Preakness Odds 2012: Creative Cause and Most Overrated Horses in the Field

Chances are, a horse that ran in this year's Kentucky Derby is going to win the Preakness.

That leaves us with very few viable options—mostly Bodemeister and I'll Have Another—to consider as potential winners. After failing to measure up to those two horses in terrible conditions on a longer track, it's hard to believe the Preakness field can eclipse them in a shorter, easier race that is better suited to the favorites' strengths.

Even I'll Have Another, despite winning the Derby, is starting to seem a bit overrated when measured up against Bodemeister's speed. 

As it stands, there could be as many as six Derby contenders participating in the Preakness, and among them are a few horses you shouldn't waste your money betting on. Here's a look at them.

Creative Cause

He's currently afforded 10-1 odds by AllHorseRacing.com, but Creative Cause is going to have a hard time doing damage against two horses who smoked him two weeks ago at the Kentucky Derby, where he finished fifth.

A lot of the reason Creative Cause is getting hype stems from his trainer Mike Harrington, who's always talked about him with the utmost confidence. And while Creative Cause finished on the board in every race of his career until the Derby and even beat Bodemeister once in the San Felipe Stakes, he certainly didn't live up to the hype as a serious underdog at Churchill Downs.

Harrington told Bettor.com that for a few days after the Derby, the horse was in some kind of enthusiasm-less funk, which makes him even more of a risky bet.

Went the Day Well

This is a horse that entered the Derby with 20-1 odds, yet managed to finish fourth behind I'll Have Another, Bodemeister and Dullahan. With Dullahan officially opting out of the Preakness, his odds may seem a little better (they're currently 10-1).

But before the Derby, Went the Day Well was the kind of horse who managed to steamroll lesser horses—kind of like what happened at the Derby. Are there really any indications that he won't suffer the same fate at the Preakness against the two best Derby horses?

Further decreasing his chances is the fact that he'll be a late arrival at Pimlico, as storms have delayed his journey.

Optimizer

Maybe there's an inkling that Optimizer (25-1, according to AllHorseRacing.com) will fare better in a shorter field at Pimlico. Maybe there's hope that in better conditions he'll finish better than 11th, or maybe with a better post position than No. 2, he'll be more successful.

But the fact remains that he paled—by a lot—in comparison to half of the field at the Derby, and he could find himself facing six of the horses who finished ahead of him at Churchill Downs when he shows up at Pimlico.

Even before the Derby, word on the street was that Optimizer was great on grass but couldn't run on a dirt track, so Pimlico won't help him any more than Churchill Downs did. He's also not great in shorter spurts, which is exactly where the top horses in this field excel.