Preakness Stakes 2011: Santiva Won't Run At Pimlico As Field Comes Into Focus

With less than a week to go until the 2011 Preakness Stakes, we're beginning to see which horses will make a run at Animal Kingdom in the second leg of the Triple Crown. Trainers are lining horses up to take a shot at the Kentucky Derby winner, a sign of the perceived weakness many see in both Animal Kingdom and the Derby field as a whole. But with only 14 pole positions to go around, the field is significantly smaller than the Kentucky Derby, and many trainers are still making decisions on whether to head to Pimlico.

One horse that will not be making a trip around the track in the Preakness Stakes is Santiva, the sixth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby. But Santiva's withdrawal from the Preakness Stakes is clouded in mystery, with trainer Eddy Kenneally only revealing it had nothing to do with the horses health.

Santiva, who finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), is fine physically, according to trainer Eddie Kenneally.

“The horse is doing great, but he is not running in the Preakness,” Kenneally said.

Santiva's loss is, apparently, Sway Away's gain as it moves up into the top-14 and appears to be set to race in the Preakness on Saturday. With only six starters from the Derby attempting to make the field, there will be plenty of fresh faces and new guns, including Sway Away, at Pimlico on Saturday.

The 2011 Preakness Stakes gets underway on May 21 at Pimlico. Stay with our Preakness Stakes StoryStream for more on the race. To look back at the Derby, check out SB Nation's 2011 Kentucky Derby StoryStream. Also, our horse racing blog And Down The Stretch They Come has two must-read resources for Derby and Preakness fans: A Beginner's Guide To Following Horse Racing and a glossary of horse racing terms.