While the thrill of winning the Kentucky Derby is still sinking in to his connections, Mage seemingly just wants to get back to business.
Mage returned to the track Tuesday at Churchill Downs, where he jogged a mile and galloped a mile over a sloppy track. Wednesday, he did a bit more, galloping 1 1/2 miles.
Mage, the Kentucky Derby winner, went back to the track Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs for the first time since his 15-1 upset in last Saturday’s Run for the Roses.
According to assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr., Mage jogged one mile and galloped one mile over a muddy Churchill surface.
“The rider said he felt good and with lots of energy,” Delgado said via text.
Delgado indicated that travel plans for Mage from Kentucky to Maryland have not yet been finalized. Horses participating in the Preakness must be on the grounds by noon on May 17.
Two Phil’s, runner-up in the Kentucky Derby, will skip the Preakness, his trainer Larry Rivelli said Tuesday.
The news was first reported by Jim O’Donnell in the (Chicago) Daily Herald.
Rivelli said Tuesday the two-week turnaround from the Derby to the Preakness was “way too soon.”
“He came back great, but it’s 11 days from today,” Rivelli said Tuesday morning by phone from Hawthorne. “He just got home, he settled in, looks great, but it’s way too soon. There’s no pressure to do it. I might not have run even if he won, which would have been a bigger deal.”
The connections of Perform will pay a $150,000 supplemental fee to make him eligible to run in the $1.5 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 20, trainer Shug McGaughey said Monday.
“We’re a go,” McGaughey said.
Perform was not nominated to the Triple Crown by either of the first two deadlines -- $600 by Jan. 28 or $6,000 by March 27-- because he had just a maiden win to his credit from five starts, the win coming on March 11 at Tampa Bay Downs. One of Perform’s maiden losses came by 5 1/2 lengths to Mage, who last Saturday won the Kentucky Derby.
Forte, the morning-line favorite for the Kentucky Derby who was scratched the morning of the race, was placed on a 14-day veterinarian’s list due to the scratch and, as a result, will be unable to start in the Preakness Stakes on May 20.
Brad Cox won six stakes at Churchill Downs and one more at Belmont Park last week, but it was the big one that got away that left him feeling a tad empty Sunday morning.
Despite having four of the 18 runners in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, Cox went away empty-handed with Angel of Empire’s third-place finish behind Mage the best placing among his quartet. Hit Show ran a respectable fifth, while Verifying and Jace’s Road finished 16th and 17th, respectively.
The inaugural Preakness Stakes Future Bet will include a field of 28 individual horses and an “all others” entry, according to a list of horses distributed Tuesday night.
The field includes many of the top choices for the May 6 Kentucky Derby, plus a handful of horses whose trainers have indicated that they are shooting for the May 20 Preakness after the post-Derby shakeout. But the timing of the Preakness Future Bet will require players to make their selections prior to that shakeout – the pool will close on the afternoon of May 6, prior to the running of the Derby.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Red Route One earned a Preakness Stakes berth with his win in the $200,000 Bath House Row on Saturday at Oaklawn, but whether he advances to the middle leg of the Triple Crown has yet to be determined, according to trainer Steve Asmussen.
“We’ll see how things shake out, whether he runs in the Preakness,” Asmussen said Sunday.
Asmussen noted Red Route One has common ownership ties with Disarm, who is being pointed to the Kentucky Derby. Both horses race for their breeder, Winchell Thoroughbreds.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Red Route One became a stakes winner Saturday when he came rolling for a head win over Tapit Shoes in the $200,000 Bath House Row at Oaklawn Park.
It was another half-length back in third to favorite Victory Formation.
Red Route One came into the race as one of the top 3-year-olds at Oaklawn, having run second in both the Grade 3 Southwest and Grade 2 Rebel. He also represented himself well in graded stakes starts as a 2-year-old.
The owner of Pimlico Race Course plans to offer as many as 40 horses in a parimutuel future bet for the track’s Preakness Stakes this year, the acting president and general manager of the track said Thursday.
The Preakness Future Bet will open April 28 and close about 6 p.m. Eastern on May 6, about a half-hour prior to the scheduled post time of the Kentucky Derby, according to Mike Rogers, who oversees racing at Pimlico for the track’s parent company, 1/ST Racing. It will be the first parimutuel future bet offered on the Preakness.
