Final Preakness say to Closing Argument

IF it’s the third Saturday in May, it must be Maryland. The Classics road show has pulled into Baltimore and before the performers barely have had time to catch their breath, they’ll line up at Pimlico Race Course for the Preakness Stakes (Grade 1), the second jewel of America’s Triple Crown for three-year-olds. At one and  3/16-miles, the US$1 million race is a half-furlong shorter than the Kentucky Derby held two weeks ago at Louisville’s Churchill Downs. A dozen or so trainers hope that the 110 fewer yards of the Preakness will prevent longshot Derby winner Giacomo from mounting another successful charge from the back of the pack.

No less than nine horses vanquished a fortnight ago are back for another try and four others who skipped the race have climbed over the boards for this one as well, making today only the second time in 75 years the race will have a full complement of 14 starters. Nobody’s running scared from the Derby winner. The reasons he’s being dissed by those in the know are (1) his pedestrian time at Churchill; (2) the perplexing performances of so many well-regarded Derby runners; and (3) that none of the experts picked him to win.

But unlike Funny Cide, the New York-bred who took down blueblood Empire Maker in ’03, or Smarty Jones, the obscure colt with the neat name and unblemished record who steam rolled last year’s Derby, Giacomo has yet to capture the hearts of a racing public that crossed him off their list of Derby choices the first time through the past performances. (It’s true he’s named for the son of rock star Sting but that hasn’t been worth much in PR.

Better is the story of the opera-loving handicapper who included him on a winning Derby superfecta ticket because he thought composer Giacomo Puccini was his namesake.) Still, Giacomo is trying to become the fourth horse in succession, and seventh in the last nine years, to complete the Derby-Preakness double and set the stage for another run at the Triple Crown and he’ll have everyone — fans, horsemen and industry officials — in his corner for the Belmont Stakes if he duplicates his run for the roses. Right now, it’s the sponsors on the hook for television advertising time on Belmont Day who are rooting hardest for him to win. Here is the field with each horse’s lifetime record, jockey and morning-line odds.