Preakness Betting: Paddy O’Prado Should Dominate The Dixie

Added on May 20, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

Horse Racing

The 136th running of the Preakness Stakes will be the ‘main event’ at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday, but prior to the second leg of the ‘Triple Crown’ there will be a full day of racing activity. The 11th race on the card–and immediately preceding the Preakness–will be the $200,000 Grade 2 Dixie Stakes. The big storyline in the Dixie is the 4 year old debut of last year’s Eclipse Finalist for best three year old, Paddy O’Prado.

Paddy O’ Prado demonstrated a great deal of versatility in this three year old campaign, posting strong efforts on three different surfaces. He showed a decided prowess on turf courses and won four graded turf events including the Grade 1 Secretariat at Arlington Park. In addition he finished third in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in the Breeder’s Cup Classic. The original plan was to enter him in the Woodford Reserve at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby day but a minor physical setback caused his four year old debut to be pushed back. Trainer Dale Romans said it was nothing serious:

“Nothing major, he was a little body sore, a little stiff when we first started and had to back off on him to give him a little time to come out of it. When he did, he’s moved forward every day.”

The Dixie Stakes is made to order for Paddy O’ Prado to put on a show. He’s one of only two graded stakes winners entered in the race with the other–Grand Rapport–expected to scratch in favor of a Sunday race at Belmont Park. Another entrant, Eighttofasttocatch, will only race in the event if it comes off the turf due to the weather. There are some questions about how well Paddy O’ Prado will run after a six month layoff but Romans is optimistic:

“If he comes back to the way he was running last year, he’s going to be tough to beat.”

The trainer also admitted that he’d prefer the turf to be a little more firm than expected with a lot of rain in the Baltimore area this week:

“I would rather have it a little firm, but he’s run well on good ground.”

The hope is that a strong performance by Paddy O’Prado will set him up for more lucrative races down the road including the $500,0000 Colonial Turf Cup at Colonial Downs on June 18 and the Arlington Million on August 13.