Word: passing
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Instead, I'll call the Preakness for Forward Pass, the Derby favorite who got his shot at the Triple Crown by the back door of the stewards' office. There are two reasons for such iconoclasm; one has to do with racing and the other with racing luck...
...Forward Pass is a front runner, a horse who goes for the lead right away, tiring himself by fighting for it if he has to or staying in front all the way if he does not. The more early speed there is in a race, the better it is for the come-from-behind horses like Dancer's Image who save ground and energy by running far back along the rail until they start to race in earnest for home. For pace handicapping, the Derby field was a textbook case. Forward Pass fought all the way with two speed demons...
Neither of those pace-setters will be in the Preakness tomorrow, and Forward Pass should be virtually unchallenged in the early running. The Preakness is the shortest of the Triple Crown events, and Dancer's Image will have a half-furlong less in which to make his move. His trainer knows that, of course, and perhaps for that reason sent the horse on an unusually short and speedy workout Tuesday. But strongly in Forward Pass favor is the surprisingly mediocre quality of the rest of the Preakness field, which includes several outrageous longshots and little apparent speed to take...
France's Hat-likely to be closest to Forward Pass and Dancer's Image, is a strong late-runner who has started running too late this year to yet win a single race. He was third in the Derby. Iron Ruler, who on occasion has early speed, ran so dismally in the Derby that he would have to be discounted even if he had not already lost several other races to Forward Pass and Dancer's Image. Sir Beau, Out of the Way, and Dancer's Image's half-brother Jig Time are all late-runners who have...
...second factor in Forward Pass' favor, racing luck--every horse needs it. In the Derby, simply, Dancer's Image had it and Forward Pass did not. The two drew post position twelve and thirteen in the fourteen-horse field, and the handicap of an outside post is much greater to a speed horse, who will fight for the lead around the first turn, than to a horse like Dancer's Image who will be dropped back along the rail regardless of position. Forward Pass' connections calculate that the post position cost him two lengths. He lost by a length...