What can Street Sense's rivals do to win Preakness?

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Let's suppose you approach Saturday's Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown, from a wagering perspective. (I am assuming that many people do, because that's the question I get most from family, friends and colleagues when I'm on the horse racing beat: Who is going to win? The short answer is: I have no idea. I haven't made a bet since the 1987 Travers, when I lost a much-too-large wager on a short horse named Polish Navy).

But horse racing exists not only for equine purists and journalists attracted to the effecting tales attached to so many horses. It exists also as a gaming proposition. Perhaps foremost as a gaming proposition, because without the betting, there is no racing.

Suppose you are one of the people who wants to beat Street Sense in the Preakness. Street Sense, of course, won the Derby under Calvin Borel on a conveyor belt trip along the rail around Churchill Downs, putting away the formidable Hard Spun just inside the eighth pole and giving trainer Carl Nafzger his second Derby champion. On Wednesday, Street Sense was installed as the 7-5 morning line favorite to win the Preakness.

Of course you want to beat Street Sense, because one of the great joys in sport -- and in betting -- is to beat the big guy. Beat the Yankees. Beat the Patriots. Beat Street Sense.

It turns out that the connections -- owners, trainers, jockeys -- of the eight horses facing Street Sense in the Preakness have a plan to beat him on Saturday. That plan is to hope.

Listen:

"I'm hoping the Derby took something out of [Street Sense]," says Mark Shuman, who trains new shooter Xchanger, who did not run in the Derby after winning the Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico on April 21. "To be honest, if it was four weeks between the Derby and the Preakness, I wouldn't be here."

"I'm hoping [Street Sense] doesn't get the same trip he got in the Derby," says Larry Jones, the trainer of Derby runner-up Hard Spun. "I mean, there's no way he can get that same trip twice."

"I'm hoping maybe Street Sense runs his best race at Churchill Downs," says Mario Pino, Hard Spun's jockey. "A lot of horses thrive on one particular track. Street Sense ran his best two races of his life [the Breeders Cup Juvenile and the Derby] at Churchill Downs."

Are you inspired yet to run to the window and hammer Street Sense's foes?

Todd Pletcher entered Derby sixth-place finisher Circular Quay on the presumption that there will be excessive speed in the race, much more than in the Derby. Circular Quay is a deep closer who can benefit from a suicidal pace up front. But does Pletcher think Circular Quay can out-finish Street Sense, who finished so impressively in the Derby and appears still at the top of his game 10 days later? (Or is he just trying to soften up Street Sense and beat him with filly Rags To Riches in the Belmont?)