Anne Marie Duff
KENTUCKY Derby winner Always Dreaming drew stall four and will go off an odds-on favourite for the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico tonight (ATR 11.48pm). Conditions are likely to be much better than the wet track of the Kentucky Derby with sunny weather forecast.
He is opposed by the second place finisher, Lookin At Lee, the fourth Classic Empire who will break alongside him, and the well fancied beaten Derby runner Gunnevera.
Always Dreaming comes on a four-race winning streak for trainer Todd Pletcher after stepping up from his Florida Derby win to take the Run for the Roses in impressive fashion. The son of Bodemeister has been training well into the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Pletcher said: “He’s training forwardly, agressively. He seems eager to go. Everything we’d like to see.” His running style should see him prominent and the pace he showed in the stretch in Gulfsteam should take him to the second leg of the Triple Crown, despite Pletcher’s poor record in the race.
Mark Casse’s Classic Empire is fancied to provide the sternest opposition as he was bumped and knocked out of contention at the Derby start two weeks ago in Louisville.
Classic Empire was the Eclipse Award-winning juvenile and Casse said: “We want to just have a good break and see what happens. Always Dreaming is a very good horse, and we just want a fair shot at him.”
Conquest Mo Money, who drew the far outside stall, is the likely pace setter. The runner-up in the Arkansas Derby and Sunland Derby, the son of Uncle Mo won his first three races and has never been worse than second.
Gunnevera drew stall six and is 15/1 on the morning line, while Chad Brown’s Cloud Computing was third in the Wood Memorial and could be a lively outsider.
The Steve Asmussen-trained Derby runner-up Lookin At Lee is quoted at odds of 10/1, while fellow Asmussen runner Hence is a 20/1 shot off an 11th place in the Derby.
Outsiders completing the field are Grade 3 Illinois Derby winner Multiplier, Grade 3 Lexington Stakes winner Senior Investment, and Doug O’Neill’s Term Of Art.
SELECTION: Always Dreaming
Next Best: Gunnevera