Suddenbreakingnews and Brody’s Cause will skip the Preakness Stakes and wait for the Belmont Stakes. The horse betting landscape for the second race of the Thoroughbred Triple Crown has thus cleared space for new participants, though not for new favorites – undefeated colt and Kentucky Derby champion remains the choice for people who bet on horses. The only equines that weren’t shell-shocked enough by what transpired at the Run of the Roses to be crazy enough – crazy as a horses – to want to take on Nyquist again are Exaggerator and Lani, and maybe Gun Runner too.
Trainer Dale Romans, who will have Cherry Wine in the Preakness, briefly flirted with the idea of the Preakness for Brody’s Cause before coming realizing that they would be better off as friends and that the June 11th Belmont Stakes is a better option for the late-running colt. After all, why lose three races when you can lose only two. Brody’s Cause, who the Blue Grass Stakes, never posed a threat when seventh in the Derby last Saturday at Churchill Downs. Suddenbreakingnews’s trainer Donnie Hemel said that pointing for the Belmont is what’s best for the horse and his horse betting odds.
Most of the prospective contingent for the Preakness is still in Kentucky. Exaggerator will leave Sunday by and Fellowship on Monday van – a very old school, garage rock band-vibe –, while two equine air charters scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday out of Louisville International Airport are expected to transport Cherry Wine, Collected, Dazzling Gem, and Laoban.
As for Gun Runner, who finished third in the Derby, trainer Steve Asmussen said that he is very happy with how the colt came out of the race but did not let on a time frame as to when a Preakness decision will be made public. Asmussen already has about six horses booked on the aforementioned flights. Meanwhile, Trainer Brad Cox has not fully committed Dazzling Gem but said that if the colt works well on Saturday at Churchill, he intends to run.
What contrast with Nyquist – and one of the reason people who bet on horses are behind him – who has already arrived at Pimlico in Baltimore. Nyquist won the Derby by 1 1/4 lengths over Exaggerator for his 8th consecutive win. The Uncle Mo colt owned by the Reddam Racing LLC is attempting to become the only unbeaten horse other than Seattle Slew in 1977 to sweep the Triple Crown – and horse betting odds back him up. Trainer O’Neill does not plan to breeze Nyquist but adhere to an alternating pattern of gallops and jogs, as he did in anticipation to the Kentucky Derby. Hey, why mess with what works?