Trainer Nafzger likes being the one to beat

The man currently owning the biggest mint julep in horse racing smiled and shrugged a lot Wednesday at the Preakness draw.

Carl Nafzger said it was fine that the horse he trains, Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, drew the No. 8 post position in the nine-horse field for Saturday’s 132nd running of the Preakness.

He said he was fine with the 7-5 morning line odds that made his horse the solid betting favorite.

And he answered, with almost an amused calm, question after question about pressure and expectations and pre-race assessments.

“I like being here, I like being in this position,” he said. “I’m happy the best horses have decided to take another run at us. If we were 8-5 and all the other horses were 50-1, I wouldn’t be as happy. You want to be here because you want to go against the best.”

Among those are the horses finishing second and third in the Derby, Hard Spun and Curlin.

Hard Spun, which led most of the way in the Derby until Calvin Borel and Street Sense went flying by, was set at 5-2 and Curlin at 7-2.

Hard Spun drew the No. 7 hole and Curlin No. 4. Todd Pletcher’s Circular Quay will start in the No. 3 position and drew the next-best odds at 8-1.

Pletcher’s other horse, King Of The Roxy, led the second group at 12-1, followed by Xchanger at 15-1.

Flying First Class and C P West, trained respectively by Hall of Famers D. Wayne Lukas and Nick Zito, were at 20-1 and Mint Slewlep, which will start from the rail, was the longshot at 30-1.

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Michael Matz, the trainer who won last year’s Derby with Barbaro and then saw his horse break down in the Preakness and, nine months later, be euthanized, will not start Chelokee in the Preakness, but will opt, instead, to run him in the newly named $100,000 Barbaro Stakes, the ninth race on Preakness Saturday.... This morning, Pimlico will honor Barbaro’s jockey, Edgar Prado, and Barbaro’s vet and surgeon, Dean Richardson, with an award of merit.... Trainer Doug O’Neill said that Great Hunter, one of his Derby horses, would be put through a couple of workouts with an eye toward sending him to the June 9 Belmont, third leg of the Triple Crown.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com

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The Preakness

Field for Saturday’s 132nd Preakness Stakes. Weights: 126 pounds. Distance: 1 3/16 miles. Purse: $1 million. First place: $650,000. Second: $200,000. Third: $100,000. Fourth: $50,000. Post time: 3 p.m. PDT:

*--* PP Horse Trainer Jockey Odds 1. Mint Slewlep Robert Bailes Alan Garcia 30-1 2. Xchanger Mark Shuman Ramon Dominguez 15-1 3. Circular Quay Todd Pletcher John Velazquez 8-1 4. Curlin Steve Asmussen Robby Albarado 7-2 5. King Of The Roxy Todd Pletcher Garrett Gomez 12-1 6. Flying First Class D.Wayne Lukas Mark Guidry 20-1 7. Hard Spun Larry Jones Mario Pino 5-2 8. Street Sense Carl Nafzger Calvin Borel 7-5 9. C P West Nick Zito Edgar Prado 20-1

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Source: Associated Press