Art Collector is listed at 5-2 on the morning line, making him the second choice to win the 145^th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on Saturday after 9-5 Authentic. No one would argue, though, that he is an overwhelming sentimental favorite.

The coldest of hearts would find it impossible not to root for Tommy Drury, who conditions Art Collector for owner Bruce Lunsford and had his dream of winning the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve dashed when he felt compelled to scratch the colt due to a minor foot injury.

Drury with his daughter Emma. (Coady Photography)

The Louisville native had been waiting for a horse like Art Collector since he obtained his trainer’s license in 1991, at age 18. The colt loomed as a prime Derby contender. He topped the filly Swiss Skydiver by 3 ½ lengths in the July 11 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland Race Course to give Drury his first graded-stakes victory. Art Collector followed that with another impressive score in the Aug. 9 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby to extend his perfection this season to 4 for 4.

Alas, the Derby start Drury longed for was not to be. He made the painful decision to scratch Art Collector due to a foot issue that was so insignificant the 3-year-old returned to the work tab one week after Authentic powered home as the front-running winner of the run for the roses.

Another trainer might have tried to press on. Not Drury. He called the decision to scratch “kind of a no-brainer” when he spoke to members of the media earlier this week as part of a conference call conducted by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

“It was certainly difficult. The Kentucky Derby is a race of a lifetime for a horse trainer,” Drury said. “But, at the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility we have is to put our horse first and to make sure that he’s taken care of. And it just wouldn’t have been fair to lead him over there, especially at that level of competition, and ask him to run his best race knowing that there was an issue going on.”

Drury instead watched the Derby at home with his daughter, Emma. He never second-guessed the move to keep his horse in the barn. He has no regrets.

“Had I run in the race, I wouldn’t have been doing it the right way. That’s not the way I want to get to it,” he said. “We made the decision to do right by our horse, and we’re certainly going to stand by that decision. There’s no looking back at this point.”

Caring for Art Collector meant much more to him than his long-awaited Derby debut.

“Had we led him over there and maybe done something that seriously damaged him, that would have been bad,” he said. “I mean missing the Derby was just frustrating, but our horse is good right now and we’re ready to take our best shot.”

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The 3-year-old is training like a horse capable of following in the footsteps of his sire, Bernardini, who captured the 2006 Preakness. He put in a rousing five-furlong work in 59.40 seconds on Sept. 19 at Churchill Downs, second of 38 at the distance, in his major tune-up for the 1 3/16-mile Preakness. He rolled through four furlongs in 48 seconds flat a week later beneath the twin spires, seventh of 78 at the distance, in a “maintenance” work.

There is every reason to believe Art Collector will be a major player on Saturday. “His last two works have kind of shown his hand a little bit,” Drury said. “I don’t think you could ask the horse to work any better.”

Trainers never know what the condition of each horse might be when they arrive at the barn in the early-morning hours. Setbacks, some major and some minor, occur with daunting frequency.

“Doing this as long as I have, you go through this so often that, you know, a horse is injured or something goes wrong or you don’t get into the race you want to get into,” he said. “I guess you almost become desensitized to it just because you’re used to it happening. That being said, it was tough. But, boy, there are so many other things it could have been.”

There is no time for lamenting what might have been. Racing is all about perseverance, moving forward.

“It was something that could be pretty easily addressed and, knowing that the Preakness was right behind the Derby, we just immediately turned the page and we started moving on to the next race,” he said. “So there wasn’t a lot of time to sit around and cry about it because we had four weeks to get ready for this one.”

Well, the Preakness is almost at hand. Art Collector will have his regular rider, the skillful Brian Hernandez, Jr., aboard. He drew post three, the same starting position he turned to victory in the Blue Grass.

After nearly three decades, perhaps everything is finally ready to go Drury’s way.