Lukas looks to 'turn the page' on American Promise in the Preakness after a troubled Derby trip
BALTIMORE (AP) — American Promise got cut off at the start of the Kentucky Derby, then couldn't get the room to squeeze between horses down the stretch. It added up to a 16th-place finish.
'He's a big horse,' trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. 'He can't stop and start like that. It just won't work.'
Lukas is hoping things will work out better in the Preakness Stakes this Saturday, bringing American Promise back to race two weeks after the troubled trip in the Derby. No one has saddled more horses in the second leg of the Triple Crown than the 89-year-old Hall of Famer, who is looking to become the first to win the Preakness back to back since good friend Bob Baffert in 2001 and '02.
'When you have a trip that you could analyze and overanalyze or whatever you want to do, I turn the page and concentrate on this here and what we can get done,' Lukas said Tuesday after overseeing American Promise jog a couple of miles in the rain at Pimlico Race Course. 'He did really well. He had good energy and everything.'
American Promise is set to be Lukas' 49th Preakness horse over 34 renditions of the race since winning his first try back in 1980 with Codex. If American Promise gets the job done, it will give Lukas an eighth Preakness victory and tie Baffert for the record.
Opening at odds of 15-1 — third-longest in the field of nine — he's a long shot to do so. But a deluge of rain this week could factor in, like the muddy track did at Churchill Downs when Sovereignty outdueled Journalism, who is the Preakness favorite with the Derby winner not running.
Lukas said Journalism 'jumps off the page" and is a worthwhile favorite, but he has reason to believe American Promise could thrive with room to run, even if the surface is a little sloppy.
'I got a hunch that he'll be able to manage it,' Lukas said.
Dual-citizen horse
Heart of Honor is in a barn by himself this week at Pimlico because he will soon be returning to England, where he was born in 2022. But rather than being an international entrant in the Preakness, the colt is actually more American than British-bred.
'He ended up in the U.K. by accident,' said Jimmy McCarthy, chief operating officer for Jamie Osborne's stable based in Hungerford.
That is because David Redvers bought his mare, Chilean champion Ruby Love, in November 2021 at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, when she was in foal with him, then shipped her to England. In addition to her name, Heart of Honor got his moniker from the white mark on his face that looks a little like a heart.
On the track, he has shown some heart, finishing second in his past three races in Dubai at Meydan Racecourse, most recently the Grade 2 UAE Derby on April 5. The Preakness is a step up from that, not to mention an ordeal involving flying the horse first to Louisville, Kentucky, and then to Baltimore for a shot in the $2 million race.
Heart of Honor opened at 12-1.
'It's a big risk, and it's a big undertaking,' McCarthy said. 'It is a bit of an adventure. It's something they're willing to take a risk, so we'll see what happens.'
Local Billy
Pay Billy is the Maryland local long shot, an automatic qualifier from winning the Federico Tesio Stakes at nearby Laurel Park last month. Neither jockey Raul Mena nor trainer Billy Gorham has ever had a horse in a Triple Crown race before.
"Everyone in the barn's all excited," Gorham said. 'A lot of the guys that work for me have been with me a long time. Everyone's worked hard through the years with just claiming horses and a few stakes horses here and there basically everyday horses. Now we get a chance to go in the Preakness, it's a big deal.'
Mena, a 33-year-old from Chile who has been riding in the U.S. for nearly a decade, called it a 'very special moment' for himself professionally, and because few expect Pay Billy at 20-1 to pull off an upset, he's enjoying the experience.
'He's not going to be the favorite,' Mena said. 'I don't got the pressure in the race. I know my horse: He's got the talent to be competing with those horses. ... If we win the race, it's going to be awesome. If he doesn't win, I'm still happy.'
___
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