorge Chavez.

Zito’s resilience has been severely tested. Eurosilver, once considered his best Triple Crown candidate, went to the sidelines with an infection, and recently the colt’s owner, Mahmoud Fustok of Buckram Oak Farm, reassigned the colt to trainer Carl Nafzger and also took several other horses away from Zito.

Birdstone, another Zito 3-year-old, also has had a rocky season. He ran fifth as a favorite in the Lane’s End Stakes at Turfway Park, where the track condition changed abruptly after a downpour less than an hour before post time. Zito then tried to run Birdstone in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, but a high white-cell blood count scratched that plan. Birdstone ran in the Kentucky Derby, finishing eighth while losing a shoe at some point during the race.

The Cliff’s Edge won the Blue Grass, but incredibly he lost both front shoes in the Derby. Zito has been charitable in not routing his blacksmith.

“He’s shod a lot of good horses for me that have won big races,” Zito said. “He took the Derby as hard as anybody. He cried the day after the race.”

But The Cliff’s Edge’s shoe problems at Churchill Downs have carried to Pimlico, where the colt was diagnosed Wednesday as having a bruised right front foot. Before going to the track, The Cliff’s Edge was walked around the shed row without a rider for 30 minutes, then he circled the barn for another 45 minutes. Finally, with exercise rider Maxine Correa aboard, he did some light jogging around the track.

“It took him a long time to warm up,” Zito said. “It could be something jamming him. He looked all right on the track, but he was walking gingerly when he got back to the barn. Maybe everything related to the shoes has caught up with him.”

The Cliff’s Edge was reshod four days after the Derby. He worked half a mile in :48 2/5 at Churchill Downs on Sunday before being flown here.

“I liked his work, and he looked great jogging here Tuesday,” Zito said. “Then [Wednesday morning] something was wrong. My first thought was: Why couldn’t this happen in June? You never know. You’re always day to day in this business.”

Zito’s other Preakness entrant, Sir Shackleton, won the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs on April 24. Sir Shackleton, 30-1 on the Preakness morning line, has started only four times -- all this year -- and never run around two turns.

The undefeated Smarty Jones’ trainer, John Servis, had the second pick in the Preakness’ blind-draw system and took the No. 7 post. Lion Heart, who will be expected to set the pace, as he did in the Derby, will break from the inside post, which has produced only one Preakness winner in the last 43 years.

“We’ve had good luck with the seven,” Servis said. “We won both the Southwest and the Rebel [at Oaklawn Park] from the seven, and after Kentucky the horse has won seven in a row. So when the seven was open, there was no reason to change.”

Only Majestic Prince in 1969 and Seattle Slew in 1977 were undefeated after winning the Derby and Preakness. Seattle Slew, of course, stayed unbeaten as he swept the Triple Crown.

Since winning the Hollywood Futurity in December, Lion Heart has been second three times in a row -- in the San Rafael at Santa Anita, in the Blue Grass and in the Derby.

“The Derby was a two-horse race, but I would have preferred it coming out the opposite way,” said Patrick Biancone, who trains Lion Heart.

“My horse and Smarty Jones are similar, in that neither one of them is bred to run 1 1/4 miles [the Derby distance], or even 1 3/16 miles. The tempo -- not necessarily the early fractions -- of the Preakness will be important. We may surprise some people.”

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The weather is hot and muggy in Baltimore. Smarty Jones galloped at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday at his home track, Philadelphia Park, where the humidity was also high, and was taken by van to Pimlico, 100 miles away, at midday. The forecast for Friday is temperatures in the mid-80s, with a 20% chance of rain. Scattered thunderstorms are predicted for Saturday, when the temperature could hit 90 degrees.... Trainer Barclay Tagg said that because of the heat he might not run Funny Cide, last year’s Derby-Preakness winner, in Friday’s $500,000 Pimlico Special. Others entered are Southern Image, Dynever, Midway Road, Evening Attire, Bowman’s Band and Ole Faunty. Funny Cide is the 2-1 favorite.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

*--* The Facts * What: Preakness Stakes, 129th running * Where: Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore * Race: Second leg of Triple Crown (with Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes) * Distance: 1 3/16 miles on dirt. * Post time: 3:04 p.m. PDT. * TV: Channel 4 (coverage starts at 2 p.m. PDT) * Purse: $1 million (winner’s share -- $650,000) * 2003 winner: Funny Cide * Stakes record: 1:53 2/5 -- Tank’s Prospect (1985) and Louis Quatorze (1996)

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In Position

Preakness Stakes winners by post position since 1909. (Note: the race was run in two divisions in 1918):

*--* Post Wins Last Winner Year 1 9 TABASCO CAT 1994 2 11 SNOW CHIEF 1986 3 11 PRAIRIE BAYOU 1993 4 12 RED BULLET 2000 5 10 ELOCUTIONIST 1976 6 14 CHARISMATIC 1999 7 11 SILVER CHARM 1997 8 9 WAR EMBLEM 2002 9 3 FUNNY CIDE 2003 10 2 REAL QUIET 1998 11 2 POINT GIVEN 2001 12 2 PLEASANT COLONY 1981

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Preakness Derby Draw

*--* PP HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER ODDS 1 LION HEART Mike Smith Patrick Biancone 3-1 2 BORREGO Victor Espinoza Beau Greely 15-1 3 LITTLE MATTH MAN Richard Migliore Marty Ciresa 50-1 4 THE CLIFF’S EDGE Shane Sellers Nick Zito 8-1 5 SONG OF THE SWORD Jorge Chavez Jennifer Pedersen 30-1 6 SIR SHACKLETON Raphael Bejarano Nick Zito 30-1 7 SMARTY JONES Stewart Elliott John Servis 8-5 8 IMPERIALISM Kent Desormeaux Kristin Mulhall 5-1 9 EDDINGTON Jerry Bailey Mark Hennig 8-1 10 ROCK HARD TEN Gary Stevens Jason Orman 6-1 11 WATER CANNON Ryan Fogelsonger Linda Albert 30-1

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