Bob Baffert’s horse Rodriguez will miss his second straight Triple Crown race this season as the 3-year-old colt has been scratched from the Preakness Stakes scheduled at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., for May 17.
Rodriguez missed the Kentucky Derby with a foot issue, and Baffert now plans to run the horse at Belmont Stakes next month in New York.
“He’ll be perfect for the Belmont,” Baffert told Daily Racing Form. “I couldn’t prep him like I wanted to (for the Preakness). Once he had the foot issue, you got to let those things simmer down. I didn’t have enough time.”
Only two horses that raced in the Kentucky Derby are listed as Preakness participants: Journalism, which took second, and American Promise, which finished 16th. Derby winner Sovereignty will skip the Preakness to train for the Belmont.
Baffert holds the record for most Preakness wins as a trainer with eight. He will have one horse running in the Preakness, Goal Oriented, who also did not run in the Kentucky Derby.
Prior to Rodriguez’s scratch, he held the second-best odds to win the Preakness at 3-1, followed by Goal Oriented at 5-1.
–Field Level Media
