Preakness Day Wrap-up: Plenty of Blame & A Little Lucky

As the middle jewel of the Triple Crown is now in the books, the drought will continue as Super Saver could not capture the Preakness Stakes to keep alive his chances for the sport's first Triple Crown in 32 years. Lookin at Lucky finally got a clean trip, took advantage and willed his way to victory over a game First Dude, who set the pace, dropped back and came back on for 2nd.



Lucky was ridden for the 1st time by Martin Garcia, who won in his first Triple Crown race.

But this blog is going to pay a bit more attention to a race that happened about 4 hours earlier on the card. In the Grade 3 William Donald Schaefer, multiple graded stakes winner Blame made his 2010 debut. This blog is very high on this son of Arch, to the point that he is this blog's choice for who we think will be the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic winner, which will hopefully lead to him be chosen as the 2010 Horse of the Year. The Albert Stall trainee sat off a so-so pace, split horses at the top of the lane, and won going away under s stern handride by Garrett Gomez. He broke from post 6 in this field of 7, he is the #7.



With this stylish win, he is now being pointed to the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap on June 12th at Churchill Downs. Blame has already won at Churchill Downs in the past, most recently winning the Grade 2 Clark Handicap last thanksgiving weekend to close out his 3 year-old season. In this race he beat Grade 1 winners Einstein and Bullsbay (who he also defeated in the Schaefer), along with Misremembered, who this winter won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap. He is #5.



The sky is the limit for this homebred of his owners, Adele B Dilschneider & Claiborne Farm. Hopefully he will move forward in the Stephen Foster and be one step closer to the Breeders' Cup Classic, which this year is at Churchill Downs. If he continues on his winning way this year, Horse of the Year is not out of the question. This blog waits for the second Saturday in June with bated breath. Will you?