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Twinspires Triple Crown Throwdown: Preakness Stakes

Ed DeRosa of Brisnet.com takes on TDN’s Steve Sherack and Brian DiDonato as they handicap Triple Crown prep races plus the big three races themselves. The three will make $100 Win/Place bets in the preps and $200 Win/Place bets in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont. Highest bankroll at the end wins.

DeRosa – Bankroll: $5480 – GI Kentucky Derby Result – Max Player rallied for fifth.

GI Preakness S. – I wanted to bet Art Collector in the Kentucky Derby, so why not in the Preakness against arguably a softer group with the defections of Tiz the Law and Honor A. P.? Art Collector would have been half the price as Authentic in the Derby, but now we get twice the price since Authentic won the race Art Collector wasn’t in. I’m not up on all that newfangled math my kids take, but I still know logic, and it’s telling me to bet my lungs on Art Collector. I don’t give a lot of wagering advice in this spot, but mine would be to save whatever it is you plan to bet across all the great racing this weekend and put it all on the nose of Art Collector. Best bet of the Triple Crown Throwdown series right here in the Preakness. Selection: #3 Art Collector (5-2).

Sherack – Bankroll: $4110 – GI Kentucky Derby Result – Honor A. P. was up against it from the moment they sprung the latch and was along for fourth after an impossible trip.

GI Preakness S. – Pneumatic finally posted the breakthrough victory I was waiting for in the TVG.com Pegasus S. at Monmouth, and if his subsequent training at Saratoga is any indication, he may have another leap forward coming here. He’s tactical enough to work out the right trip in a race that appears to have plenty of speed signed on as well. Selection: #10 Pneumatic (20-1).

DiDonato – Bankroll: $5840 – GI Kentucky Derby Result – Tiz the Law (+$340) settled for second best on the day. Not sure that’s his favorite track, and it’s tough to dance every dance even when the order and spacing are different.

GI Preakness S. – This seems like a good spot to take a chance with a longshot. Authentic’s last effort almost certainly wins this too, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he turned out to be a little bit over the top here. His pre-Derby worktab suggests he was 100% cranked for last time, and while his two breezes for this were fast, he’s not going to work out the same trip here. There’s plenty of other pace, which is part of the reason I’ll also oppose Art Collector, who I wasn’t totally sold on before his late Derby defection. He can win, but he’s another who’s probably not going to get the same perfect trip he’s enjoyed in recent outings. Max Player is the one I’ll try. His Derby run was sneaky good–he traveled on the dead rail for a good chunk of the race, and made a legitimate stretch run. One of these days he’s going to get the meltdown he needs. Maybe it’ll be Saturday. Selection: #8 Max Player (15-1).

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Florida Racing Prepares To Say Goodbye To Calder

Saturday’s opening day at the meet rebranded as Gulfstream Park West will truly mark the beginning of an end. Barring an 11th hour reprieve from the courts, the 40-day season will be the last ever run at Calder Race Course, the meat-and-potatoes South Florida track that has been operating since 1971.

Since 2014, the racing operation has been leased by Calder’s owner, Churchill Downs Inc., to Gulfstream Park’s owners, The Stronach Group, which renamed the track Gulfstream Park West. That lease expires at the end of the year and TSG is in the process of putting together a 2021 racing schedule that does not include a Gulfstream Park West/Calder meet.

Calder opened May 6, 1971 with 16,263 fans in attendance and the handle was $712,931. The New York Times reported that the meet “got off to a flying start” and that there were so many people looking to get into the track that they had to close the gates and turn some would-be patrons away.

Calder bridged the gap between the winter and early spring meets that were held at Gulfstream and at Hialeah and ushered in an era of year-round racing in South Florida. While Calder was never as glamorous as the other tracks in the area, it satisfied a need and was a starting point for many successful jockeys, trainers and horses. In 2000, Calder inaugurated the “Summit of Speed” program, which featured several major stakes races, all of them sprints.

“Calder was a workingman’s racetrack and a lot of fine horses came from there that competed on all levels, whether it was Spend a Buck to a horse I had, Three Ring, who went on to win all sorts of graded stakes races,” said veteran trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. “My father was the second one through the backstretch gates when it first opened. A lot of people did great there and Calder launched the career of a lot of horsemen. Calder was a great place for me and my family. It gave us a lot of stability and it gave me time to be with my family. I am going to sorely miss it.”

Calder’s future changed directions when it was purchased for $87 million in 1999 by Churchill Downs. Over the years, Churchill has become increasingly less interested in racing and has been focusing on gaming. Following the end of the 2015 meet, Churchill had the grandstand torn down, leaving little behind but the racetrack itself.

In 2010, a casino opened at Calder. Florida law required Churchill to run a live racing meet of at least 40 days in order to keep its casino license, but Churchill found a loophole in the law and argued that any form of pari-mutuel wagering would satisfy the requirements for a casino. In May, 2019, Churchill opened a jai alai fronton, which is far less costly to operate than a racetrack, on the grounds. Four months later, a Florida Court upheld a decision by the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering that allowed Calder to tie its casino permit to jai alai. Horse racing was no longer needed.

“I feel that Churchill Downs didn’t do its best for horse racing,” trainer David Fawkes said. “They’ve done the same thing in Chicago with Arlington and to Hollywood Park. It’s sad because we all got on board to help them get their casino and once they got what they wanted, they were done with us.”

The Florida HBPA and other industry groups have continued the battle in the courts, hoping to reverse the decision that approved the casino-jai alai marriage. But Gulfstream management is proceeding as if racing will no longer continue at Calder after the meet ends Nov. 28.

“It”s the end of an era,”said Bill Badgett, the executive director of Florida Racing Operations for The Stronach Group.

Though overshadowed by Gulfstream, the abbreviated Calder meets served a purpose. It is difficult for any track to operate year-round, especially one that relies so heavily on turf racing, like Gulfstream does. The two months when racing was conducted at Calder were used to give Gulfstream a break and to prepare the turf course for the Championship Meet.

Badgett said that the plan is to operate Gulfstream year-round in 2021, but said that not all the Calder dates will be made up.

“We’re in the process right now of creating the calendar for 2021,” Badgett said. “Most likely, we will lose about 20 days out of the 40. The two months when we race over there is the time we get things ready here for the championship meet, with the turf. It could be that in November we possibly could race over the Breeders’ Cup days and take the rest of the month off and then get ready for the Championship Meet. That would give us almost three weeks off for the turf course. Maybe in October we’ll only run three days a week. We will try to run a few less turf races during October. It looks like we have a pretty good plan we’re going to be putting into place. To lose just 20 days, that doesn’t hurt you that much in the long run.”

The other issue is stabling. Badgett said that there are 450 horses currently stabled at Calder. Gulfstream has reached an agreement whereby the horses can stay at Calder until Apr. 1. By that time, he said, an expansion project will have been completed at Palm Meadows to house the Calder horses and the backstretch workers who care for those horses.

Badgett is a former trainer who raced some at Calder before he went into racetrack management. Like so many others in South Florida racing, he has a soft spot for old Calder Race Course.

“When they tore the grandstand down, that’s when everybody said that it was the beginning of the end,” he said. “It used to be a lot of fun to race there and they had great racing. I even remember running on Christmas Day there. But the game has changed and those days are long gone. It’s sad.”

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Preakness Caps Unconventional Triple Crown

All of 2020 has been unconventional to say the least and the Triple Crown series is no exception. Instead of starting with the GI Kentucky Derby on the First Saturday in May, the highlight of the 3-year-old season kicked off in mid-June with a shortened GI Belmont S., which is traditionally the final leg of the series. It was 11 weeks before the Run for the Roses on the First Saturday in September and now, another four weeks later, the Triple Crown road comes to an end in Baltimore Saturday with the GI Preakness S.

The connections of Belmont hero and Derby runner-up Tiz the Law (Constitution) opted to skip this Classic event and train up to the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic, which means favoritism will sit squarely on the shoulders of Derby victor Authentic (Into Mischief). Opening his account with a trio of victories, two of which were graded, the Bob Baffert trainee suffered his only loss when second to the recently retired Honor A. P. (Honor Code) in the GI Santa Anita Derby June 6. Taking the GI Haskell Invitational S. by a nose July 18, the bay went wire-to-wire in the Derby, scoring a gritty victory over favored Tiz the Law.

“He would have been ready to roll in two weeks,” said Baffert, who is the winning trainer in Preakness history. “I feel pressure now because I never lost a Preakness with a horse I won the Derby with. Now the pressure’s on me.”

His stablemate Thousand Words (Pioneerof the Nile) was a late scratch from the Run for the Roses after rearing and flipping over in the paddock. Also kicking off his career with a trio of wins, including two graded events, the $1-million KEESEP buy was off the board in the GII San Felipe S. and Oaklawn S. this spring. Given a brief freshener following that Apr. 11 test, the bay was second when he returned in the GIII Los Alamitos Derby July 4 and was back to winning ways in the Shared Belief S. Aug. 1 at Del Mar. Baffert puts blinkers on the colt for this return to Grade I company.

Art Collector (Bernardini) was a late defection from the Derby due to a minor hoof issue. The homebred has been a perfect four-for-four since transferring to Tom Drury, starting with a pair of optional claimer scores at Churchill Downs. A decisive winner of the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. July 11, the bay wired the Ellis Park Derby last time Aug. 9.

“The Derby was disappointing because he was training so well leading up to it, but, gosh, I feel like he’s doing equally as well right now,” Drury said. “We’re ready to take our best shot.”

Blue Grass runner-up Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) takes another crack at the boys in this event. Capturing the GIII Fantasy S. and GII Santa Anita Oaks prior to the Blue Grass, the chestnut filly scored a decisive victory in Saratoga’s GI Alabama S. Aug. 15 and came in second to upsetter Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil) in the GI Kentucky Oaks Sept. 4.

“I don’t know if we have to differentiate genders. In Europe, fillies run against colts all the time. I don’t think Enable has run straight fillies [more than a few times] in several years,” trainer Kenny McPeek said. “Here it seems to be more of a big deal, but for the most part when you bring a good one into the game, it doesn’t matter.”

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Old Friends Joins Forces with Senior Living Community

Old Friends, the non-profit organization that cares for over 200 retired racehorses near Georgetown, Ky., has formed a unique arrangement with Georgetown’s new Ashton Grove Senior Living Community, which is located a few miles from the Old Friends property. Equine retirees from Old Friends will live at Ashton Grove, which is positioned on approximately 40 acres of former Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm land. Ashton Grove has eight fenced paddocks, a 12-stall barn, and run-in sheds under construction. Old Friends hosted a grand opening of the new location Friday.

“This is a dream come true,” said Old Friends founder and president Michael Blowen. “Retired horses. Retired people. A match made in heaven.”

The new partnership will combine Thoroughbred retirement with a senior retirement community. Old Friends has already moved seven horses to the new location, with more to follow in time. Eventually, when pandemic protocols ease, Ashton Grove will be open to a small number of visitors by appointment only.

The Old Friends residents currently at Ashton Grove are MGISW Daytona (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), GI Preakness S. runner-up and GSW Magic Weisner (Ameri Valay), Chilean champion and MGSP-US Porfido (Chi) (Mash One {Chi}), MSW and MGSP Secret Getaway (Skip Away), and GISP Massone (Menifee), as well as hard-knocking winners Ireland’s Eye (Cowtown Cat) and Bo’s a Ten (Patton).

“Ashton Grove is excited and honored to have Old Friends horses in our backyard,” said the senior living community’s executive director, Davonna Saeir. “I am so happy that our beautiful property will provide a sanctuary for these majestic creatures, and I know their presence will give our residents great joy. Having these retired thoroughbreds at Ashton Grove is a win-win, and we are grateful for our partnership with Old Friends.”

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