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Dullahan, who rallied very wide into the stretch to finish third in the Kentucky Derby, will skip next Saturday’s 137th Preakness to await the Belmont Stakes on June 9.
“[Trainer] Dale Romans loves the way Dullahan came out of the Kentucky Derby and believes we could win the Preakness,” said Jerry Crawford, manager of the Donegal Racing partnership that owns the big colt. “But we believe we have a 3-year-old Horse of the Year candidate, and that his future is best served by not asking him to race for the third time in just five weeks.”
Owner Phyllis Wyeth and trainer Michael Matz made the same decision with Union Rags, seventh as the Derby’s 5-1 second choice.
“There’s a long season to go yet,” Matz said. “No sense in bursting our bubble in two weeks.”
The day after the Derby, Dr. Kendall Hansen, whose Hansen the horse tired to finish ninth in the Derby after chasing Bodemeister’s early pace, indicated the 2-year-old champion was a definite Preakness starter.
But now, he is straddling the fence.
“There are a lot of variables involved, but it will probably be a last-minute decision next Monday or Tuesday,” Dr. Hansen said yesterday. “Mike [Maker, his trainer] wants to see how he is doing and look at who is going to be in the field and so forth. It is a tough call. We want him to be the 3-year-old champion, but to do that, he has to win one of the classics.
“The 1 3/16th miles [of the Preakness] may be a bit out of his best distance. I think he is best between seven and nine furlongs, but he can go more than nine if he is calm and relaxed like he was in the Gotham.”
Bodemeister appears to be a likely starter.
“So far everything is looking positive,” trainer Bob Baffert e-mailed The Post from California. “Seems like he came out of the race really well. Like real well. I will be there to see him train Monday.”
Wood Memorial winner Gemologist, who suffered his first defeat when he stopped badly to finish 16th in the Derby, suffered a bruised left foot in the race and is sidelined for the foreseeable future, WinStar Farm’s president Elliott Walden told Daily Racing Form.