Mage, upset winner of the 2023 Kentucky Derby, has been retired and will begin his stallion career at Airdrie Stud in 2024, his connections announced on Monday. Mage rallied from near the rear of the field, more than a dozen lengths off the lead, under jockey Javier Castellano to score a one-length victory over Two Phil’s at odds of 15-1 in the Kentucky Derby with a solid 105 Beyer Speed Figure. A son of Good Magic trained by Gustavo Delgado Sr., Mage entered the Derby having made only three previous starts and with just a single victory on his résumé – a seven-furlong maiden race at Gulfstream Park a little over three months earlier. Mage made only three starts after the Derby, finishing third as the 7-5 favorite in the Preakness and second in the Grade 1 Haskell before completing his career with a disappointing seventh-place finish, beaten 15 lengths by Arcangelo, in the Travers. Mage was forced to bypass a start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic after his connections reported he had to miss his final scheduled work for the race at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Ky., due to a minor illness. Mage, owned by a partnership group headed by bloodstock agent Ramiro Restrepo, who picked the horse out at the 2022 Fasig Tipton Mid-Atlantic sale in Maryland for $290,000 along with Delgado, retired with earnings of $2,507,450. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. “It’s a very tough and emotional moment for all of us to announce his retirement. You can’t script this kind of stuff in a game of giants. For four local groups to come together and have a ride like this it’s unbelievable. It’s been life changing,” Restrepo said shortly after Mage’s retirement was announced. “The timing of the fever before the Breeders’ Cup was unfortunate, but sometimes Mother Nature signals things that you can’t control. “Obviously we had a rather ambitious early 2024 schedule mapped out for Mage starting with the Pegasus and then to go to Saudi and Dubai. . . . But he had a couple of other minor setbacks since the Breeders’ Cup, so once we knew he was going to be forced to miss those races, the meat and potatoes of his 4-year-old year, it was a mutual decision among all the ownership interests and Airdrie Stud, with whom we already had a deal in place, to retire him to stud in time for the upcoming season.” It was also an emotional day for Delgado, who did such a remarkable job preparing Mage to capture the Derby in only his fourth lifetime start. Mage become only the third horse, along with Apollo (1882) and Justify (2018), to win the race without the benefit of having started as a 2-year-old. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures “Mage has been a great blessing in our family’s life,” Delgado said in a press release. “He was special for so many reasons and he gave all of us that were blessed to be associated with him the greatest days you could ever have in racing. “He was so brilliantly talented and his mind and determination were as exceptional as his abilities. He had been so good to us and owes us nothing.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.