By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Evidently, Barbaro's victory in the Kentucky Derby wasn't that scary after all. Two more horses entered the Preakness Stakes mix yesterday as trainer George Weaver committed Greeley's Legacy to run and trainer Joe Lostritto shipped his likely long shot Platinum Couple down from New York.

"My son said to me, 'If George Mason can do it, why can't we?' " said Glenn Lostritto, son of the trainer, referring to the unlikely run the Fairfax school made in the NCAA basketball tournament. "He's fresh. He's doing well. We breed a lot of our own horses, a lot of New York bred. You don't get a chance like this very often."

Platinum Couple finished fifth behind winner Bob and John in the Wood Memorial on a sloppy track April 8 at Aqueduct.

Greeley's Legacy worked five furlongs in 58.69 seconds on Monday at Belmont Park. Weaver, once an assistant to leading trainer Todd Pletcher, said the horse's fourth-place finish in the Gotham Stakes in March gives him hope for the Preakness. In that race, he finished a close-up fourth behind winner Like Now, who will run in the Preakness, Keyed Entry and Sweetnorthernsaint.

"I think he has the ability to compete," Weaver said. "If I can get back to his Gotham race, I think we can be right in the thick of things. That's what it boils down to. I think he fits, the timing is right and the horse is right."

The Pimlico Special is one of the most storied races in the country. The 1938 running, in which Seabiscuit defeated War Admiral, was called the race of the century by Sports Illustrated in 1999. The race has been won by Triple Crown winners Whirlaway, Assault and Citation.

After a 30-year hiatus, it was revived in 1988 and immediately reclaimed its place as an important event on the racing calendar and helped secure horse of the year honors for winners Cigar and Skip Away.

This year, however, the $500,000 Grade I race has attracted a field of handicap horses for Friday's running who have yet to prove their mettle. If 2003 Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide defects from the field of six, as expected, the only Grade I winners in the field will be Invasor and We Can Seek, both of whom accomplished the feat at South American tracks.

"I was very happy with what we got considering how tough it was to get nominations for the race," said Pimlico stakes coordinator Wendy Pensivy.

The field is longer on potential than proven top-shelf performance. The regally bred Harlington, trained by Pletcher, has won five of six starts and might turn into a star. Wanderin Boy, a 5-year-old in the barn of Nick Zito, also looks like a late bloomer. He led from start to finish in a graded stakes race at Keeneland last month and won by 5 1/4 lengths.

"These horses that haven't won Grade I races yet may win them after the fact," Pensivy said. "They may go on to win a Breeders' Cup race."

Flower Alley and Bellamy Road, two of the top older horses in the country, haven't even raced this year. The connections of other good ones -- Brass Hat, Surf Cat, Sun King, Buzzards Bay, Lava Man and Bandini -- all elected to chase other goals.

"It's not like we sat here and waited for people to call to nominate their horses," Pensivy said. "We were hustling."