Rail Disadvantage In Preakness Stakes?

Bob Baffert doesn’t always draw the rail. It just seems like it.

While no records are immediately available, the Hall of Fame trainer seems to live on the rail in post position draws. Such is the case in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, where the two horses he trains, Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah and third-place finisher Dortmund will break from one and two respectively in a field of eight going a mile and three-sixteenths.

“I didn’t like the draw,” Baffert told Daily Racing Form. “I hate seeing them next to each other like that.”

Horsemen in general, be they trainers or jockeys, have no great love of inside post positions. A strong intimidation factor seems to exist for both horse and rider.

“The facts are the facts when you’re on the rail, going short especially,” said Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who is steadfastly approaching career victory No. 7,000. “Guys don’t seem to like being there.

“I guess it’s considered a disadvantage. Part of the problem is riders on the rail feel like they have to send their horses out of there and try to get a good position and some horses don’t like to be sent off their feet out of there.

“When horses break a little slow, the tendency is to try and rush them up from the one hole so they don’t get shuffled back too far. It’s a problem, but if you have a good enough horse, they can overcome it.”

“A good enough horse” would certainly be an appropriate description of American Pharoah and Dortmund in the Preakness, which, at a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the mile and a quarter Kentucky Derby, is far from a sprint.

“I don’t consider the Preakness post positions for them a disadvantage at all,” Hollendorfer said.

As far as jockey Gary Stevens is concerned, the post position draw for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes couldn’t have gone any better if he drew the race himself.

Stevens was not only happy to have his mount, Kentucky Derby runner-up Firing Line, draw the outside post in the eight-horse field, but he seemed downright giddy that his major competition, American Pharoah and Dortmund, drew posts one and two, respectively.

Moreover, Mr. Z, a late addition to the field after he was purchased privately by Calumet Farm, drew post three. Mr. Z, who finished 13th in the Kentucky Derby, remains in the care of trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

“I’m pleased not so much where I drew but where Dortmund and American Pharoah drew, one and two, and Mr. Z outside of them,” said Stevens, a three-time winner of the Preakness. “I expect Mr. Z to show more speed than he did in the Kentucky Derby with new ownership.

“Wayne’s going out for the kill; that’s going to make those guys make some decisions earlier in the race that they didn’t have the benefit of making in the Kentucky Derby. Now I’ve got that benefit.”

In the Kentucky Derby, Firing Line dueled outside of Dortmund before putting that horse away in deep stretch. But, American Pharoah, who broke from post 15 in the Kentucky Derby, rallied several paths outside of Firing Line, pulling away from that rival late to win by one length.

Stevens said Firing Line, owned by Arnold Zetcher and trained by Simon Callaghan, would have no problem sitting off the pace, something he did in the Grade III Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita Feb. 7 when he made the lead in mid-stretch but was outgamed to the wire by Dortmund, who won that race by a head.

“He’ll sit about any trip,” Stevens said. “I wasn’t overly concerned about the draw. I told

Mr. Zetcher just prior to it I’d love to have the outside, but if we don’t I’ll be fine with where we’re at. But those three being down inside it gives me a lot of options.”

Stevens also believes the fact that Firing Line had six weeks from the Sunland Derby to the Kentucky Derby gives him a fresher horse for the two-week turnaround from the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness.

“I think it helps him,” he said. “That’s one thing Simon, Mr. Zetcher and myself talked about before. For a guy that’s never been through the Triple Crown before, Simon was sorting this stuff out prior to; he knew what he was getting into and how tough it was going to be on him and he felt the six weeks would be to our benefit.

“We had the freshest horse going into the Derby and I got to think of the top three Derby finishers we may have come out of the race with the freshest horse going into the Preakness.”