Columnist Ralph Siraco: War Emblem ready to take the next step

Ralph Siraco

Monday, May 13, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

Ralph Siraco's horse racing column appears Monday and his Southern California selections run Tuesday-Sunday.

Now that the 128th Kentucky Derby has been analyzed, broken down, replayed and reworked to justify the victory by winner War Emblem, the focus switches to Baltimore for the Preakness Stakes.

The Preakness Stakes is, of course, the middle jewel in the American Triple Crown, awarded only to the sophomore who can sweep a grueling trio of races spanning just five weeks.

Naturally, only the Kentucky Derby winner is eligible for the prize, if he can pull off the next two races that culminates with the June 8 Belmont Stakes in New York.

As you recall, War Emblem took the Derby field gate-to-wire and dictated the pace while comfortably holding his closest pursuers at bay.

And, as you may also recall, the stunning victory by War Emblem put his charismatic conditioner Bob Baffert right back in the center of another Triple Crown run.

Baffert, who got War Emblem less than a month before taking the roses, has been down this road before.

In 1997, the silver-haired trainer brought Silver Charm to Pimlico and took the Preakness only to fall less than a length short of the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes. The following year, he returned to the crabcake capital and set up another Triple Crown attempt when Real Quiet outran Victory Gallop at Old Hilltop. But the third time was the charm for Victory Gallop as he hung a short nose on Real Quiet to thwart a a potential 12th Triple Crown champion.

So, you would forgive Baffert for being a little gun-shy when it comes to a War Emblem Triple Crown prediction. Nevertheless, he seems optimistic and downright confident in his chances again.

Somewhere in the euphoria of the moment, Baffert was said to have compared War Emblem to his other famous equine pupils of the past and puts his newest Derby winner at the top of the list that includes his two Derby winners, a Dubai World Cup victor in Captain Steve and a few other "nice horses" he has had under his care. Not to mention last year's Horse Of The Year Point Given.

But there is no shortage of challengers for War Emblem in Baltimore. The capacity field for the spring classic is 14.

Back to take another run at the Derby winner from the Louisville field are runner-up Proud Citizen, seventh placed Harlan's Holiday and Medaglia d'Oro, who finished a troubled fourth.

More than half of the Preakness field will be new shooters. Perhaps most impressive of those is the quick Booklet. Passing on the Derby, Booklet took a pair of stakes races at Gulfstream Park this winter by blazing the trail in gate-to-wire fashion. In beating eventual Florida Derby winner Harlan's Holiday twice in those events, Booklet gained a reputation as a one-dimensional runner -- in front for as long as he can go.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas says he is not about to change the style of his entrant Proud Citizen at this stage of the game. Before he finished second in the Derby, the son of Gone West secured entry into the Churchill cavalry charge by taking the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland in a gate-to-wire effort.

In addition, it should be noted that Medaglia d'Oro got off to a bad start in the Derby and rallied to finish fourth. Many believed that if jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. had a clean break, the Bobby Frankel trainee would have been a dangerous forward factor in what turned out to be the Derby procession. Jerry Bailey will ride the pace-attending runner in the Preakness.

Baffert can only keep his Derby winner at top shape and happy. Whatever transpires after the starting gate dispatches the Preakness field on Saturday will be left to how the race develops.