Meet Lani, the horse that threatens to make the Preakness weird

The list of obstacles to a Nyquist walkover Saturday in the Preakness is dwindling daily.

One of the biggest potential X factors was likely removed in the post-position draw Wednesday, when the undefeated Kentucky Derby champion – given morning-line odds of 3-5 – wound up with post No. 3 in the field of 11. The best thing about that post is that it is three spots removed from crazy horse, Japanese import Lani.

He's one of the oddest entrants in Triple Crown history.

Lani drew post No. 6, which puts him between two of Nyquist's strongest challengers: second betting choice Exaggerator (3-1) is to Lani's inside, while fourth choice Collected (10-1) is to Lani's outside. If he comes out of the gate sideways and bumps either rival, it could heavily affect their chances.

Trainers Keith Desormeaux (Exaggerator) and six-time Preakness winner Bob Baffert (Collected) announced no concern about drawing next to Lani – "not at all," Baffert said in a text – perhaps because Lani broke with glacial slowness in the Derby and trailed the entire field early.

It's hard to be a nuisance from the back of a 20-horse pack.

Still, you never know what you're going to get from a colt who does absolutely nothing by the book.

Looney Lani earned a reputation at Churchill Downs in the run-up to the Derby by being, shall we say, overly excited when he took to the track for morning workouts. The Churchill notes crew employed the euphemism "studdish," since he certainly appeared more interested in breeding than breezing on several mornings. Some publicity photos were even photoshopped to remove the protruding evidence of Lani's ardor.

Then there were the days before the Derby when Lani didn't feel like running. His exercise rider could not coax a gallop out of him on the day of his last major workout, and the move was postponed. Nobody seemed quite sure what he was going to do on any given morning.

The colt's training works were a most unconventional mixture of walking, jogging and eventually galloping. They lasted up to 45 minutes, much longer than American horses will spend on the track during a morning workout. It was a complete departure from conventional Derby training.

So was Lani's pre-race handling. Trainer Mikio Matsunaga had his horse walking circles in Churchill's mile chute nearly 10 minutes before the Derby horses were called to the track, and he was led past the grandstand and into the paddock while wearing full eye-cover blinkers to limit his exposure to visual stimuli. Lani then quickly exited the paddock, well ahead of the post parade, to walk the track before heading to the starting gate.

It was altogether weird. And then the gates opened and Lani was last.

He improved his position moderately during the Derby, racing well wide around the far turn to avoid any and all traffic. Lani managed to pass a few tiring horses in the stretch to finish ninth – better than most expected after his oddball week, but still not the kind of performance that normally earns a trip to the Preakness.

Yet there he is. Well, wait, that isn't quite true.

Lani won't arrive at Pimlico Race Course until Thursday morning, barely beating the deadline for Preakness horses to be on the premises. He's spent his time since the Derby in New York at Belmont Park – still following an unusual training regimen, but apparently avoiding making a spectacle of himself.

"The surroundings in New York are much quieter than at Churchill Downs,” said Keita Tanaka, agent for owner Koji Maeda. "The track is quieter, it's wider with few horses, so he's behaving much better than what he sometimes showed at Churchill Downs.”

The eccentricities have combined to overshadow a couple of legitimate attributes Lani possesses: he won the UAE Derby, a big-money race in Dubai that punched his Derby ticket; and he is well-bred, the son of accomplished sire Tapit and grandson of Derby and Preakness winner Sunday Silence.

Still, Lani has been installed as one of the five longest shots on the board for the Preakness, joining Awesome Speed, Laoban, Abiding Star and Fellowship at 30-1. If he's a factor in the outcome Saturday, it would surprise a whole lot of people.

Unless he becomes a factor in a negative way.

The Preakness has always been the dysfunctional leg of the Triple Crown. Bizarre stuff happens at Pimlico. There was the guy who wandered out of the infield, onto the track and actually took a swing at a horse on the Preakness undercard in 1999. There was the power outage that gripped the aging track the year before that. There was the wild storm that blew in right before the start of last year's race.

Now, here comes Lani. Look out, Pimlico. Things could get weird again.