Riding racehorses is a unique profession, that's for sure. You'll see that fact played out with me in the Preakness this weekend.

I'm talking about my mount change from Lookin at Lucky to Dublin, of course. Here's a horse I rode in every single start of his career -- to some pretty big wins and an Eclipse Award championship last season -- and Saturday I'll be on a runner I've never ridden before, going all out to beat him.

That's the nature of the game. It's just like this race being the second jewel in the Triple Crown. Everyone's always looking for a Triple Crown contender, with the people at the New York Racing Association particularly keeping their fingers crossed that the same horse that won the Kentucky Derby wins the Preakness so there'll be all that buzz and the potential of a Triple Crown winner, which we haven't had in such a long time, at the Belmont Stakes. As a jockey, you want that opportunity to be yours. And of course you want what's best for the sport, and you know a Triple Crown winner would be amazing. But if you're one of the 19 guys who didn't win the Derby, trust me, you're riding in the Preakness hoping you're gonna end up in the winner's circle, Triple Crown prospects or no Triple Crown prospects.

Anyway, back to the change of horses. I had planned on riding Lookin at Lucky back after the Derby, and I went out there a couple of mornings to make sure he came out of the race OK and was doing all right. That was when Bob Baffert took me aside and said "I'm not positive I'm going to go with the horse, but if I do we might just change it up since the last couple of times we haven't had a whole lot of luck."

It's one of those things where you just have to roll with the punches. Everyone knows there's luck in horse racing and things gotta go right, and just because things didn't exactly go right with that horse in the past couple starts doesn't really mean it'll impact the relationship between Bob and me. It also doesn't mean I think any less of Lookin at Lucky; he's a good horse, I've always been high on him, and we accomplished a lot together already. You never want to lose a good horse, period. But fortunately I was lucky enough to have a couple options for the Preakness and D. Wayne Lukas was very nice to say he'd be happy to have me on Dublin.

Wayne is pretty much synonymous with the Triple Crown classics -- with big horse races in general, actually. Growing up, all I did was watch him win them all. He was that guy that when you turned on the TV to watch horse racing, his name bounced out all the time. He had all the good horses, good colts and fillies, and he's always been a great spokesman for the game. His horses always look so good -- healthy and dappled and fit. It's been a little while since he got one of the classics -- Charismatic was the last one, in 1999 -- so hopefully I can help get him back to the winner's circle again in this year's running of the Preakness.

I worked Dublin at Churchill Downs on Monday and he went really good. I broke off a little slowly in company with Bird Empire and went a half-mile in :48.40. I sat just behind the outside hip of the other horse, then switched him to the inside before we turned for home. He quickened and the other horse kind of came back at him and then he drew away and sprinted down toward the line. I slowed him down to let him gallop out and he did everything I asked him to do. I liked what I felt; it seemed like he had a lot of energy for a horse that just ran 1¼ miles less than two weeks ago.

When I worked him that morning he leaned on the bridle a little bit but it wasn't anything unmanageable for me. I talked to Wayne about it and I think he's going to put him in a ring bit. He's been running in a "D" bit for a while and hopefully that change will help me a little more. He's kind of like a big strong kid and it's hard to get him to be real responsive to what you're asking for, and in these bigger races you don't have time to sit there and wrestle with one until he finally starts to understand.

I ride at Churchill Downs on Thursday and come in Friday to ride in the Jockey Challenge that Pimlico is hosting for a second straight year, and also to ride a few of the stakes races on the undercard for Black-Eyed Susan Day. I'll check in with all of you then!