Jim Dandy pits Kentucky Derby winner vs. Preakness winner

The last time a pair of classic winners met in the Jim Dandy, the Summer Olympics were winding down in Atlanta, Prince Charles and Princess Diana were getting a divorce, and ER was the top rated TV show in the nation. Louis Quatorze, the Preakness hero, defeated Will's Way in an terrific battle that afternoon, while Editor's Note, the 1996 Belmont winner, finished a non-threatening fourth.

Flash-forward 21 years, and we are on the verge of another intriguing, classic rich edition of the race named after the 100-1 shot who defeated the Triple Crown winning Gallant Fox in the 1930 Travers. On Saturday, it will be the Kentucky Derby winner facing off against the Preakness winner in the Jim Dandy. Neither Always Dreaming, star of the first Saturday in May, nor Cloud Computing, the victor in a thrilling middle jewel, have run since the Preakness, and both classic winners have been pointing for the second Saturday at Saratoga ever since.

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Both colts announced their readiness for the meeting with Saturday morning workouts. Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence's Cloud Computing got in his final work for the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy, breezing four furlongs over the Saratoga main track in 49.09 seconds. It was his first workout at the Spa, and pleased his Eclipse Award winning trainer, Chad Brown. "He looked really good today," said Brown.

Trainer Todd Pletcher was also encouraged by what he saw from the Derby winner, as the son of Bodemeister turned in a five-furlong breeze in 1:01.71 over Saratoga's Oklahoma training track. "I thought Always Dreaming went real well, a good, steady five-eighths," Pletcher said. 

In what is expected to be a compact field, the Jim Dandy promises to be a crucial beginning to the second half of the season. With both colts in good shape heading into the race, and having one classic victory each, what happens Saturday could be a big tip-off for the rest of the season.

Always Dreaming should rule a slight favorite in the match-up, but he will need to demonstrate that the Preakness was only a speed bump in the middle of a big sophomore campaign. A close second-place finisher in his only start at Saratoga, which came in a maiden race last August, the MeB Racing, Brooklyn Boyz, Teresa Viola, St Elias, Siena Farm and West Point owned runner rattled off four straight wins in his return to the races, beginning in January. 

Impressive victories in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, and a wet-fast edition of the Run for the Roses, made Always Dreaming the toast of the racing world. His spot at the top of the mountain proved both rocky and short-lived, though, after an eight-place finish in the Preakness two weeks later. Can we chalk that up to nothing more than a bad day? If so, Always Dreaming could be ready to reaffirm his position at the summit of the three-year-old male division.

Meanwhile, the lightly raced son of Maclean's Music is coming into the Jim Dandy off a career making victory in Baltimore, which came in only his fourth career start. After finishing a non-threatening third in the Wood Memorial behind Irish War Cry, in a race where he broke out of the gate a bit slowly, Cloud Computing looked the part of a potential champion in the Preakness. 

Having only made his career debut in February, his stretch-long run to reel in the Juvenile Champion, Classic Empire, at Pimlico, was an eye opener. Always thought of highly, the result demonstrated that Cloud Computing was indeed improving off of early in-the-money finishes in the Gotham and Wood Memorial. Considering his lack of experience, it made sense for him to improve, but to win racing's Middle Jewel in his fourth career start was a huge move forward. 

With a successful first half of the season behind them, and the all-important Travers Stakes looming, both Always Dreaming and Cloud Computing are poised to win an Eclipse Award at the end of the year. What happens on Saturday, in the Jim Dandy, could well decide the direction of each for the remainder of their sophomore seasons.