How weather may impact the 150th Preakness Stakes this weekend

AccuWeather

Preakness Stakes track announcer Ron Nicoletti joins AccuWeather to talk about preparations and story lines for the upcoming race this weekend as well as slippery track conditions due to recent rain.

Transcript

00:00Ron, thanks so much for joining us here. Let's start with the field. What can fans expect this

00:06year in terms of competition and storylines? Well, we have some great storylines. We have

00:13the second place, a finisher in the Kentucky Derby with the journalism and a couple of new

00:18shooters. A very, very wide open field. We like that. There's no standout that's going to be a

00:23one to nine shot in there. So lots of different ways you can go. And of course, we got a Sandman

00:28who was also in the Kentucky Derby coming and trying to bounce back on, you know, at this

00:33track. So it's going to be a very exciting race. And how does not having the Kentucky Derby

00:38winner impact the race itself? Well, you know, it definitely impacts because everybody, you

00:44know, with the triple crown is something special in racing. But, you know, that's the beauty

00:49of Preakness when all the hoopla from the Derby ends, you still have great stories here. Of

00:55course, you want the number one story. But, you know, you got the second place finisher.

00:59You have horses that had trouble in the Kentucky Derby. Maybe they can bounce back. So I'm walking

01:06around for the last couple of days, despite the raining around. And, you know, just smiles

01:10on everybody's face. So I sort of think it's, you know, it's not the best, but pretty darn good.

01:18Well, it's been so wet, as you mentioned. What are track conditions like? And how is the surface

01:22getting prepared this week? Well, it looks like it's going to be sloppy. Today, there's

01:27no rain. So we're hoping it holds off. We're going to start today with a wet track. And,

01:31you know, they seal it and try and protect it best they can. You know, the big important

01:36thing that everybody loves in horse racing is the grass racing on the turf. And, you know,

01:41that has to be dry because it can be slippery if it's not dried out. So we've got our fingers

01:45crossed that if it stays like this today and we can get in tomorrow on the weekend, we can

01:49have some great racing. Just got to hope that. And that's your guys' job, what they

01:54want to tell us if we're going to get soaked or not.

01:57In your opinion, how do the horses react to different track conditions, at least what you've

02:03seen over the years?

02:04Well, you know, it always goes to you when you're handicapping, you try and look at,

02:09you know, how the horses are bred. You know, their families like, you know, that they're

02:14progeny. Do they like the mud? And you got to sort of figure that out. And of course,

02:17they've had races in the mud. And you know, the old joke that's been going around the

02:22racetrack for years, you know, if your father was a mother and your mother was a mother,

02:25you're probably a mother. I mean, you're like, you're like the race. So you try and figure

02:29out the best. And the horses that have run on it sort of gives you a sort of an indication

02:35that they'll be able to handle it. Some being three-year-olds, they're like teenagers in the

02:40Preakness. Some of them have never been on a wet track. So you sort of have to guess how

02:45they're going to handle it. Any specific horses, trainers or jockeys we should be watching closely

02:51this weekend? Well, I got an interesting horse in there. The horse that I'm going to pick,

02:55besides journalism, is a horse called River Thames that, you know, I watched run at Goldstein

03:00Park. That's where I'm stationed until I come up here for the Preakness. And I just think this

03:05horse is sitting on a good performance. And who's the trainer? Todd Fletcher, Hall of Famer.

03:10Who's the Rider Jungle? Irad Ortiz, the number one jockey in the country. So I'm taking a little

03:16bit of a shot with that horse. Breeding suggests you can handle a wet track. And when you have a

03:20wet track, you want to have horses that have some speed. Because you can imagine if you're in the

03:25back of the pack and you're running with that mud coming up in your face, it's horses. Some of them

03:30like it, some of them don't. So you like to have a horse that maybe can be in that first flight,

03:34doesn't get too much mud in its face. So that's where the money track. We got a fast track.

03:38I like the horse even better. All right. Track announcer Ron Nicoletti. Thanks again for

03:45joining us on AccuWeather Early. We're ready for the surprises. He's got me all excited about this.

03:50Thanks, guys. Pleasure. All right. Thank you. Hey, weather looks a-okay. It's going to rain

03:56Friday night into Saturday morning. It'll be gone by the track by the time the race. So you're looking

04:02good, sir. That's the best news I heard all day.

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