Lookin At Lucky Officially In Preakness

Lookin At Lucky should be the second-favorite behind Super Saver. (AP Images)

Trainer Bob Baffert has committed LOOKIN AT LUCKY to the 1-3/16 mile Preakness Stakes in Baltimore this Saturday. Bet on the race with Bodog's horse racing odds.

“He continues to look good,” said Baffert, who has four Preakness wins on his Hall of Fame resume. (SILVER CHARM, 1997; REAL QUIET, ’98; POINT GIVEN, 2001 and WAR EMBLEM, ’02) “I made up my mind over the weekend. He deserves the chance to run in this race. He’s a Triple Crown-type horse.”

Baffert also has decided to replace jockey Garrett Gomez with Martin Garcia. Baffert has used the two-time Eclipse Award winning Gomez as his go-to-rider for the past six years -- but since 2008 he also has used the rapidly developing Garcia on several occasions.

In fact, Garcia rode GAME ON DUDE to win the $200K Lone Star Derby in Texas on Saturday, Baffert’s fourth win in that Derby. Although he is explaining the change merely to give Lookin At Lucky a “fresh start,”   and “to change the colt’s karma,” Baffert has publicly held Gomez partly responsible for all the trouble Lucky has encountered in his past four races:

*-A very wide trip when Lucky was beaten narrowly in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita last fall. (“The outside post draw didn’t help,” Baffert said.)

*-A narrow win in the Rebel Stakes after clipping heels and getting shuffled back approaching the half-mile pole. (“That was a rough race, but Lucky showed his class to win it!” )

*-A third-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby after getting stopped cold on the final turn. (“I didn’t like Garrett being stuck on the inside like that.”)

*-His bump-and-run, stop-and-go, rock-and-rolling sixth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 1. (“A very unlucky inside post for sure; but you need your rider to find a way out of there.”)

Baffert and his key Preakness decisions aside, AIKENITE and YAWANNA TWIST are now among 15 horses under serious consideration for the second jewel in the Triple Crown, which if all enter, FIRST DUDE would be excluded. Aikenite was second to HURRICANE IKE in the Derby Trial on April 24 and Yawanna Twist was second to AMERICAN LION in the Illinois Derby on April 3. Post positions will be drawn at Pimlico on Wednesday.

Looking beyond the Preakness, at Belmont Park this past Saturday we saw a serious contender for the 1-1/2 mile Belmont Stakes.

Trainer Nick Zito’s FLY DOWN, a poor ninth in the Louisiana Derby on March 27, drew off to a six-length win in the 1-1/8 mile Dwyer Stakes, beating highly regarded DROSSELMEYER while finishing full of run. If Kentucky Derby winner SUPER SAVER gets by the Preakness hurdle, his Triple Crown bid will have to go through ICE BOX and FLY DOWN, two long-winded strong finishing horses trained by the same Hall of Fame trainer who stopped SMARTY JONES’ Triple Crown bid with BIRDSTONE in 2004 and BIG BROWN’S potential sweep with DA’ TARA in 2008.

Added Note: The 5-year-old RAIL TRIP was a solid winner over the Baffert-trained SANGAREE in the Mervyn Leroy at Hollywood Park on Saturday. More importantly, the gelding served notice that he will be a tough horse to beat in any stakes for older horses on the Southern California circuit.

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