ESPN.com - Triple Crown 2000 - Barn notes: Securing a champion

Barn notes: Securing a champion
By Mike Diegnan
ABC Sports Online

BALTIMORE -- As Fusaichi Pegasus was wrapping up his practice on Friday morning, a helicopter hovered above Pimlico. Was it one more member of Neil Drysdale's security staff?

Who knows, but Barn 7 has been a tough place to get around. Security personnel escort media members, which numbered roughly 50 on Friday morning at 6 a.m., to the backstretch barn, where they must stand around barriers not interfering with the horse and barn. At the Preakness barns, where the other seven horses are stabled, tours and the media gather around the trainers and the horses throughout the day.


	Fusaichi Pegasus trainer Neil Drysdale is mobbed by reporters the Friday before the Preakness Stakes.

Drysdale seemed sincere when he denied responsibility for his security force. Then again, he also had no qualms about the added protection his $4 million colt is receiving.

"I did not ask for those barriers," Drysdale said. "I did not specify for that. But I didn't resist it."

Two-time Preakness winner Bob Baffert shines in the attention he receives during the Triple Crown, and the Silver Fox understood the extra benefits Fusaichi Pegasus is receiving.

"I would love to be by myself," said Captain Steve's trainer. "[Drysdale] is doing the right thing. If you look around here, everybody can walk by your barn or do anything. He has an obligation to his owner, to himself and everyone involved. He has this great horse, he has to be careful. Look at all these people.

"Trainers are under a lot of pressure all the time, so you have to be very careful. There is no way -- especially right here today and even on race day -- there are horses running a lot of races, there's a lot of commotion, there's a lot of action. He will probably be the best-rested horse."

When he's on the track, Fusaichi Pegasus is a big enough attraction. On Friday morning, he went around the track three times, although he did stop a few times and kicked once.

Drysdale has trained many wild horses before. Among his previous incidents, Labeeb dropped a rider in the middle of a race, while Rahy needed a horse to gallop with it at all times. But the English-born trainer is becoming accustomed to the eccentric horse.

"After every race goes by, he's becoming more serious," Drysdale said. "I'm concerned about the horse. I want everything to go well. I want things to go like clockwork."

Drysdale is excited about the opportunity Pegasus is facing: becoming the 12th Triple Crown champion.

"The horse deserves to be given the chance," Drysdale said. "Going into this when you map this out, you are doing it with the realization that if you run well at Kentucky, you will be coming here. That's a given. It's a tremendous challenge, that's why it's so difficult to win it."

Stormy weather
Just as it almost played a factor in the Derby, rain could affect Saturday's race. Rain was coming down heavily around noon on Friday afternoon. Saturday's forecast called for mostly cloudy skies with a chance of showers in the mid- to upper-60s.

"An off-track would change a lot of strategy," said Baffert, whose Captain Steve won the Breeders' Futurity in the slop last year.

The possibility of rain has forced many to think about what this weekend holds for the eight horses.

"Nobody really knows," said High Yield trainer D. Wayne Lukas. "I don't think, in looking at the PPs, that many of the horses have mud marks or we really know how they would respond. Again, mud is mud, but there are all different kinds of surfaces. And the Pimlico surface may be entirely different than a Churchill Downs or Keeneland surface. You just never know. But it will change the race definitely.

"Usually the glib horses that can get in the race and get over it and are a little bit more athletic are going to do better than the closers."

Fusaichi Pegasus' father, Mr. Prospector, was a bad track winner. And in the Wood Memorial, poor conditions did not hinder FuPeg's four and one-half lengths victory.

If rain does become a factor, the horse that could be most affected is Impeachment, a horse that comes from the back before closing.

"I think it would be unrealistic to say we are going to win, but I think it would be unrealistic to say that we don't have a chance," admitted a candid trainer Todd Pletcher without debating a possible storm.

Living it up
Marty Jones is living every 20-something male's dream. He's been to the Playboy Mansion twice, for a lingerie party and last year's Halloween bash.

"It's incredible. Better than you can imagine," Jones smiles.

The 28-year-old has been to Hugh Hefner's home twice for parties. But he has not been back since the magazine czar's namesake placed poorly in the Breeder's Cup last November.

Would a Preakness victory equal another visit to the Mansion?

"I hope so," Marty said. "That's enough incentive right there."

Hugh Hefner's trainer took over for his father, Gary Jones, when Gary retired from training in 1996. Gary's Triple Crown experience included a fifth place finish by Fali Time in 1984. Fali Time also won the Hollywood Maturity championship that year. Marty will not have his father checking up over him this weekend.

"I'm just real happy with how the horse is doing," Marty said. "Hopefully he will run his best race and we will find out how good he is."

Hal's Hope(s) for something more
After finishing a disappointing 16th in the Kentucky Derby, Harold Rose tried a new approach with Hal's Hope. On Friday morning, the colt jogged around the track.

"Usually, we walk him two days before the race," said jockey Roger Velez. "But this time around, the race is close so we haven't done much with him. We took him out to keep the same kind of routine for him."

The Preakness will be his third race in five weeks.

"Going into the Derby, he was doing great," Velez said. "It was one of those things where I got caught in a speed duel and that took its toll. When you go that fast, there is no way you are going to continue that pace for a mile and a quarter. We backed off him and that's the best thing we probably did. Allow him to get his energy back."

They said it
Lukas on Fusaichi Pegasus' name: "I can't believe the racing gods let a name like that go on the hallowed walls at Churchill Downs."

Lukas on everyone handing the Preakness to Pegasus: "From where I am standing, we can't run for second. That's foolishness."

Baffert on the best excuse he ever gave an owner why a horse did not do well: "The horse didn't run at all, he was going nowhere. So I tell him, 'The horse was having trouble getting a hold of the track. It was too chewed up by the time he got there.'"