Preakness 2013 Preview Underway: Eight Horses Aims To Take Down Orb

Our Preakness 2013 preview is underway and eight horses are eyeing the prize, ready to defeat Kentucky Derby winner Orb from the race. Orb attempts to become the first thoroughbred in 35 years to capture the Triple Crown, which consists of victories in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes. It is the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Mayland.

Nine horses will go to the post at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore shortly after 6 p.m. Eastern time for the mile and 3/16 race. Orb will have the No. 1 post position along the track’s inside rail as trainer Shug McGaughey attempts to win his first Preakness, though he wouldn’t have selected that spot to begin with.

"Obviously, if I was going to pick it out, I wouldn’t have picked the ‘1.’ But with only nine horses in there to run a mile and three-sixteenths, with a rider like Joel (Rosario), he needs to find out on his own what to do. He’ll have him in the right spot," McGaughey told reporters after Wednesday's post position draw.

Veteran trainer and five-time Preakness winner D. Wayne Lukas will have three horses in the race this Saturday. Oxbow, who finished sixth in the Derby, and Will Take Charge, who finished eight, will start from the sixth and seventh post positions, respectively. Lukas’s third horse is Titletown Five, who will run out of the No. 3 post position in the race. Titletown is owned by NFL Hall of Famer Paul Hornung and Willie Davis.

“I was satisfied all the way around with my three horses, especially Oxbow. It’s a small field with a good run to the turn. I don’t think it’s very significant, except maybe for Orb. Oxbow for a change got a decent position, so that’s going to help there. I like what’s happened there very much,” Lukas said after the post position draw.

Another five-time winner, trainer Bob Baffert is in the field with Governor Charlie, who will begin from the eight post. Governor Charlie was in the mix to run in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, but suffered an injury and was not entered in the race.

Baffert says his horses is healthy now and ready to compete over the mile and three-sixteenths distance laid out at Preakness. "It’s a different group of horses he’s running with and it’s a classic, but he’s bred to run that far," he told the New York Daily News.
Other Kentucky Derby horses that are in the Preakness include Mylute and Goldencents. This weekend’s Preakness Stakes will be broadcasted live on NBC.