Giacomo Encounters Another Hard Liner

BALTIMORE —  Yet one more oddsmaker has belittled Giacomo, and worse still for the Kentucky Derby-winning colt is that he’ll break from the No. 13 post Saturday, a spot that has not produced a winner of the Preakness in at least 95 years.

It’s not unusual for Derby winners to go off as non-favorites at Pimlico, but when Frank Carulli issued his morning line Wednesday for the 130th Preakness, Giacomo was no better than fourth choice, at odds of 6-1.

Ranked ahead of the gun-metal gray were favored Afleet Alex, at 5-2; High Fly, 9-2; and Closing Argument, 5-1. All were beaten by Giacomo, a 50-1 shot, in the Derby. Closing Argument was second, Afleet Alex third and High Fly 10th.

Afleet Alex, the Arkansas Derby winner who lost by only one length at Churchill Downs, was expected to be the favorite here, and High Fly, who had lost only one race prior to the Derby, was thought to be a legitimate second choice. But when Carulli ranked Closing Argument, a 71-1 shot in the Derby, ahead of Giacomo, many eyebrows were raised.

If the top three are bet at post time the way Carulli has pegged them, Giacomo will be getting the least respect for a Derby winner since Charismatic went off as fifth choice in the 1999 Preakness. Charismatic, 31-1 in the Derby, won the Preakness at 8-1 before failing in the Belmont and missing the Triple Crown. Six horses in the last eight years have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown, which hasn’t been swept since Affirmed in 1978.

If the Preakness odds bother John Shirreffs, the trainer of Giacomo, or Jerry and Ann Moss, co-owners of the colt, they aren’t letting on.

“We won the Derby,” Jerry Moss said. “He was first that day. And I still think he’s improving. I think he’ll run his race on Saturday. This will give fans a chance to make more money on our horse, which is great.”

Payoffs were huge all around in the Derby, including a $1 superfecta on the first four finishers that paid $864,253.50, a North American record. Only seven winning tickets were sold.

A capacity field of 14 horses, including 10 from the Derby, was entered for the 1 3/16 -mile Preakness, shortest of the Triple Crown races. Post positions were determined by blind lot, with an order-of-selection process preceding the actual picking of the posts. By the time it was the Mosses’ turn to pick, only two spots remained -- Nos. 13 and 14. They huddled briefly with Shirreffs before taking 13, leaving the far outside to Going Wild, a Wayne Lukas-trained colt who has lost his last three races by 86 1/4 lengths.

“We would have preferred the three through the seven,” Shirreffs said. “We took the 13 because that way he won’t be the last horse to be loaded, and it should give him time to settle a little bit in the gate.”

Only two No. 12s have won the Preakness -- Kalitan in 1917 and Pleasant Colony in 1981 -- and since 1909, horses farther out have never won. This analysis is skewed somewhat in that, since the first Preakness in 1873, only 23 horses have broken from outside the 12-hole.

“The horse doesn’t know what post he has,” Jerry Moss said. “He’s going to be OK.”

Afleet Alex got No. 12, just inside the late-running Giacomo. High Fly has No. 2 and Closing Argument will break from the 7-hole.

“I’m hoping that the field will be strung out,” said Shirreffs, a Hollywood Park-based horseman who was a first-time trainer in the Derby and had never seen Pimlico until Wednesday. “Maybe there’ll be three groups of about four horses apiece. That way, we won’t be too wide. But if everybody jams up in front of us, we could wind up with a wide trip.”

Giacomo, who was among eight Preakness horses who arrived Wednesday on three flights from Louisville, left Churchill Downs just as officials and veterinarians there were dealing with an apparent outbreak of the equine herpes virus, which is an upper respiratory and neurological condition that is contagious and potentially fatal. Two horses have been euthanized and three barns have been quarantined, one of them belonging to Steve Asmussen, the second-leading trainer in purse money this year. One of the horses in Asmussen’s barn is Summerly, winner of the Kentucky Oaks the day before the Derby.

“Test results have not yet confirmed” herpes, said Robert Stout, a Kentucky state veterinarian. “But clinical signs and postmortems on the two horses indicate we are dealing with” herpes.

Shirreffs said it was fortunate that Giacomo was not stabled near the barns that have been targeted at Churchill.

“We were in an isolated barn,” he said. Wednesday “a vet told me that it was all right and it was safe to let [the Preakness horses] leave. There’s an incubation period [two to 10 days] and it’s a good thing we weren’t caught up in that.”

Another of the quarantined barns belongs to trainer Paul McGee. A brother-in-law of California trainer Ron Ellis, McGee has been caring for Don’t Get Mad since he finished fourth for Ellis in the Derby. Don’t Get Mad, who was not scheduled to run in the Preakness, will not run in the Belmont Stakes on June 11.

The weather forecast in Baltimore is calling for rain starting tonight and into Friday. But a clearing is expected, with no rain envisioned for the weekend. There should be a fast track Saturday, with mild temperatures reaching no higher than 70 degrees.

Glen Stute, who is supervising the Preakness preparations for Greeley’s Galaxy until his 83-year-old father, trainer Warren Stute, arrives from California, would welcome an off track. Greeley’s Galaxy, 11th in the Kentucky Derby after winning the Illinois Derby, broke his maiden earlier this year in the slop at Santa Anita.

“I don’t think [his father] wanted to run in the Preakness, but [owner B. Wayne Hughes] talked him into it,” Glen Stute said. “The horse didn’t break well in the Kentucky Derby. But if he breaks well Saturday, I think we’ll be tough. If you try approaching the horse, he’ll try to take a nip at you. I look at that as a good sign.”

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The field

The field for the 130th running of the Preakness at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore. The 1 3/16 -mile race will be run Saturday at 3:15 p.m. PDT (coverage begins at 2 p.m. on Ch. 4):

*--* PP HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER M/L ODDS 1. Malibu Moonshine S. Hamilton K. Leatherbury 20-1 2. High Fly J. Bailey N. Zito 9-2 3. Noble Causeway G. Stevens N. Zito 10-1 4. Greeley’s Galaxy D. Flores W. Stute 15-1 5. Scrappy T R. Dominguez R. Bailes 20-1 6. Hal’s Image J. Santos B. Rose 50-1 7. Closing Argument C. Velasquez K. McLaughlin 5-1 8. Galloping Grocer J. Bravo D. Schettino 30-1 9. Wilko C. Nakatani C. Dollase 10-1 10. Sun King R. Bejarano N. Zito 15-1 11. High Limit E. Prado R. Frankel 12-1 12. Afleet Alex J. Rose T. Ritchey 5-2 13. Giacomo M. Smith J. Shirreffs 6-1 14. Going Wild R. Albarado W. Lukas 30-1

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THE PREAKNESS

Second leg of Triple Crown

Saturday at Pimlico Three-year-olds, 1 3/16 miles

Time: 3:15 p.m. PDT (coverage begins at 2 p.m., Ch. 4)