Rich Strike's owner is doing the best for his horse by skipping Preakness Stakes| Opinion

No matter how long you’ve followed horse racing, there haven’t been many stories like Rich Strike, the 80-to-1 Kentucky Derby winner whose connections had never come close enough to that kind of race to even realistically dream about it.

But even if you barely follow the sport, you’ve almost certainly heard about dozens of horses dying in California a few years ago, seen a catastrophic breakdown during a race or watched a Kentucky Derby and never heard from the winner again.

For every rags-to-riches story that captures America’s imagination for a few weeks, there are sadly many more horrific tales of owners and trainers pushing limits in pursuit of glory, career-ending injuries and even fatal accidents that raise existential questions about whether horse racing should even survive.

That’s why it’s difficult to criticize Eric Reed and Rick Dawson, the trainer and owner of Rich Strike, for their decision Thursday to skip the Preakness – a move that has very little precedent for Derby winners that emerge from the race without an injury. In fact, the last time it happened with a healthy horse was 1985 when Spend a Buck’s owner Dennis Diaz chose to buck tradition and instead chase a $2 million bonus offered by Garden State Park for any horse that could win three races in New Jersey and the Kentucky Derby.

This time, though, the decision to skip the Preakness seems to have a pure motive: Reed and Dawson don’t think two weeks is enough time between races. Everyone in horse racing will say they want to do what’s best for their horse. The connections of Rich Strike are actually walking the walk.

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RICH STRIKE: Kentucky Derby winner will skip Preakness Stakes, sets sights on Belmont

It might not be great for the Preakness, for NBC, for the institution of the Triple Crown. But it’s probably the right move for the horse.

“Obviously, with our tremendous effort and win in the Derby it’s very, very tempting to alter our course and run in the Preakness, which would be a great honor for all our group” a statement from Dawson read Thursday. “However, after much discussion and consideration with my trainer Eric Reed and a few others, we are going to stay with our plan.”

Many casual viewers of horse racing will not understand this decision. After winning the Derby, how could these folks pass up a shot at Triple Crown history?

But it’s not always that simple these days, even if it has been the custom for Derby winners to go on to Baltimore.

In 1943, a horse named Count Fleet won the Kentucky Derby on May 1, the Preakness on May 8 and the Belmont on June 5 – and for good measure won the 1-mile Withers stakes in the month gap between the last two legs of the Triple Crown.

But they don’t make ‘em like Count Fleet anymore. Within the context of modern horse racing, the two-week gap between the Kentucky Derby and Preakness is almost unheard of. Trainers are generally going to give horses a month or five weeks between races, and often more than that for top-level stakes winners.

That’s what makes the Triple Crown so special and difficult to win. It’s designed to push 3-year old horses to their absolute limit, which is why so few have won it. As trainer Bob Baffert said repeatedly as American Pharoah broke a 37-year Triple Crown drought in 2015 and then Justify did it three years later, it takes a unique, physically tough horse to withstand three long races in five weeks. These days, hardly anyone actually contests all three legs of the Triple Crown unless they’ve got a shot to win the whole thing.

Last year, only three horses from the Derby entered the Preakness. None of them went on to the Belmont. That’s pretty much the norm now, which isn’t a bad thing if your goal is to have a horse stay healthy and sound beyond the Triple Crown.

“We applaud the Rich Strike team for putting the welfare of the horse first and choosing not to run in the 147th Preakness Stakes,” said Marty Irby, the executive director at Animal Wellness Action. “Their decision to ‘give him more recovery time and rest’ is refreshing to see, and we have no doubt that Rich Strike will go down in history books as one of the most famous American racehorses of all time.”

Of course, another way to get in the history books is to have a shot at the Triple Crown. And maybe, when you consider the implications of winning the Preakness, Dawson and Reed are being overly conservative.

But the reality is that they never considered Rich Strike likely to win the Derby. Their goal was to just get in the race, hope for a decent finish, then find some races later in the year that would suit him.

As it turned out, their horse stunned the world, significantly outrunning the previous performances that had him dismissed by the bettors at 80-to-1. He was also the beneficiary of a remarkably favorable setup in the race with a super-fast pace for the first half-mile and an ideal rail-skimming trip that allowed him to save ground every step of the way and pass the leaders in the stretch.

Not only was Rich Strike unlikely to run that well again, but the race wasn’t going to be as favorable for him as the Derby. Not only is the Preakness is 1/16th of a mile shorter, but it’s a smaller field and likely won’t have as fast a pace up front. The Derby and its 20-horse cavalry charge is prone to fluke results, but the Preakness is often the Triple Crown race where the best horse wins.

Taking all the emotion out of it, Reed is correct that Rich Strike would have a far better chance to win the Belmont at 1 ½ miles with five weeks off than turning around this quickly in Baltimore.

That might not be a popular conclusion with fans or television executives or racetrack officials, but you can’t question whether it’s right for the horse. And in a sport where that doesn’t always factor into the decision-making as much as it should – often with tragic results – Dawson and Reed deserve admiration not derision.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rich Strike's owner skipping Preakness is right move for horse