Friday, May 20, 2005 | 10:33 a.m.
In the Kentucky Derby it was SHOCK-OMO! For the Preakness Stakes it's GIACO-WHO?
On Saturday, Giacomo will put his Kentucky Derby victory on the line in the 130th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in an effort to justify his upset victory in the Run for the Roses two weeks ago.
Expert handicappers and industry prognosticators shook their heads after Giacomo stunned the racing world with a neck victory at odds of 50-1 in the Derby, the second-highest payoff in the history of America's most famous horse race. Adding to the disbelief Derby was second-place finisher Closing Argument, who closed as the longest price on the board at 71-1 odds.
Days after the race, those same pundits were rationalizing the topsy-turvy result. Legitimate excuses surfaced for the more logical Derby runners. Derby favorite Bellamy Road and heavily backed Bandini suffered injuries in the Derby. Wilko bled. High Limit was cut up. Noble Causeway got roughed up. Afleet Alex just couldn't get up.
Horsemen also shared the view of handicappers. No one, except the few who cashed boxcar payoffs and the connections of Giacomo, was ready to accept the unlikely Derby outcome.
As a result, the Preakness Stakes will have a full starting gate of runners who will try to prove the Derby was no more than an aberration. That Giacomo was just in the right place at the right time. That there will not be a Triple Crown winner this year, and that logic will lead to normalcy for the middle jewel of that coveted trophy.
That is the philosophy.
Half of the 20 horses who competed in the Kentucky Derby are back. The top three Derby finishers, Giacomo, Closing Argument and Afleet Alex, head up the 10 from Louisville. However, seven other Derby also-rans arrive in Baltimore ready to avenge their Derby debacle. High Fly (10th in the Derby) returns along with Noble Causeway (14th), Greeley's Galaxy (11th), Wilko (6th), Sun King (15th), High Limit (20th) and Going Wild (18th).
Of the horsemen, trainer Nick Zito has the most to turn around. Zito, who saddled five of the 20 in the Derby field, including Bellamy Road and Adromeda's Hero, who will not return for Round 2, runs Noble Causeway, High Fly and Sun King in an effort to reverse the Derby result. Zito relayed his thoughts in the Daily Racing Form when he said, "You can't take anything away from Giacomo."
Then he hesitated before completing his thought: "... Now we're going to take another shot at beating him."
It is almost a foregone conclusion that the Derby winner will race in the Preakness. After all, to this point, the Derby winner is the only one eligible to take the Triple Crown.
Not since 1985, when Spend A Buck bypassed the Preakness for the Jersey Derby, has a Derby winner passed on the Preakness chance.
Giacomo must fill some pretty big recent Triple Crown expectations in Saturday's renewal. Since 1997, only Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000 and Monarchos in 2001 failed to win the Preakness Stakes off their Derby win.
Derby participants, however, have a solid Preakness Stakes success rate to turn the tables on the Derby winner. And that is exactly what nine Derby runners will try to do this year.
Four new shooters round out the field for the 1 3/16-mile $1 million Grade I jewel. They are Malibu Moonshine, Scrappy T, Galloping Grocer and Hal's Image. Of those, Malibu Moonshine carries the local banner, having won the Federico Tesio Stakes -- a local Preakness prep -- in his last outing.
His trainer, King Leatherbury, has won more titles in Maryland than any other conditioner. The last horse to pass the Derby and win the Preakness was Deputed Testamony in 1983.
Reflecting the sentiments of horsemen and handicappers, Pimlico linemaker Frank Carulli has installed Derby winner Giacomo as the fourth choice on the starting line at 6-1 odds. The morning line favorite is Afleet Alex at 5-2, Florida Derby winner High Fly sits at 9-2 while Derby runner-up Closing Argument is the third choice at 5-1.
While Giacomo has nothing more to prove to his loyal -- and now rich -- backers, history shows that Charismatic, who won the 1999 Kentucky Derby at 31-1 odds, returned to win the Preakness Stakes at odds of 8-1. His Triple Crown hope was dashed when he broke down in the Belmont Stakes.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who engineered the upset run with Charismatic, is quick to dismiss the comparisons of his Derby-Preakness victor and Giacomo. Lukas believes it was easier to see the upside with Charismatic in 1999 because that runner came into the Derby off a victory in the Lexington Stakes. Giacomo, he reminds, was a winner of only a maiden race before his Derby score. Lukas saddles Going Wild in the Preakness, a horse who has lost his past four races by a combined 88 lengths since an early February stakes victory. An upside here is hard to find.
So, while trainer John Shirreffs, who won the Derby on his first try, prepares his Derby winner for the Preakness justification run, Giacomo seems to be enjoying all the attention. The gray son of Holy Bull has gone through his morning paces since the Derby with unusual ease, leading many to ease their assessment of the Derby itself.
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