2020 preakness | Horse Racing Free Tips

Patrick Smith, Joe Clancy Earn Media Honors For 2020 Preakness Coverage

Patrick Smith of Getty Images and Joe Clancy of ST Publishing Inc., will be recognized this weekend for outstanding journalism coverage of the 2020 Preakness (G1) at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md.

Smith, a staff photographer at Getty, has been named recipient of the Jerry Frutkoff Photographer Award for his photo of Preakness winner Swiss Skydiver and Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Authentic coming down the stretch of the 145^th Preakness. The image was published by Getty on Oct. 3, 2020.

“I loved the facial expression of [Robby] Albarado as he went nose-to-nose with the filly to defeat the Kentucky Derby winner,” Smith said. “All the excitement we dream of when photographing racing was there.”

Smith also acknowledged co-worker Rob Carr for his support and vision and his late grandfather Paul Szugaj for his love of Thoroughbred racing. “I would be remiss if I didn't say anytime I'm against the rail photographing racing – those two are on my mind.”

Clancy was named recipient of the David F. Woods Memorial Award for his story of the 2020 Preakness entitled 'Force of the Filly,' in the November 2020 edition of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred. Clancy also received the Woods in 2015 and 2017.

“I was kicking around the Pimlico barn area the day before the Preakness, taking notes, talking to people,” Clancy said. “The place felt empty, a little strange due to the Covid restrictions on attendance and media access. It was October, not May. And then I saw Kenny McPeek hosing Swiss Skydiver's legs outside the barn and thought of all the horses I hosed when I worked in my father's barn. I wandered over, said hello, fed the filly a mint or two and Kenny and I talked horses for a while. It was amazing. I remember walking away hoping she would win so I could write about it. She had to come through on the track and did she ever. The battle with Authentic was just what the 2020 Preakness needed and it was an honor to tell her story.”

https://midatlantictb.com/index.php/midatlantic-tb/featured-articles/1085-force-of-the-filly-swiss-skydiver-proves-resolute-in-history-making-score-for-mcpeek

Clancy is the owner, publisher editor and writer for ST Publishing Inc., parent company of thisishorseracing.com internet and editor of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred, a monthly magazine published by the Maryland Horse Breeders Association. In 2014 he won an Eclipse Award for excellence in writing. Clancy lives in Fair Hill.

Smith and Clancy will be recognized Friday at Pimlico.

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The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Highs, Lows And Takeaways From 2020 Triple Crown

The Paulick Report editorial team – publisher Ray Paulick, editor-in-chief Natalie Voss, news editor Chelsea Hackbarth and bloodstock editor Joe Nevills – takes a look back at this strangest of Triple Crowns in this week's edition of the Friday Show.

From the minute Churchill Downs officials announced in mid-March that the Kentucky Derby would be postponed until Sept. 5 because of the coronavirus pandemic, we knew this year was going to be different. I don't think any of us knew how different.

Kicking off with a distance-shortened Belmont Stakes June 20 and ending with a Preakness on Oct. 3 that may be remembered as one of the most exciting renewals in recent history, the Triple Crown had its share of highs … and lows. We may have learned a few things – some takeaways – from this year as well.

Watch this week's Friday Show below and let us know what your favorite memories were from the 2020 Triple Crown.

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Wagering, TV Ratings Drop Sharply During ‘Pandemic’ Triple Crown

Like the Triple Crown-opening Belmont Stakes in June and the delayed Kentucky Derby in September, Saturday's 145th running of the Preakness Stakes from Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., saw significant declines both in wagering and television viewership.

Normally run on the third Saturday in May, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, this year's Preakness – like all three Triple Crown races – was run without spectators on site, meaning on-track wagering was minimal. The Preakness encountered not only increased competition from the sports world – it was up against six televised NCAA football games including Texas A&M at Alabama, Oklahoma State at Kansas and Ole Miss at Kentucky – but both Belmont Park and Keeneland offered a full slate of late afternoon graded stakes races serving as major preps for the Nov. 6-7 Breeders' Cup world championships.

For the day, according to Equibase, wagering on Pimlico's 12-race card was $51,242,631, a decline of 48.7% from the record $99,852,653 bet on the 14-race Preakness Day card in 2019. The Preakness race itself handled $31.7 million, down 49.5% from 2019 when $62.8 million was wagered on the classic race for 3-year-olds.

The wagering declines were similar to those experienced by Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby day Sept. 5 and on the Derby itself, when handle dropped by 49.8% and 52.0%, respectively. Derby Day wagering fell from a record $250.9 million to $126.0 million and the Derby itself handled $79.4 million compared to $165.5 million in 2019.

The Belmont Stakes, which on June 20 kicked off a Triple Crown reshuffled because of the coronavirus pandemic, saw smaller wagering declines compared to 2019. The $67.8 million bet on this year's Belmont Stakes card was down 33.7% from $102.1 million in 2019 and the Belmont Stakes saw a 35.9% decline from $53.2 million to $34.1 million.

Combined, wagering on the three Triple Crown cards fell by more than $200 million, from $453 million in 2019 to $245 million this year, a decline of 45.9%.

Just as many other major league sports have struggled to maintain television viewership, so too have horse racing's marquee events. The combined viewing audience for the NBC Sports telecasts of the three Triple Crown races fell by 47.3% from 26.6 million in 2019 to 14 million in 2020. The Belmont's 2.0 rating was the lowest in 24 years and the 4.8 rating for the Derby – traditionally the highest-rated racing telecast of the year – sank to a 32-year low. The Preakness rating of 1.4 represented a viewing audience of 2.4 million compared to 5.4 million in 2019.

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View From The Eighth Pole: The Impossible Dream

Well, we got through it.

The 2020 Triple Crown was different, that's for sure.

A Belmont Stakes that began the series, not at its traditional mile and a half but at a truncated nine furlongs around one turn.

A Kentucky Derby run in eerie silence on the first Saturday in September in a city on edge for months because of growing racial tensions.

A lost in the shuffle Preakness Stakes that brought the series to an end in early October on a day when tracks in New York and Kentucky were showcasing horses gearing up for the autumn Breeders' Cup world championships.

It was unprecedented. It was beautiful. It was 2020 personified.

The stars of this Triple Crown in the year of the coronavirus pandemic were, as always, those magnificent Thoroughbreds.

The New York-bred Tiz the Law demonstrating his dominance at Belmont Park for octogenarian Barclay Tagg and the everyman Sackatoga Stable partners, proving that age is just a number when it comes to training a racehorse.

The Derby showed us, once again, why they run the race.

While Tiz the Law looked unbeatable on paper, having gone on after the Belmont to win the Travers Stakes over the same mile and a quarter distance, he hadn't yet taken on the aces from the Bob Baffert Travel Team. Sure, Nadal was retired, Charlatan had been sidelined with an injury and Eight Rings, Cezanne and Uncle Chuck just weren't up to to the task at this stage of their careers, but the white-haired wonder still had the once-beaten Into Mischief colt Authentic and the insurgent Thousand Words in his arsenal. Well, scratch the latter…literally…just minutes before the Derby after acting up in the saddling paddock.

Authentic proved just that, denying Tiz the Law in the Run for the Roses and looking like a cinch to repeat in the Preakness a month later – especially after the Belmont winner's connections decided to sit this one out. A cinch, at least until forgotten rider Robby Albarado seized the moment to resurrect his career, boldly sending the gallant filly Swiss Skydiver to take on Authentic for a throwdown in the final three-eighths of a mile the likes of which we haven't seen at Old Hilltop since Sunday Silence and Easy Goer were hip to hip in that glorious Preakness of 1989. Or maybe since Albarado, aboard Curlin, engaged and defeated Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense in another memorable running of the Preakness in 2007.

Trainer Kenny McPeek calls this Daredevil filly – one he bought for just $35,000 on day nine of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale – a throwback. Sure nuff, she is. Her past performances read like the announcements echoing through a train station: Tampa, New Orleans, Miami, Hot Springs, Arcadia, Lexington, Saratoga Springs, Louisville, Baltimore.

All aboard.

This was David beating Goliath, Main Street outperforming Wall Street. It wasn't just a filly against colts, it was a victory for the little guys against the conglomerates. Likewise, Belmont winner Tiz the Law came from an ownership group that won all of four races last year from a five-horse stable.

But this game isn't about numbers, at least not for everyone. It's about dreams. Seemingly impossible dreams. And when they come true, as Don Quixote said, the world will be better for this.

That's my view from the eighth pole.

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