Kentucky Bear handlers like their Preakness chances

By Steve Ginsburg

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - The handlers of Kentucky Bear said on Tuesday it would be a mistake to believe Kentucky Derby champion Big Brown was a certainty to win Saturday's Preakness Stakes.

"He's a superstar," Kentucky Bear assistant trainer Cassie Garcia said of the unbeaten Big Brown. "That horse is very nice. But you never know what can happen in a race, right?"

Big Brown will be the overwhelming favorite in the $1-million Preakness but Garcia said the Derby champion might be a little tired running with just a two-week break.

Kentucky Bear, however, is well rested after skipping the Derby because the son of Mr. Greeley did not earn enough graded-stakes money to secure a spot in America's top race.

Garcia rode Kentucky Bear around the Pimlico track twice on Tuesday and pronounced the Kentucky-bred colt rested, eager and primed for the mile-and-three-sixteenths Preakness.

"He's been able to work well over the track and settled in really well," said Garcia, a Canadian who is also the colt's exercise rider.

"He's just been working really good. Ever since the Blue Grass (Stakes) he's improved more and more. He's matured, he's put on weight and muscle.

"He just looks great, he feels awesome, so I think he has a good chance."

The Preakness will likely have a field of 13 after the connections of Arkansas Derby winner Gayego confirmed they would be heading to Baltimore for the middle jewel of U.S. thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown series.

Gayego, who finished a disappointing 17th in the 20-horse Derby after a troubled trip, joins Big Brown as the only horses to make the journey from Churchill Downs to Baltimore.

Garcia said Kentucky Bear, ridden by Jamie Theriot, learned a lot from his third-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes over the synthetic Polytrack surface at Keeneland last month.

"Maybe if he moved a bit earlier he would have been right there, but that was only his third race," she said. "He was a little bit green.

"But he came out of it very confident and with a little bit more experience."

Kentucky Bear has one win in his three career starts but Garcia believes missing the May 3 Derby may have given her colt enough rest to derail the Triple Crown hopes of Big Brown.

"He's coming in fresh," she said. "He's just got to stay relaxed and then when the jock asks for him to move, he's got to be right there and respond. I think he will."

(Editing by Clare Fallon)