Baffert and Lukas both looking to land their seventh Preakness Stakes victory. Justify won the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago and starts as favorite at Pimlico Racecourse. LONDON: If there is one man who knows more about winning the Preakness Stakes than Bob Baffert it is D. Wayne Lukas. Both men stand on six wins apiece, and at Pimlico Racecourse today they will seek to step out of the shadow of Robert Wyndham Walden, the 19th-century monolith whose record of seven stands tall. Of the two Californian perma-tanned, silver-haired trainers, Baffert clearly has the best chance after Justify powered to an imperious victory in front of 170,000 people in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago at Churchill Downs. Whichever way you slice that performance, it was a monster. Under evergreen 52-year-old jockey Mike Smith, Justify chased fractions of 22.24 seconds for the first two furlongs and 45.77s to the next two, before completing six in 1.11.01. That is sprinter pace. Promises Fulfilled, the horse that set those blistering sectionals in the pouring rain and mud, could not live up to his name and faded away in to 15th. Flameaway, who matched strides with Justify during the early stages, burned brightly before running on fumes during the closing stages and finished 13th. Nothing could stop the giant son of deceased sire Scat Daddy striding clear though, and with all of his experience the 82-year-old Lukas has no doubt that Justify is much the best horse in the $1.5million contest. “Yes, they can beat him but it’s going to be very difficult,” he said. “It’s his race to lose. Give him a chance to run — give him a clear shot at it and everything, I definitely think he’s going to be very difficult to beat. But you can’t mail it in. You got to go over there, and you got a different track, a different surface, a different trip, but if you had to — if you’re going to count on the fastest horse and the most powerful, you better count on him. “You need tactical speed, it really lends itself to a good Preakness. Justify had that.” The Preakness can apply pressure to the smallest chink in any armory and there is a long list of horses who failed two weeks after their Derby triumphs. To win the Preakness a horse needs to be mentally and physically tough to deal with the short turnaround , and it seems Justify is blessed with those qualities. This bruiser of a racehorse weighs in at 575kg, which is 50kg more than American Pharoah who won the Triple Crown three seasons ago and to whom Baffert favorably compares America’s new darling. Lukas is impressed, too. “You have to have a fighter,” he continued. “The other thing is, it really helps if your horse has had an easier race in the Derby. Justify did. Justify had an easy race, a good trip, no trouble, so it didn’t take a lot out of him, in my opinion. If you have got one that takes a little bit of management, you got to baby him a little bit, you’re in the wrong spot on Preakness Day.” If Justify has the frame and brain, he has an Achilles’ heel. He was passed by the vets and his connections only last Friday after he galloped for a mile and a half without any discomfort to the minor bruising on his left hind foot. If he loses, it will surely be down to his huge Derby run taking more out of him than those closest to him thought, and his troublesome heel. As ever, there are dangers. Justify faces a greatly reduced number of rivals today. Lukas fields Sporting Chance, fourth in the Pat Day Mile, and Bravazo, who was sixth in the Derby. Lone Sailor, who was eighth in Louisville, and Arkansas Derby fifth, Tenfold, also are due in the starting gates. Chad Brown, trainer of Derby runner-up Good Magic, lines up the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner. Quip, Diamond King and Todd Pletcher’s Pony Up are the only others in the Preakness blend after connections of the classy Bolt D’Oro took a rain check. The weather has come to Justify’s aid, too. Heavy rain hit Baltimore earlier this week and and images of horses ploughing through the slop have dominated social media in the build-up. There is expected to be a downpour on the big day, also. All four of Baffert’s Derby winners who made the Preakness — subsequent Dubai World Cup winner Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998), War Emblem (2002) and American Pharoah (2015) —added the second leg of the Triple Crown. The 65-year-old is good at bottling up the stresses and strains he experiences, but, if anything, the Preakness offers a smidgen of light relief in comparison to the pressures of the opening leg of the Derby, and the weight of history in next month’s Belmont Stakes. Especially if you have a horse as good as Justify. “Fortunately we’ve been through this a few times and so, we don’t do anything different,” he said. “We just go in there and have a good time. To me, the Preakness is a lot of fun. That’s my favorite of the (Triple Crown) races, because it’s stress-free. I don’t want to be jinxing it right now. We live for the moment and now the moment is this race.”