Wood writes that one of the sources said Churchill has been lobbying to derail a bill in the state legislature that's necessary for the state ownership deal to go through.

The article says that representatives of Churchill Downs did not respond to multiple voicemail and email messages seeking comment on the company's interest in Pimlico.

At this point, Wood writes, it is not clear how serious Churchill Downs's interest is or whether the company made a formal or informal offer to Pimlico or the state about buying the track. She claims that some in Annapolis have privately expressed skepticism about Churchill's motives, given that it has many more casinos than racetracks among its properties.

The piece goes on to quote Craig Fravel, Executive Vice Chairman of Stronach's 1/ST Racing and Gaming. Fravel issued a statement Wednesday that there was no pending offer from Churchill Downs to his company, which is “not in any negotiation with them. We remain committed to the contemplated transactions as negotiated,” he said.

The Banner article goes on to explain that Churchill's involvement could complicate efforts to execute the state takeover plan for Pimlico, which involves legislation that's pending in the final days of the Maryland General Assembly session.

Wood states that several lawmakers have expressed reservations about the state taking over the track and running Thoroughbred racing, along with some elements of the plan to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in renovations.

The piece also says that a bill passed (104-34) the House of Delegates on Monday night and is facing unknown odds in the Senate.

Senate President Bill Ferguson told reporters Tuesday, “It's going to be some tough conversations here in the next few days to figure out if there is a clear path forward.”

Wood said that Ferguson would not offer a timeline for the Senate's consideration of the bill. The end of the General Assembly's annual legislative session is approaching at midnight Monday, Apr. 8.

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A few items that stand out after sifting through Friday's “Pimlico Plus” report issued by the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA). The ambitious $400-million plan, which is subject to legislative approval, re-imagines the state's racing consolidated at one publicly funded track in Baltimore, the closure of Laurel Park, the construction of a new training facility in the state, and 1/ST Racing and Gaming ceding control of day-to-day Maryland racing to a non-profit entity.

Triple Crown traditionalists who are already in a tizzy about the GI Belmont S. needing to relocate to Saratoga Race Course and change its distance for 2024 because of the complete overhaul of Belmont Park had better brace for a radically nomadic renewal the sport's signature series in 2025.

If the proposed re-imagining of Pimlico Race Course gets green-lighted by the Maryland legislature as per the MTROA's desired timetable, and if the New York Racing Association (NYRA) confirms the expected Belmont-at-Saratoga festival again for next year, the 2025 series of spring Classics could feature the GI Kentucky Derby run per usual at Churchill Downs, followed by the GI Preakness S. at Laurel Park (the placeholder host during Pimlico's reconstruction), and the Belmont S. at Saratoga for the second season in a row (at the truncated distance of 10 furlongs because NYRA doesn't want to start what is traditionally a 12-furlong race on the Spa's far turn).

Even assuming that a modernized Belmont Park is ready to take back its namesake stakes in 2026, the Maryland time frame still has Pimlico's construction ongoing through at least that year, meaning the earliest return to Triple Crown normalcy, in terms of host tracks and race distances, could be 2027.

In addition, the 150th running of the Preakness will occur in 2025, but the festivities will likely be muted because of the temporary move. The anniversary will certainly be recognized, but don't expect a Preakness-at-Laurel celebration to have the same cachet Churchill will enjoy this year when it unveils long-planned facility upgrades and partners with the city of Louisville for an extended Derby 150 bash. It will be tough for whoever controls the rights to the Preakness to take advantage of the historical hoopla associated with its big anniversary if the race gets moved to temporary digs 28 miles south of Baltimore.

The Preakness is only one day, but the turf racing season in Maryland usually lasts for more than six months. Consolidating racing at Pimlico will mean limiting grass racing to one smaller course that won't get much of a break during the sweltering summer months.

    When Laurel's expanded turf course opened in 2005, it was billed as a game-changer for Maryland racing, and it has proven to be an investment that paid off handsomely in terms of delivering more grass opportunities, boosting field sizes and generating handle.

While Pimlico's existing (and proposed new) turf course is seven furlongs in circumference, roughly the same as Laurel's (seven furlongs and 254 feet), the key difference is width–Pimlico's existing/proposed width will remain at 70 feet according to the MTROA report, while Laurel's is a generous 142 feet wide, allowing for the ability to move portable rails out 17, 35, 53, 70 and 87 feet to provide six different running lanes.

Just last month, the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (MTHA) issued a press release that underscored how the “Laurel turf is integral not only to the Maryland racing product but the overall mid-Atlantic racing product.”

According to the MTHA's count, in 2023 Laurel ran 273 turf races, the most since 2019 and the highest number among all racetracks in the mid-Atlantic region. Average field size for the course was 9.2 horses per race over six-plus months of usage, while the average field size for dirt races at Laurel between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30 was only 6.8.

Pimlico, which conducted short meets in May/June and September 2023, ran 72 grass races, giving Maryland access to 345 in-state turf events. But the actual number of turf races at Pimlico isn't as important as the break its meets afford Laurel's course, which had shown signs of strain in previous years when Pimlico didn't run during the summer.

Pimlico's ability to carry on Maryland's reputation as a strong grass-racing state is dubious given the course's size and a calendar that will give it a summer break only when the Timonium fair is in session at the end of August and early September.

The turf course at Colonial Downs is 180 feet wide and 180 miles south of Pimlico. Over the course of a 27-date 2023 summer meet, the Virginia track ran 213 turf races, the second-highest in the region, according to the MTHA's numbers.

To Maryland, Colonial looms as a horse-siphoning threat in both the short term (for the several years Laurel will race almost non-stop while Pimlico gets rebuilt) and over the long term, when Pimlico takes over with a turf course that isn't as expansive or versatile as the one it's replacing.

Whether Pimlico's main track and turf course remain in their existing locations or get rotated to better fit within the redesigned property's footprint (both options are outlined by the MTROA), one of the report's “Guiding Principles” states that “The dirt track shall be engineered to be 'synthetic-ready' allowing the quick and economical transition from dirt cushion to a synthetic cushion.” The proposed new training facility is also supposed to have this “synthetic ready” infrastructure in place.

Wanting both Pimlico and Maryland's new training center to have the option of switching over from dirt to a synthetic surface in the future seems to be a good idea from a planning perspective, because it's unknown at this point if a federal mandate requiring synthetics might be in the pipeline from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act Authority. But claiming that having such infrastructure is going to position Maryland to be able to “quickly and economically” pivot from one surface to the other understates the difficulty of taking on this sort of after-the-fact conversion.

More than two decades of synthetic-surface history in North America has shown that making a switch is, by its very nature, neither fast nor cheap.

When Woodbine Racetrack changed from Polytrack to Tapeta during the winter of 2015-16, the work took three months, was purposely scheduled for the offseason, and had to include a settling-in period before horses were allowed on it. Turfway Park made the same surface switch in 2020, but had the luxury of an April-to-November time window between race meets to get the project done properly. To a certain degree, both those tracks were “synthetic ready” because they were switching from Polytrack to Tapeta. The cost for each project was measured in seven digits.

Can you imagine if “Pimlico Plus” reopened in 2027 with a dirt surface, and at some point soon after that the entity running the operation decided Maryland's only racing venue needed to cease racing for a while in order to switch over to synthetic?

By all means, build the base and its infrastructure to the best possible standards with a focus on safety. But if a synthetic surface is in Pimlico's future, decide on that right from the outset without making it seem like a subsequent change from dirt could realistically be “quickly and economically” accomplished.

When Laurel closed for five months in 2021 to replace its main dirt track with an entirely new dirt surface, Maryland racing had Pimlico to fall back on so racing on the circuit wouldn't go dark. If Pimlico becomes the state's sole Thoroughbred track, there will be no Plan B for Maryland racing if it needs to repair or switch surfaces.

The post ‘Pimlico Plus’ Concerns: Roving Preakness, Future Of Turf Racing, Synthetic Readiness appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Among Rondinello's leading runners was Eclipse champion 3-year-old colt Little Current (Sea-Bird) who took the last two of the three legs of the 1974 Triple Crown series after coming fifth in the GI Kentucky Derby. He also trained 1978 Eclipse champion 3-year-old filly Tempest Queen (Graustark). In training for Darby Dan Farm, Rondinello topped over $8.6m in earnings upon his retirement in 1987.

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It was a time when criticism of short field sizes was rampant, breeding operations continued to take risks on untested sires, and when sugar horses–those who didn't run often in order to preserve their stamina–were seemingly everywhere.

If that wasn't enough, the age witnessed the rise of the Kentucky Derby as an increasingly highly commercialized party, as debates raged over when Pimlico's Preakness Stakes should run.

The year wasn't 2023; it was hundred years prior in 1923. The more things change, the more…check.

To the historically driven, it's not anachronistic to find significant pieces of the past spurning the trash heap of history. Instead, they are resting comfortably on a tuffet and teed-up nicely for all of us in the present to witness, if we are willing to listen.

That is precisely what author Avalyn Hunter's new book, Dream Derby: The Myth and Legend of Black Gold, just out from the University Press of Kentucky's Horses In History Series, does as it takes in the larger events surrounding a colt named Black Gold, his dam Useeit and their owner Rosa Hoots. This is a monograph with a complex story around their march to what was then the 50th Kentucky Derby in 1924.

Chances are you've read Marguerite Henry's famous children's book, illustrated by Dennis Wesley, about the little black colt that could. First published in 1957, it went through numerous printings, but Hunter is not looking to supplant the plucky images that were created over the generations. For her, the story behind the legend isn't just one dusty fact after another.

Dream Derby is a splendid prism in which to view key American events leading up to and after World War I, as the nation spun into the turn of the Roaring '20s. We learn that horse racing's roads in North America were traveled regularly by dreamers seeking the winner's circle prizes from Mexico to Canada and everywhere in between.

Central to the plot is Black Gold's owner, Rosa Hoots. Raised in the ways of the Osage people in Oklahoma, she was a shrewd businesswoman in Tulsa at the time. Her husband passed away and left her Useeit, along with the prophecy that she would produce a Derby winner. She did send her mare to Kentucky and the resulting colt, named Black Gold, was a reference to the booming oil deposits that many of the Osage discovered after moving to reservation land.

Colby Hernandez lays the ceremonial wreath at Black Gold's grave after his win this year's Black Gold S. at Fair Grounds | Hodges Photography

Not only does Hunter do an excellent job explaining the complexities of racial discrimination associated with the subject of David Grann's 2017 bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (which is a major motion picture from Martin Scorsese this fall), but she also examines the impact of the Tulsa race riots of 1921. She ably helps us to understand the world that Hoots inhabited and despite advances for women in categories like suffrage, it didn't mean the road was clear. As a horsewoman and not from the Eastern establishment, Black Gold's owner entered a world that is still dominated by men to this day.

The supporting cast is just as intriguing and chock full of characters worth mentioning. We find the hard-drinking trainer, Hanley Webb, who believed that cutting a hole in the stall next to his charge was essential, so he could use it as both an office and a bedroom to sleep as close as possible to his horse. There's 20-something jockey J.D. Mooney, who scratched and clawed his way back into Webb's good graces in order to pilot the best horse he ever rode. Who can forget Colonel Edward Riley Bradley? The founder of Idle Hour Stock Farm, Bradley's timely appearance in New Orleans after a Useeit victory brought the Hoots's mare to breed with his little-known sire Black Toney.

Also figuring prominently is the story of Churchill Downs's tipping point and the role played by Matt Winn. Hunter makes no bones about the integral role played by him. The Derby nearly perished into regional obscurity before his arrival in the early 20th century, and how different would everything be if that major cultural event never happened? Winn's savvy bookkeeping and courting of everyone from the racing press to the Eastern powerhouse breeders kept Churchill from going down–their pun at that time, not mine.

With the path to the 150th Derby upon us, reflection on what this sport meant then and what it means to us today can be grounding. The case of Black Gold and his rise to fame is just as alive today as it was then. In times like these, nothing like a reason to breed, race and dream.

Dream Derby: The Myth and Legend of Black Gold by University Press of Kentucky, 221 pages, September 2023.

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GI Kentucky Derby winner, committed what would have been considered blasphemy 20 years ago and skipped the Preakness to rest up for the GI Belmont S. This year, Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) was the only Derby starter to run back in the second leg of the Triple Crown, which had a field of just seven.

The Preakness has become a shell of its former self, which is a problem. The Triple Crown is not the Triple Crown unless all three races are top-class events featuring the best 3-year-olds in training.

It didn't make sense for The Stronach Group (TSG), which owns Pimlico, to keep sitting back and do nothing and let one of its most valuable assets grow more irrelevant by the year. Which is why it was no surprise when TSG floated out a trial balloon in the media last week, saying that it was serious about pushing back the date of the Preakness so that it would be run four week after the Kentucky Derby.

TSG's Aidan Butler said the move was being considered for safety reasons, that it wasn't in the best interests of the Triple Crown horses to have so little time between races. That was just spin. There's no evidence that racing horses on two weeks' rest is more dangerous than running them back in four weeks. The real reason is that the two-week gap all but guarantees a lot of good horses, and maybe even the Derby winner, will pass the Preakness, which isn't good for the race or business.

Moving the Preakness will help the Preakness, but doing so raises a new problem. The current spacing of the Triple Crown races-two weeks from the Derby to the Preakness and three weeks from the Preakness to the Belmont-works very nicely for the New York Racing Association and the Belmont Stakes. The Belmont field always gets six or seven top horses out of the Derby from trainers who wouldn't run them back in two weeks in the Preakness. That makes for a good race. It gets even better if the Derby winner wins the Preakness and heads to Long Island with a Triple Crown on the line. The chances of that happening is made easier when the competition in the Preakness is subpar. Then there's the Belmont Day card. Everything has fallen into place and the stakes-loaded Belmont day program is the best non-Breeders' Cup Day card run in the U.S. The handle is astronomical.

Moving the Belmont would also likely affect the graded races in the summer for the 3-year-olds, like Saratoga's GII Jim Dandy and the GI Travers S. With less time between the Belmont and those two races, two highlights of the Saratoga meet could be weakened.

It's easy to see why NYRA wants to keep the status quo, and that was the message the organization sent out within minutes of TSG saying that the Preakness could be on the move. “NYRA has concerns about fundamental changes to the structure of the Triple Crown. We have no plans to move the date of the Belmont Stakes,” said NYRA spokesperson Pat McKenna.

What was left unsaid is that NYRA has a weapon that TSG probably doesn't. NYRA has the assets to throw money into the Belmont. Make it a $5 million race, something I can't see TSG being able to match with the Preakness, which has a purse of $1.5 million. That sort of purse discrepancy would all but guarantee that the Belmont, and not the Preakness, would get all the big-name horses out of the Derby.

Which leaves us where?

If the Preakness is moved to four weeks after the Derby and the Belmont stays right where it is then we will have four weeks between the Derby and Preakness and one week between the Preakness and the Belmont. You would have to run in one race or the other but not both. No trainer would ever run his or her horse back on one weeks' rest if that were what was required between the Preakness and the Belmont. You probably wouldn't even get a Derby-Preakness winner to run back in a week with a possible Triple Crown on the line. The bottom line: this would be a disaster, the destruction of the Triple Crown.

This can't happen. The Triple Crown is racing's greatest asset and its demise would do irreparable harm to a sport that gets little attention from the public or the mainstream media outside of the Triple Crown. For that not to happen, something has to give. Yes, TSG could relent and recommit to the two-week break. But that leaves us right where we started, with a weak Preakness, which means a weakened Triple Crown.

The best thing for the Triple Crown, the best thing for horse racing, is for NYRA to fall in line, swallow a bitter pill, and push the Belmont back so that it is run four weeks after the Preakness. The four weeks-four weeks spacing would help reinvigorate the Triple Crown and save it from what is now floating out there, a possible Triple Crown schedule that no one should want.

In any other the sport, this would be handled by a commissioner's office, whose mission is to make decisions that benefit the league and not necessarily individual teams. A racing czar would never let the Triple Crown hang on a thread like it is. But, of course, racing doesn't have a commissioner and never will. That's why tracks get away with acting in their best interests, the interests of the sport be damned.

It's not in NYRA's best interests to move the date of the Belmont. Everyone gets that. But, realistically, only NYRA fan fix this. It needs to step up and do the right thing for the Triple Crown, which will be better and stronger with the changes. Put the sport first.

NYRA and the Pick-5 Fiasco
Bettors had every right to complain last week when the Sunday late Pick 5 at Saratoga was turned upside down by a decision to take three races in the segment off of the turf. As the horses were being loaded into the starting gate for the sixth race, the first in the Pick 5 segment, it was announced that the races were being moved to the main track. That was the result of Ever Summer (Summer Front)breaking down in the fourth race, which was run on the turf, which resulted in the horse having to be euthanized. The jockeys went to NYRA and expressed concerns about the condition of the turf course, so NYRA played it safe and took the rest of the day's race off of the grass.

For safety reasons, that was probably the right call, but it left a bitter taste in the mouth's of many a bettor. They had little chance to adjust their plays and/or cancel their bets. The Pick 5 turned into a daily double, one that paid $25.

TO NYRA's credit, CEO and President Dave O'Rourke came out publicly later in the week, apologized and said that NYRA “dropped the ball.” As a concession to the bettors, NYRA seeded Saturday's Late Pick 5 with $100,000. Tracks executives usually run and hide when something goes wrong like this. That O'Rourke was accessible and accountable was admirable.

It should also be noted that he was left to apologize for some things that were not NYRA's fault. Yes, NYRA should have gotten the word out more quickly regarding the surface changes. But it had no control over some other issues. It wanted the Pick 5 to be canceled, which absolutely would have been the right call, and asked the stewards to allow them to refund all Pick 5 wagers. But state racing regulations don't allow for that to happen. Instead, the off-the-turf races were considered “all” races when it came to the Pick 5. NYRA also asked the stewards to delay the sixth race for a few minutes, which would have given players a chance to regroup and, if they wanted to, cancel their tickets. The stewards again said no.

The rules need to be changed so that a horizontal wager can be canceled whenever a situation likes this comes up. And, if it will help matters, there's no reason why a race can't be delayed to help the player adjust their bets.

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“Underscoring how the Derby itself is devolving into a be-all/end-all, one-shot endeavor at the expense of the Triple Crown race that follows it, for the first time in 75 years, Mage was the only horse out of the Derby to enter the Preakness.”

The Preakness is a very popular event in Baltimore, it just isn't popular on national television because it hasn't been a good, competitive, highest-level race. Here's why that needs to change and how it can be improved for next year.

The 20-horse field for the Kentucky Derby offers bettors and fans Roman chariot race excitement. The horses get banged-up cut-up, and many put on the shelf for a while. Any extra betting handle coming from the cavalry charge of 20 horses to the first turn is not worth the risk to riders, horses and the sport, especially right now. Many in the industry hold their breath for two minutes.

For safety reasons, Churchill Downs (CD) needs to limit the Derby to a maximum 14 starters, like the Breeders' Cup. If they do that, good things will happen. The immediate result is CD is seen as making a positive safety move, but the magic for the Preakness, is that potentially six horses move to the second Classic with fresh horses and perhaps a full field for bettors and fans. NBC gets to promote a much better product and the Triple Crown improves.

CD may not like it, but the rest of the industry should. If CD does not make this change on its own, then there are two strategies to make it happen. First, the TOBA Graded Stakes Committee rules the maximum starters in a Grade 1 race is 14, same as the Breeders' Cup, which is a very common sense move. Second, HISA rules the same for safety reasons.

This idea is one way the industry can help the Preakness, the Triple Crown and the sport without controversy. But it's an incremental strategy that does not get to the core reason we have the Triple Crown.

Around the Thoroughbred world, breeders and owners each year seek to “prove the breed” through a series of 3-year-old Classic races for colts and fillies. All the other racing countries start in a common sense way with a shorter race first, usually at one mile, then move to 1 1/2 miles, then the final leg is somewhere longer. Not us. We start at 1 1/4 miles, then backslide to 1 3/16, then jump to 1 1/2 miles. It doesn't make sense, thus it doesn't work in an increasingly competitive sports world.

1/ST Racing, owners of the Preakness S., should do something in their own best interest to improve the Triple Crown. They should move the shorter distance Preakness to become the first Classic, perhaps two to three weeks prior to the Kentucky Derby, which is locked into the first Saturday in May. They do not need Churchill Downs permission.

1/ST Racing also owns two of the major Classic prep races, the Florida Derby and the Santa Anita Derby, both at 1 1/8 miles, which they can adjust dates and leverage toward the Preakness. What about all the other Classic prep races? They will need to adjust, which they have done from time to time. Remember, the objective is three Classic races to “prove the breed.”

With the shorter Preakness moved out of the way, the Derby horses would then have five weeks to rest up and prepare for the Belmont, which is what many trainers are doing now by skipping the Preakness. This extra time for all horses will make the Belmont a much better competition.

Moving the date of the Preakness would require the Maryland Racing Commission, City of Baltimore and 1/ST Racing to continue to collaborate on how to make Maryland racing a more successful venture with a future. To that end, the uncertainty of Pimlico and Laurel should lead to some bold thinking about how Baltimore can have a true racing success story. It's going to cost a lot of money to find any facility solution, even a bad one, why not go big on a proven racing model?

Baltimore Harbor has been the focus of major urban renewal to bring tourism downtown. It's been a struggle to find a dynamic focal point. There is great opportunity to bring Baltimore harbor a Hong Kong-style, urban race track. A sports and residential complex on the harbor, right downtown. It can be a multi-purpose facility without training stalls, where horses are shipped in on race days/nights from the training centers at Laurel and Fair Hill. Happy Valley is a multi-purpose sports complex on less than 100 acres in Hong Kong. This could be the most stunning racing facility in America, a true tourism draw for Baltimore.

It's a lot easier to address the minor problems of three races in the Triple Crown than it is to tackle the structural problems of the sport in America. TDN does a good job of allowing readers to offer ideas, maybe some of them will click.

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Trained by Steve Asmussen, who conditioned Creator (Tapit) to victory in the 2016 renewal, the chestnut worked on his own and NYRA clockers caught him galloping out five furlongs in 1:04.

“It was good, he seems like he got something out of it,” said Toby Sheets, Asmussen's Belmont-based assistant.

Third to 'TDN Rising Star' and future champion Forte (Violence) in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at two, Red Route One was runner-up in the GIII Southwest S. and GII Rebel S., but was only sixth in the GI Arkansas Derby. He was victorious in the Bath House Row S. Apr. 22 and went for an early move at Old Hilltop while racing handier than is his custom and finished evenly.

RED ROUTE ONE posted a half-mile breeze over the Belmont Park main track this morning in preparation for the Belmont Stakes!

Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, the chestnut son of Gun Runner worked solo under sunny skies on this beautiful Memorial Day. pic.twitter.com/GhfY2eZu5U

— Belmont Stakes (@BelmontStakes) May 29, 2023

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“They went so slow early, he had so much horse that he couldn't pull him up at the end he told me,” Baffert said. “Arabian Lion, I'm not sure if he's up for the mile and a half, but he did run a big race yesterday. It could change. I have until tomorrow to make these calls. I could change my mind and send them back home on Tuesday. So long as they are eating well, which they are, and they came out of it well, I think I'll be keeping them here relaxed for a little bit and I don't have to ship them.”

Next up for GI Preakness S. third-place finisher Mage (Good Magic) is some time off. The colt, owned by OGMA Investments LLC, Ramiro Restrepo, Sterling Racing LLC and CMNWLTH, will head to The Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, Ky.

“He was there from May of last year to October,” Restrepo said after checking on Mage at the Pimlico Stakes Barn Sunday morning. “We will get him turned out and do some training. Everything is great. The colt is fantastic, bright-eyed and his head is up. We could not be any happier with him after trying as hard as did in the Preakness. The kid is an iron horse.”

The next goal for Mage, who won the GI Kentucky Derby in his fourth start, will be the GI Travers S. at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 26.

“We will give him a little vacation and he will power up and we will figure out the best way to get to the Travers,” Restrepo said. “He has not missed a day and has been on the engine since January.”

Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) finished a head behind National Treasure in the second leg of the Triple Crown Saturday.

“We thought he ran exceptionally well,” said John Capek. “It's tough to be a little bit short on the winning side of things, but we are pleased with his progress.”

Blazing Sevens shipped back to New York early Sunday morning. Trainer Chad Brown has not said what the colt's next race will be.

“We will talk to Chad and see what is best for the horse for his next race,” said Capek.

Trainer Steve Asmussen saw enough in Red Route One's (Gun Runner) fourth-place finish that after the race he said the GI Belmont S. is the obvious target.

“You're not guaranteed to get pace in the Belmont. You win races because of pace, and you benefit from it periodically. And then other times you don't. This would have been the latter for him,” he added. “He is nearing $700,000 in earnings. He's kept very good company his whole career and was probably beaten [4 3/4] lengths in the Preakness in a race I don't think set up ideally for him. Does he beat them under different circumstances? Who knows? But I do like the opportunity to run him a mile and a half.”

While he did not contest the Preakness as the runner-up at the Kentucky Derby, Two Phil's (Hard Spun) is possible to return to Churchill Downs in June for the GIII Matt Winn S. according to trainer Larry Rivelli.

Rivelli stated Two Phil's could run in either the Matt Winn June 11 or the GIII Ohio Derby June 24 at Thistledown. Either would be used as a prep for the GI Haskell S. at Monmouth Park July 22 and the GI Travers S. at Saratoga Aug. 26.

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“This business is twists and turns, ups and downs,” said Baffert. “We started out great, we had a horrible race and we've been totally wiped out after [Havnameltdown] got hurt. The emotions of this game, there's so many responsibilities a trainer has, employees, horse and jockey safety, and then to win this…Losing that horse today really hurt. I'm very happy for Johnny [Velazquez] that he got the win. It's been a very emotional day.”

The victory marked a record eighth Preakness win for the Hall of Fame trainer, surpassing Robert Wyndham Walden (7) and Baffert's good friend and fellow Hall of famer D. Wayne Lukas (6).

“To win eight–right now I'm not thinking about the eight because, hopefully, I want to come back here and add to that. But I'm happy for just this horse doing what he did today. I mean, this horse brought us all out of just a horrible moment today, and I'm just grateful to that horse.”

The victory also marked the first Preakness win for Velazquez, who has been aboard for all six of the colt's career starts.

“With all the blessings that I've had and all the success I've had in other races, not having won this one was definitely missing. It's very special to have it.

Pace Makes the Race..
Away cleanly from the inside stall, the colt drew Velazquez to the front as Coffeewithchris (Ride On Curlin), the co-longest shot on the board at 10-1, took up the chase with 9-2 third choice Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) and the defending Kentucky Derby champ and 7-5 favorite Mage (Good Magic) in close pursuit through an opening quarter in :23.95. Down the backstretch, a super-rank Red Route One (Gun Runner) sensed the poky pace and threw his head in the air as Joel Rosario tried to quell the smoldering inferno. Still cruising up front while throwing down an equally sedate half in :48.92, National Treasure maintained a 1 1/2-length advantage over Coffeewithchris with the trio of Red Route One, Mage and Blazing Sevens drafting another length behind. Blazing Sevens rider, Irad Ortiz Jr., started to turn the screws on the leader after three quarters in 1:13.49, setting the duo up for an epic battle. Turning for home, National Treasure held the inside advantage, while Blazing Sevens swung out six paths wide with the Derby champ being fanned out even wider and trying to mount his own challenge down the center of the track. At the top of the stretch, Blazing Sevens relentlessly closed on the leader who still had something left in the tank. Deadlocked midstretch, the duo appeared to gain, and then lose, the lead with every stride. With Velazquez scrubbing on the colt left handed and Ortiz Jr. showing the whip to his mount on the outside, the pair rolled down the stretch, battling with every stride, and ultimately hitting the wire seemingly in unison. The photo told another tale, however. Or a head as it were. Mage finished 2 1/4 lengths back in third while Red Route One was another 2 1/2 lengths farther back in fourth.

“I got a good break and hooked him outside a bit to think about what I was going to do,” explained Velazquez. “It wasn't really the plan [to put him front] but I really wanted to put him in a good rhythm. We got to the [first] turn and went to the inside and saved some ground. And we also saved some ground on the second turn when Irad [Ortiz Jr. aboard Blazing Sevens] started moving at the three-eighths pole, I stayed in there. But when I came to the quarter pole, I put a little pressure on [National Treasure] and he fought the whole way. At the 3/16ths pole, he put up a really good fight and he did not let [Blazing Sevens] pass him. That's what champions do.”

“You ride the best you can and the horse responds the best he can and does everything you want to do. That's what it takes. We do all the planning, that's what you hope for. He did everything I asked him to do.”

While the fractions proved a detriment to some, they were the ace in the hole for team Baffert and National Treasure.

“I loved [the early fractions],” he said. “If we could make the easy lead and just cruise around there…We knew he would love the distance. Once I saw the half-mile fraction, there was no excuses. That horse came to him…I thought he was going to go by us. But our horse dug in. It was a great race.”

In stark contrast, a visibly gutted Chad Brown was pragmatic about Blazing Seven's narrow defeat.

“I did not want to be in the middle of the racetrack the whole way, but I don't think Irad [Ortiz Jr.] had much choice,” the trainer explained. “The horse just got a very, very wide trip and he came up just short. I think the amount of ground lost probably cost him. I was a little worried because he was so wide the whole way. I thought maybe it might take the starch out of him a little bit, and it did. He had the outside post and I think Irad made the best decisions that he could. I don't see what he could have done differently.”

With Mage's Triple Crown dreams dashed, assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr. also thought his colt's chances were compromised by the slow pace.

“We took the shot; it was worth the shot, and we got beat,” he said. “But I don't take anything from the winner. They beat us. That's it. He ran a good race to be third.”

He continued, “If you take him farther back [off a slow pace], the closer, maybe he doesn't respond. No speed in the race…The horses in front were going easy. Those horses, you don't beat them [with that pace]. They always fight. They fight when they go fast; imagine when they go so slow. They rebreak.

He added, “He's lightly raced; we'll see how he comes back. We'll regroup, take our time and see what's next to him. Nobody is going to take the Derby from him.”

Classic Winner in the Making…
Sent off the 3-1 second choice in his career debut at Del Mar last September, the Kentucky bred came home a 1 1/2 length winner and was jumped up into top tier company for his next two, finishing runner-up behind stablemate Cave Rock (Arrogate) in the GI American Pharoah S. before coming home third to ultimate juvenile champion Forte (Violence) and Cave Rock in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keeneland in November. Shelved for the rest of the year, he returned with a third behind two more Baffert alums–Reincarnate (Good Magic) and Newgate (Into Mischief)–in the GIII Sham S. Jan. 8. Transferred to Tim Yakteen in order to earn Kentucky Derby points for his latest start, he finished fourth behind Practical Move (Practical Joke) in the GI Santa Anita Derby.

“He won early and he showed us he was a nice horse, but we knew that he needed distance.” Baffert explained. “It just took him a while. He is still hasn't really filled out into his frame.”

Coming into Saturday's race, the sophomore worked four furlongs in a bullet :47.40 (1/31) at Santa Anita May 12 following a six-furlong move in a bullet 1:11.20 (1/4) May 6.

“We can tell his last works were very strong–he was working like a really good horse,” he continued. “His works were ridiculous. We also shipped here early because I didn't want to bring him too close to the race. I wanted to give him a chance to settle in.”

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Following the highest of highs and the lowest of lows experienced by the Baffert team over the course of a single day, the Hall of Fame trainer acknowledged it was the team effort that meant the most to the man who has spent a lifetime training horses..43 years to be exact.

“To me, this means more for Johnny getting his first Preakness win,” he said. “I give Johnny credit; he got him out of the gate beautifully. That's why he's in the Hall of Fame. I always feel confident when Johnny is on my horse.”

He continued, “I also have a great team. We've got Jimmy Barnes, you all know; my assistant, Pascual Rivera; all my grooms. They're the ones that do all the hard work. I delegate a lot of this, and we're a good team. They know what's expected of them.”

And while Baffert admits that his team at the barn are important parts in his success, he also acknowledges that his 'home' team is the very foundation of his empire.

“Well, I couldn't have done it without my beautiful wife Jill's support and my family and my friends,” he said. “We've been through a tough go. But we knew we would get through this, and the thing–I just focus. Like I said, it's the love of the horse that just keeps me focused and keeps me going, and I just kept the noise out.”

Addressing some of the challenges he has faced in recent times, he admitted, “It was tough. We had some tough moments. But it's days like this that it's not really vindication. I feel like we have a moment where we can enjoy it. We have a moment where we enjoy what we do. We get rewarded for how hard everybody in my team works. To me, that's mainly what it's about.”

Pedigree Notes:
National Treasure's victory gave Lane's End sire his 15th Grade 1/Group 1 victory. Offered at last summer's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling sale, bloodstock agent Donato Lanni extended to $500,000 on behalf of SF Racing, Starlight Racing and Sol Kumin's Madaket Stables. The partners subsequently brought on partners Robert Masterson, Stonestreet Stables, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan. The colt was bred in Kentucky by Peter Blum Thoroughbreds, also responsible for Champion 3-year-old Authentic, also trained by Baffert and campaigned by Starlight and Madaket in partnership with Spendthrift and Myracehorse.

Run through the Keeneland September yearling sale in 2013, the winner's dam Treasure RNA'd for $375,000. After producing a pair of colts by Speightstown in 2017 and 2018, both with earnings over $200,000, she followed with a full sister to National Treasure prior to the Preakness winner. Most recently, she produced a colt by Omaha Beach in 2021 named Pirate followed by a filly by Authentic last season. She was bred back to Quality Road.

Saturday, Pimlico
PREAKNESS S.-GI, $1,650,000, Pimlico, 5-20, 3yo, 1 3/16m, 1:55.12, ft.
1–NATIONAL TREASURE, 126, c, 3, by Quality Road
               1st Dam: Treasure, by Medaglia d'Oro
                2nd Dam: Proposal, by Mt. Livermore
                3rd Dam: Lady of Choice, by Storm Bird
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN,
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($500,000 Ylg '21 FTSAUG). O-SF Racing LLC,
Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Robert E. Masterson,
Stonestreet Stables LLC, Jay A. Schoenfarber, Waves Edge
Capital LLC and Catherine Donovan; B-Peter E. Blum
Thoroughbreds, LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-John R. Velazquez.
$990,000. Lifetime Record: 6-2-1-2, $1,335,000. Werk Nick
Rating: F. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Blazing Sevens, 126, c, 3, Good Magic–Trophy Girl, by
Warrior's Reward. 'TDN Rising Star'. ($140,000 Ylg '21 KEEJAN;
$225,000 Ylg '21 FTSAUG). O-Rodeo Creek Racing, LLC; B-Tracy
Farmer (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $330,000.
3–Mage, 126, c, 3, Good Magic–Puca, by Big Brown. ($235,000
Ylg '21 KEESEP; $290,000 2yo '22 EASMAY). O-OGMA
Investments, LLC, Ramiro Restrepo, Sterling Racing LLC and
CMNWLTH; B-Grandview Equine (KY); T-Gustavo Delgado.
$181,500.
Margins: HD, 2 1/4, 2HF. Odds: 2.90, 4.90, 1.40.
Also Ran: Red Route One, Chase the Chaos, Perform, Coffeewithchris. Scratched: First Mission.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

The post National Treasure Outgames Blazing Sevens In Preakness 148 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The whole premise of nostalgia is irretrievability: the yearning for a time or place that can't be revisited. (Very often, perhaps, because it never existed in the first place.) This morbidity is suggested in the Greek stems of the word: nostos, homecoming, and algos, pain or distress. Unfortunately, while the first of these is doomed to remain notional, the second can even be national. It spills over into the here and now, corroding the happiness not just of individuals but whole societies. All round the world, we see populists promising to renew some golden age by restoring lapsed imperial or demographic boundaries.

But that observation obliges me to ask myself whether I'm doing anything so very different, in stubbornly resisting the groundswell towards Triple Crown reform?

With a solitary Kentucky Derby runner deigning to line up for the second leg of the series, for the first time since the current schedule was adopted in 1969, many whose opinions I respect appear to be accepting that there is no longer any point trying to turn back the side. They look at the seven runners in the GI Preakness S. on Saturday, and say the time has come to yield principle to pragmatism.

Well, they may be right. But first, I have a couple of questions. One is exactly where we can find this putative engagement with a disaffected wider public? Is it from having more competitive Triple Crown races, or is it from the romance of the quest itself?

Mage, Pimlico Race Course | Horsephotos

For a long time, during the drought between Affirmed and American Pharoah, we were told (despite several extremely close misses) that the assignment lay beyond the modern Thoroughbred and that we were duly squandering our best chance of engaging fan attention. On that basis, however, the defection of so many rivals clearly only enhances the prospects of Mage (Good Magic) heading to Belmont with a Triple Crown within reach. If that is supposed the grail of publicity, pricelessly combining heritage and accessibility, then does anyone imagine that casual viewers will tune out because the Preakness field lacked triple-figure Beyers?

But maybe the whole premise is wrong anyhow. If the Triple Crown is the best way of stemming our sport's drift from mainstream affections, then how do we assess the impact of the two we have saluted as recently as 2015 and 2018? While unanswerably demonstrating that the current schedule remains perfectly within the competence of the 21st Century Thoroughbred, American Pharoah and Justify hardly reversed the slide. As should be painfully obvious by now, we must address far more serious and challenging deficiencies in the way we present ourselves to a changing world.

Not that we can afford complacency in the audience we already have: the people, that is, who know enough about our arcane world to be dismayed by the lack of both quality and quantity in the field awaiting Mage at Pimlico. When so many indices are spiraling down, retention must be a still bigger priority than expansion. But a Triple Crown extended into July–which, in itself, might well stretch the fickle attention of a casual sports fan–could prove disastrous for other cherished races of high summer, especially now that horses are supposed to need a break before regrouping for a Breeders' Cup prep.

It is, as we know, the trainers who are driving this whole agenda. They have either seen or for some reason decided that horses today cannot soak up the kind of campaign that once allowed breeders a reliable measure of the kind of genetic resources they could aspire to replicate. The incidental benefit of this approach, of course, was precisely the fan engagement we have forfeited in protecting horses not only from competition but also from visibility.

The trainers have given the industry a choice. Either we concede that commercial breeding must be producing a Thoroughbred lacking the physical resources of its predecessors; or we candidly take issue with the trainers, and employ people who will explore the capacity of their charges more thoroughly. In both cases, however, the solution is in our own hands. What we are seeing in the Triple Crown series is a symptom of the problem, not the cause.

If it's about the physical caliber of the horses we are producing, then that obviously ties into another and far more serious challenge. If modern horses can't race twice under the same moon, or even stand up to federal regulation, then surely, we need to address the crazy situation where breeding for the sales ring has somehow become different from breeding a runner.

If it's simply the trainers that are wrong, however, then there are also things we can do about it. And that's not just because D. Wayne Lukas is still doing his thing at 87. I've regularly cited the example of another old master, Jim Bolger, just a couple of years ago running Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) in three Classics in 22 days, before winning at Royal Ascot barely three weeks later; and, as often, deplored how only the Japanese could find a place for this horse at stud. But Bolger was also the mentor of Aidan O'Brien, who has himself frequently taken a similar approach. (One of my favorite instances was Peeping Fawn (Danehill). She was placed in a Classic 11 days after breaking her maiden at the fourth attempt; and then ran second in another, over an extra half-mile, five days after that. That experience so damaged her that she proceeded to four Group 1 wins inside eight weeks.)

Good Magic | Sarah Andrew

To me, it looks as though Bolger and O'Brien both believe that a thriving horse has a window of opportunity. And, on that basis, it may actually prove harder to maintain a Derby winner at the same peak for a Belmont in July than with the present calendar.

Most American trainers today evidently disagree. And look, I accept that times change. Mage himself, a horse we hadn't heard of 10 minutes ago, is a Derby winner for our times. He has a different scenario to tackle this time, and shouldn't give a start to one working as briskly as National Treasure (Quality Road). Even in this small field there are some pretty legitimate horses, and it's certainly an incredible achievement for Good Magic's first crop to yield three of seven starters in a Classic.

According to the behavior of trainers, it should be nearly inevitable that a raw colt like Mage regresses from his effort two weeks ago. If he happened to do that, however, it's a fair bet that whichever “mediocre” horse (not my view, I stress) took advantage could still be rewarded with 200 mares at stud next spring. Suffice to say that we have a lot of other stuff to sort out before we start scapegoating an anachronistic Triple Crown.

Good luck to Mage. He has a ton of talent. Who knows? Maybe he will prove the last Triple Crown winner over five weeks–and the last, therefore, who can validly claim parity with the previous 13. And then, when these elusive young fans become as old and grumpy as me, he may even be the stuff of nostalgia.

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