Preakness Pace
 

Does anyone think that Smith made a mistake and went too slow early on Bodemeister? No one appeared to be going with him so if he goes faster earlier and builds a bigger lead and then relaxes he puts the pressure on others to decide when to go or burns them up if they try and stay closer to the pace...

If he went faster, its probable he wouldn't have been able to finish as strongly to the end. He's a really good one, the other is just better.

Smith put that horse in position to win and he looked like the winner at the 1/16th pole. IHA ran another great race and got another exceptional ride by Gutierrez. Hats off to both of their connections.

Selfishly, I'm hoping that they cross paths again at the Jersey Shore in a couple of months.

There's nothing more Smith could have done. He had it all his way up front without pressure, finished strongly but got beat. Without IHA in the race Bode wins by nine like the Arkansas Derby.

Mike Smith has made all the right moves on Bodemeister. He simply got beat by a superior horse going beyond 9 furlongs.

He seemed genuinely baffled that he got caught as if he still wasn't sure it'd actually happened. The interview afterward he had this expression on his face like someone had said 'Hey Mike, did you know aliens landed during the middle of the Preakness? Yeah right in the infield on top of all the drunks. You didn't see that?' In fairness to Mike, when you're 9 lengths ahead of the rest of the field after the way he rode the race, I'd be confused to see someone show up and beat me too. Speaks volumes about the quality of both colts.

He lost by a head.... and they were 9+ lengths clear of the 3 wise guy horses.

:$:

I agree with both of you. Bodemeister gave his best in both races and Smith gave Bode every opportunity to win both. He just got beat by a slightly faster horse both times who has had two terrific rides.

I've seen that expression on his face before. He didn't know what happened, and needed to BLAME...ah, nevermind.