2008 Preakness Stakes: Harlem Rocker will not race on Saturday

2008 Preakness Stakes: Harlem Rocker will not race on Saturday The Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown has been left without serious competition for the 2008 Preakness Stakes, after it was announced that Harlem Rocker will also skip the race on Saturday. Following the exit of Recapturetheglory due to high fever, Harlem Rocker was the only serious competition left for Big Brown - at the online bookmaker BodogSports Big Brown is 3/10 to win the 2008 Preakness Stakes, while Harlem Rocker was listed with odds 11/2. But after Harlem Rocker was declared out, the only horse left to challenge the Kentucky Derby winner at Pimlico Racecourse is Behindatthebar with the double digit odds of 12/1. Harlem Rocker's trainer Todd Pletcher said that the 3-year-old will skip both the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes in order to focus on the $1 million Queen's Plate on June 22nd.

"He [owner Frank Stronach] felt he wanted to take a more conservative approach. The horse is doing well and he worked perfectly, but we had a plan to begin with and we decided to stick to it," Todd Pletcher explained. "I wasn't worried about him actually beating us. I was concerned about him making our horse run harder than we wanted. This gives us a chance to have an easy race for our horse," Big Brown's trainer Richard Dutrow commented on the withdrawal of Harlem Rocker. Trainer Todd Pletcher, however, will still be represented at the 2008 Preakness Stakes by second favorite Behindatthebar.

Published on 05/12/2008