Kentucky Derby champion Mage is an 8-5 favorite for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes in an eight-horse field devoid of opponents he faced in the first leg of the Triple Crown series.
Mage arrived at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore Sunday morning after an overnight van ride from Kentucky. He took his first jog and gallop over the Pimlico dirt Monday and adapted well, co-owner and assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr. said.
“He looked pretty good — relaxed, quiet,” Delgado said after watching the workout beside his father and Mage’s trainer, Gustavo Delgado Sr. “So far, so good.”
That’s been the message from the Delgados since Mage returned to the track at Churchill Downs on Tuesday, three days after his career-best effort in the Derby. They did not commit to a Preakness run immediately, saying they wanted to be cautious with a colt who did not race as a 2-year-old. But his voracious appetite and energetic morning gallops told them he would be ready to run again two weeks after the Derby.
“All the right signs,” the younger Delgado said at Monday’s post-position draw.
None of the other 17 starters in the Derby will run at Pimlico, another sign that the two-week turnaround from Derby to Preakness is out of step with modern training habits. This is the smallest group of Derby horses in the race since the Triple Crown series went to its current format 54 years ago. The Preakness lost another potentially tasty storyline when Forte, the Derby favorite until he was scratched because of a foot bruise, was declared ineligible for the field under Kentucky veterinary rules.
“Forte, Angel of Empire, Two Phil’s, maybe even Tapit Trice, they might all be candidates to come back for the Preakness under different circumstances,” NBC analyst Randy Moss said. “So yeah, this is another in a series of examples how the Preakness would be a much stronger race, and the Triple Crown much stronger as a whole, with modern spacing of the races.”
Without any apparent progress in that direction, Mage, who will break from the No. 3 post (the Delgados would have preferred an outside position), will instead face a field of more rested, less accomplished challengers.
Trainer Chad Brown will try to win his third Preakness with Blazing Sevens, who, like Mage, arrived at Pimlico Sunday and went to the track for the first time Monday morning. Brown won in 2017 with Cloud Computing and last year with Early Voting, neither of whom ran in the Derby, so he’ll attempt to triple down with the same formula.
Blazing Sevens will start from the No. 7 post as a 6-1 fourth choice in the morning line, set by Pimlico handicapper Keith Feustle.
Trainer Bob Baffert, a seven-time Preakness winner, will be back in the race for the first time since 2021 with National Treasure, fourth in the Santa Anita Derby in his last start.
National Treasure will start from the No. 1 post as a 4-1 third choice in the morning line. If he wins, Baffert would break a tie with 19th-century trainer R. Wyndham Walden for the most Preakness victories in history.
Trainer Steve Asmussen, meanwhile, will try to win his third Preakness with Red Route One, winner of the Bath House Row Stakes at Arkansas’ Oaklawn Park in his last start. Asmussen decided Monday morning not to bring fourth-place Derby finisher Disarm to Pimlico.
Red Route One will start from the No. 5 post as a 10-1 fifth choice in the morning line.
Perform earned his berth in the Preakness with a win in the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park. His owners had to pay an extra $150,000 to get him in the field because he was not originally nominated for the Triple Crown series, but trainer Shug McGaughey said they did not hesitate.
McGaughey, whose trainee, Easy Goer, lost one of the greatest duels in Preakness history to Sunday Silence in 1989, said Perform will have a solid chance Saturday if the early pace is quick enough to set him up for a late charge.
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“Obviously, we hope we’d get a little speed in front of us, which we probably will,” McGaughey said. “In these races, they usually do. I hope we’re finishing with Mage and can outkick him. But I think that just the two turns on the dirt, the distance, the mile and three-sixteenths, the timing is pretty good.”
Perform will break from the No. 6 post as a 15-1 choice in the morning line.
Trainer Brad Cox decided not to bring any of his four Derby starters to Pimlico, but he’ll try to win his first Preakness with First Mission, who won the Lexington Stakes in his last start. Cox has said First Mission has the talent to go down as one of the top horses in this 3-year-old class, though the Preakness will be just his fourth career start.
“He’s gotten better as the year’s gone on. He seems to be thriving right now,” the trainer said after watching First Mission breeze 5/8 of a mile in 59.2 seconds Saturday morning at Churchill Downs. “That’s really what you want to see going up to a big race. I like quick times, but I’m more interested in how they’re doing it. And I love what we saw this morning.”
First Mission will start from the No. 8 post as a 5-2 second choice in the morning line.
California-based gelding Chase the Chaos earned his spot in the Preakness by winning the El Camino Real Derby in February. He has finished seventh and eighth in his two starts since. He will break from the No. 2 post as a 50-1 long shot in the morning line.
Rounding out the field is a Maryland-bred long shot, Coffeewithchris, fifth in the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel in his last start.
“Our plan was to run in the Preakness,” Laurel-based trainer John Salzman Jr. said. “The biggest thing is coming up with the money sometimes. I’m a poor working guy. … I worked it out to come up with the funds to take a chance. I don’t get to take a chance very often.”
Coffeewithchris will break from the No. 4 post as a 20-1 choice in the morning line.
148th Preakness Stakes
Pimlico Race Course
Saturday
Post time: Approximately 6:50 p.m.
TV: Chs. 11, 4