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Street Sense to face eight in Preakness Stakes

Horseracing Betting Lines

05/16/2007 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense is the 7-5 morning line favorite for Saturday's $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. The 1 3/16 mile race is the middle jewel of racing's Triple Crown.

Street Sense, who will be ridden again by Calvin Borel, will take on eight challengers, including Kentucky Derby second place finisher Hard Spun. Also returning from the Run for the Roses is the show horse Curlin.

Owned by James Tafel, Street Sense has career earnings of more than $2.95 million with four wins in eight lifetime starts. The colt became the first winner of the Breeders's Cup Juvenile to capture the following year's Kentucky Derby.

Street Sense will start from post 8 in the nine horse field for veteran trainer Carl Nafzger. Nafzger is going after his first Preakness victory two weeks after laying claim to his second Run for the Roses.

After he sent out Unbridled to win the 1990 Kentucky Derby, Nafzger saw his horse finish second to Summer Squall in the Preakness. A win in the Preakness Stakes would put Street Sense one win away from becoming the 12th Triple Crown champ and the first since Affirmed in 1978.

"Now the pressure is on me," joked Nafzger.

Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun is 5-2 in the program and will break from just to the inside of Street Sense in post 7 with Mario Pino back in the saddle. Hard Spun set the pace two weeks ago only to give up the lead to Street Sense with a furlong to run.

A winner of five of seven starts, Hard Spun is owned by Rick Porter and trained by Larry Jones. The bay colt has earned $873,470 with wins this year in the Lane's End and Lecomte Stakes.

"I know I've got a great horse and Street Sense is a great horse," Pino said. "That's going to give me a lot of confidence. Now Calvin's coming to my country. He beat me at Churchill and he knows that track and you can see the way he moved in the Derby he knew every nick and cranny of that rail. He had to have a lot of confidence. I can ride Pimlico with confidence. I know every nick and cranny at Pimlico. I know how the turns are. I know sharp they are and when to drop in. At Churchill I was kind of a little skeptical. At Pimlico it's going to give me a slight edge. It's always good to get a trip around the track and I have many, many trips around Pimlico. If I can bring that into how I ride Hard Spun and I can bring out a winner that would be a plus."

Just last Sunday Pino moved into 15th on the all-time career win list for jockeys by notching career win 5,894 at Delaware Park. Hall of Famer Johnny Longden is 14th on the list with 6,032 wins.

Arkansas Derby winner Curlin is back after finishing a distant third in the Kentucky Derby. The chestnut colt is 7-2 in the morning line and will be ridden by Robby Albarado from post 4.

Curlin is owned by Stonestreet Stables, Padua Stables, George Bolton, and Midnight Cry Stables. Trained by Steve Asmussen, the Kentucky Derby morning line favorite has won three of four starts for just over $1 million. He did not race as a two-year-old, but won his first three starts by more than 28 lengths.

"The Derby is an experience like no other," said Asmussen. "Not only do you have to be good enough, you have to be very fortunate. I think the race Street Sense ran was worthy of a Derby victory and the race Hard Spun ran was worthy of being second. When you look at the race after the fact you beat seventeen of the best three-year-olds in the country at one time. We just didn't beat the other two."

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who had five runners in the Kentucky Derby, has two colts set to go on Saturday, Louisiana Derby winner Circular Quay and Santa Anita Derby runner-up King of the Roxy.

Circular Quay was sixth at Churchill Downs coming from 19th early in the race. The chestnut colt, 8-1 in the morning line, will be ridden by John Velazquez from post 3.

"After the Derby I didn't really plan to run him back in two weeks, but it's been 10 days now and he's been training well," Pletcher said. "I think this race sets up for him. Theres a lot of speed."

Circular Quay is owned by Michael and Doreen Tabor, and earned better than $1.14 million with four wins in eight starts. The three-year-old was second to Street Sense in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile as the 3-1 favorite.

Coming off a six week layoff is King of the Roxy, who lost the Santa Anita Derby by a half-length to Tiago. He will break from post 5 with John Velazquez riding. The winner of the Hutcheson Stakes earlier this year is 12-1 in the program.

Owned by Team Valor, King of the Roxy has earned $466,600 with three wins in seven lifetime starts.

The well-traveled Xchanger will try to make it two straight wins at Pimlico. Owned by Circle Z Stables, Xchanger won the Federico Tesio Stakes last month here and has been made 15-1 in the morning line.

Xchanger will be ridden by Ramon Dominguez from the 2 post. The colt is trained by Mark Shuman and has already faced Hard Spun and Curlin this year. He was fifth in the Southwest Stakes, at Oaklawn Park, when Hard Spun finished fourth and followed with a seventh in the Rebel Stakes which was won by Curlin. He has won three of eight career starts for $291.990.

Rounding out the field for the 132nd Preakness are Mint Slewlep, Derby Trial champ Flying First Class and C P West who was second in the Withers Stakes. All nine starters will carry 126 pounds.

Here is the complete Preakness Stakes field: Mint Slewlep 30-1 Alan Garcia, Xchanger 15-1 Ramon Dominguez, Circular Quay 8-1 John Velazquez, Curlin 7-2 Robby Albarado, King of the Roxy 12-1 Garrett Gomez, Flying First Class 20-1 Mark Guidry, Hard Spun 5-2 Mario Pino, Street Sense 7-5 Calvin Borel and C P West 20-1 Edgar Prado.

The weather forecast for Saturday in Baltimore calls for a 40% chance of rain showers with a post-time temperature of 70.

The Preakness will be televised on NBC with the race going off at 6:15 p.m. (et).

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