Preakness Not Charm for Winner of Derby

There are two distinctly different kinds of Belmont Stakes. The most common takes place after one horse has won the Kentucky Derby and another the Preakness. In some years, one of these horses will miss the Belmont, eliminating even the prospect of a rematch. The Belmont Stakes, in such years, is a rather hollow conclusion to the ever-elusive Triple Crown. The other -- when a horse arrives on Long Island after having won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness -- is as good as races get.

Triple Crowns are like comets, infrequently seen but unforgettable. A quarter-century separated Citation (1948) and Secretariat. Nineteen years have passed since Affirmed became the 11th winner. Since then, many renewals of the Belmont have held little intrigue and less consequence.

Seven Triple Crowns have passed since the last winner of the Kentucky Derby won the Preakness. This says something about the toll exacted by the Derby, the difficulty of repeating in Baltimore, and the horses who have won the Derby since Sunday Silence and Easy Goer battled through the last really memorable Triple Crown.

Since Sunday Silence beat his archrival by a nose, Unbridled, Strike the Gold, Lil E. Tee, Sea Hero, Go for Gin and Thunder Gulch left Pimlico humbled. Grindstone, the ’96 Derby winner, was retired because of an injury before the Preakness. During the same period, Summer Squall, Hansel, Pine Bluff, Prairie Bayou, Tabasco Cat, Timber Country and Louis Quatorze have won the Preakness, which has become a stage for bounce-back victories by horses who disappointed in Louisville.

Baltimore is the place in which the Triple Crown has come unglued during the ‘90s, but no recent winner of the Derby has arrived in Baltimore holding a stronger hand than Silver Charm, who arrived safely at Pimlico on Tuesday and is scheduled for a work on Monday. “If you look at him today, you can’t tell he ran (Saturday),” trainer Bob Baffert told reporters who met the van that carried Silver Charm from the Baltimore-Washington Airport to the stakes barn at Pimlico.

Remarkably, Silver Charm showed little sign of fatigue on the morning after the Derby. Apparently, the gray colt benefited from a month’s respite from competition between the Santa Anita Derby and the Kentucky Derby and from Baffert’s approach to the Triple Crown -- three prep races during a two-month span followed by a freshening. Pulpit, in contrast, was making his sixth start of the season in Louisville, and Captain Bodgit and Free House were making their fifth starts.

The competition in the Triple Crown’s second leg has thinned this week. Captain Bodgit and Free House will face Silver Charm again at Pimlico, but the list of Preakness prospects is shrinking almost daily. Pulpit is recovering from post-Derby surgery to remove a bone chip from his left knee and will not race again before autumn. Crypto Star, tired and muscle sore after the Derby, will await the Belmont. Traitor, who did not run in the Derby, has been retired because of a torn suspensory ligament of the left foreleg suffered during training. Ordway, also absent on Derby Day, is on the fence and is as likely to run in the May 18 Peter Pan at Belmont as the Preakness.

“If this horse is as good as I think he is, he’ll win the Triple Crown,” Baffert said after the Derby.

Only horses who started in the Kentucky Derby have won the Preakness in this decade. Only Silver Charm, Captain Bodgit, Free House and Preakness possibility Jack Flash satisfy that prerequisite.

There is already speculation among handicappers that the Maryland-based Captain Bodgit will parlay hometown sentiment into the role of Preakness favorite, but if there is one horse among the principal players in the Derby likely to back up in the Preakness, he is the one, having run three career-best races in rapid succession. If there is a second, it is Free House, who has run his lifetime-best races back-to-back in the Santa Anita and Kentucky Derbys. Form does not hold indefinitely.

The Triple Crown’s second leg plays to Silver Charm’s strength. His close-to-the-pace running style is suited perfectly to Pimlico, and his nicely planned schedule before the Derby probably brings him to Baltimore with a bit more in the tank than the other survivors of Kentucky.