2007 Preakness – Friday Update

Friday’s update and an additional odds line from Mike Watchmaker. You’ll find the order and the odds at the bottom of this article.

• Street Sense at 7-2 is the top favorite. “I feel like the king of the mountain,” Carl Nafzger, the trainer of Derby winner Street Sense, said outside the stakes barn at Pimlico Race Course the other morning. “It’s good to be the king. I hope I still am after Saturday,”

• Hard Spun set the pace in the Derby and will be a dangerous threat in the Preakness. He will be ridden by Mario Pino, the winningest jockey of all-time at Pimlico.

• Curlin has only three starts and had never raced as a two-year-old. Even though he took his first loss at the Derby, he still finished third beating 17 other horses.

• Flying First Class and Xchanger are trying to go the Bernardini route by bypassing the Derby and winning the Preakness.

• D. Wayne Lukas has won the Preakness five times and the rest of the eight trainers combined have one it only once.

• None of the jockeys riding in the Preakness this weekend has ever won it. Four have never ridden at the Preakness and the other five are 0 for 24.

Preakness Stakes 132 Field

Odds by Fran Carulli: Pimlico Linemaker
1 Mint Slewlep 30-1
2 Xchanger 15-1
3 Circular Quay 8-1
4 Curlin 7-2
5 King of the Roxy 12-1
6 Flying First Class 20-1
7 Hard Spun 5-2
8 Street Sense 7-5
9 CP West 20-1

Odds by Mike Watchmaker: Daily Racing Form National Handicapper
1 Mint Slewlep 50-1
2 Xchanger 30-1
3 Circular Quay 6-1
4 Curlin 4-1
5 King of the Roxy 8-1
6 Flying First Class 20-1
7 Hard Spun 7-2
8 Street Sense 7-5
9 CP West 15-1