Only a few days after Win Kentucky DerbySovereignty was excluded from the race in the challenges of pre-pre-pre-.
This is the second time in four years that the owner and coach of the Champion derby has chosen to jump the Preakness in favor of the Belmont Stakes in June. Rich strike also bypassed the preakness In 2022 after winning Churchill Downs in 80-1.
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Country House did not take place in 2019 Because of the disease After being raised to the derby winner when the maximum security was disqualified for interference, the The races were short of order in 2020 and The mind of the medina ran and finished third in the Preakness 2021 after being DQED of his first place In the derby for a positive screening test.
This means that it is the fifth time in seven years that the doors of Preakness have opened on the Pimlico Race Race in Baltimore without even a chance for a triple crown. This was only the case once in the previous 33 years of 1986-2018, and it happened because a horse was removed due to an injury after taking the race for the roses.
Why does it happen?
Horse races have changed its peak when Stars of the Sport like the Admiral of War, the Secretariat and Seattle Slew used to run every two weeks. Reproduction, money and other factors have changed this, and the best 3 -year -old horses eligible for the Triple Crown race much less often, with larger sections between the two.
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“Most coaches hate to retreat their horses in two weeks,” said Randy Moss, NBC sports analyst. “They feel bad for horses.”
From the beginning of the 21st century, many derby horses which ended between the second and the 20th began to rest more to wait five weeks for the Belmont. It was essentially automatic that the derby winner would go, but either either.
“The coaches of the winners of the derby who retreat in the preakness do so by sense of tradition – not because they love it,” said Moss.
Bill Mott of sovereignty clearly indicated in the morning after his horse spent journalism in the section in the mud to Churchill Downs with a Save the audience to watchThrowing a doubt about the preakness.
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“We want to do what is best for the horse,” Mott told journalists in Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday. “Of course, you always think of a triple crown, and it is not something that we will not think of.”
Should something change?
The debate has been raging for decades on horses that cannot manage the version of three leading races over a period of five weeks. It was mainly because no one swept the triple crown between the affirmation in 1978 and American Pharoah in 2015A 37 -year -old drought that made the industry stakeholders question tradition in relation to modern changes.
Justify doing it in 2018 To give sport a pair of triple crown champions in four years has calmed this conversation. The recent uncertainty about derby winners going to Preakness has rekindled chatter.
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The eminent owner Mike Repole shared a proposal on social networks on Tuesday that would make Belmont pass in the second row of the rotation and would close the Preakness to provide more spacing. Others suggested putting the preakness back on the first Saturday in June and the Belmont on the first Saturday in July.
What is the solution?
No one really knows. And should there be a seismic change like the pitch clock in baseball?
Maybe, maybe not. After all, the two previous winners of the derby – Mystik Dan last year and Mage in 2023 – returned after two weeks to finish money in Preakness.
They did not win, but their coaches wanted to give a gunshot. And the American pharah formed and justified by Bob Baffert and justify the realization of the triple crown showed that it was possible.
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“We will see the winners of Triple Crown because there will sometimes be horses like American Pharoah and as justify who are good enough to blow up one of the current reflections on the spacing,” said Moss.
And coaches who are not worried about it. Slack and 89 year old college D. Wayne Lukas have shown a desire to go after winning the derby – and even when they don't. Lukas intends to manage the American promise in Preakness after a 16th place in Kentucky.
Others have chosen to play safer, which, if it becomes the trend, takes the future of Preakness in danger.
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AP Horse Racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing
