BALTIMORE – As the field prepares to go to the post for today’s Preakness, the burning question at Pimlico is not who is going to win the race but how great a horse is the likely winner, Fusaichi Pegasus.
Is he an overblown, media-hyped five-race winner riding for a cropper or is he a Triple Crown jewel, the best horse to look through a bridle since the mighty Spectacular Bid?
If you’re not sure, you’re in good company. The two reigning giants of the American turf, trainers Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas, yesterday split sharply on their evaluation of the Kentucky Derby winner.
Baffert thinks Pegasus is the goods right now, no ifs or buts. Lukas, standing defiantly by his barn, said, “Show me. We concede nothing.”
No celebrity horse in recent years has triggered such a furious debate as the odds-on Preakness favorite. Many believe he is a potential heir-apparent to Secretariat; others will believe only when he does it all and they see it.
Baffert yesterday seemed mesmerized by Fupeg.
“I’ve never seen a horse like him,” he said. “He has so many gears and so much acceleration and he is so agile and athletic.”
At the same time, Baffert recognized that anything can happen in a horse race, that any runner can stub his toe, which is why he is running Captain Steve against Fupeg again after losing by 14 lengths to him in the Derby.
But no Derby winner in years has cast such an aura or generated so much electricity as Fusaichi Pegasus. He has not yet matched the feats of Silver Charm, Real Quiet or Charismatic, yet his reputation exceeds that of the other three combined. Somehow, he ignites excitement.
A $4 million purchase, royally bred, handsome to the eye, a winner on both coasts, Fupeg seems to be perceived as a horse of destiny.
“When he ran in the Wood Memorial, we were all hoping that he was not as good as we thought he was,” said Baffert. “But he was. In the Derby, every time [jockey] Kent Desormeaux moved on him, he would accelerate. He is so powerful and quick and athletic.
“He is a natural. I told Kent he was like a dirt bike. Every time you ask him for run, he goes vroom, vroom. This horse has never once had to get down and duke it out with anybody. He just goes by, which makes him so great.
“At the three-eighths pole in the Wood, I thought he had spit the bit. Then all of a sudden, he picked it up and took off. I thought, ‘Wow, what’s this? We need a bigger boat.'”
Even so, Baffert said he came to Pimlico with Captain Steve only because he believed the horse was competitive, saying, “He has trained great, he ran a terrific mile in the Kentucky Derby before he got hit into the ditch.”
Lukas, the biggest money-winning trainer in history, refused emphatically to call Pegasus anything more than a good Derby winner. Asked if he was ready to call him great, Lukas nearly threw a fit.
“Hell, no,” he yelled. “Are you kidding? No way! You guys [the media] are doing a great job, promoting a classic and what else can you promote? Certainly not [my horse] High Yield, who finished 15th in the Derby.
“You gotta go with the marquee horse. But standing where I am, we’re not going to concede anything. When the sun sets tomorrow, and if he has won the Preakness, then we’ll be further down the racetrack and we’ll feel a little more disposed to say that he is a special horse.
“When we get to Belmont, we’ll see.”
Lukas said flatly that it was the media’s hype rather than the horse’s deeds that were turning Fupeg into a wonder horse.
The trainer thinks there is also an undercurrent to Fupeg, a question in people’s minds whether he can do what he is supposed to do.
“Have you noticed that all the pictures in the papers of this horse don’t show him striding out like a great horse, but him turning over backwards,” said Lukas.
“I’m not sure the public feels as strongly about the horse, although they are led by the press’ opinion. He’s got a lot of ground to cover between now and the Belmont. I’m not saying he’s not good enough, but he has to prove it.”
Lukas remains high on High Yield’s chances today, insisting he is in even better shape than going into the Derby and the new track will see a new horse.
Lukas offered his Preakness trifecta of High Yield, Fupeg and Captain Steve.
“Baffert and I have the best chances to beat the favorite,” he said.
Fusaichi Pegasus’ trainer, Neil Drysdale, said he was always apprehensive before a race and the Preakness was no different.
“But I’m not concerned about the rain,” he said. “He ran on a wet track in the Wood Memorial, he has trained on off-tracks and his sire, Mr. Prospector, threw good mud horses,” said Drysdale.
As always, Drysdale refused to evaluate his horse.
“I don’t know if we have seen the best of him,” he said. “He’s only had six races.”