Mage returns to work tab with eye on Travers

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The paths of Mage and Arcangelo are likely destined to cross on one or more occasions during the second half of the 2023 season, beginning with the Grade 1 Travers on Aug. 26 at Saratoga. But the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winners are certainly no strangers to one another, not only having wintered and won their maidens during this year’s Gulfstream Park Championship meet but having done so from under the same roof on the Gulfstream Park backstretch.

“We share the same barn, Barn 22, and are good friends with Jena” Antonucci, Gustavo Delgado Jr., the son of trainer Gustavo Delgado, acknowledged Friday. “We’d seen [Arcangelo] train and knew he was something special right along this winter and called and congratulated both Jena and Javier [Castellano] right after they won the Belmont.”

Mage and Arcangelo have gone their separate ways since Mage departed Barn 22 at Gulfstream Park for Churchill Downs in late April to win the Derby before going on to Pimlico, where he finished third behind National Treasure two weeks later in the Preakness. From there, Mage was sent directly to the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Ky., where he had his first work since the Preakness on Friday, a very easy five furlongs in 1:05 and change, according to Delgado.

“We gave him 17 days off without doing anything after the Preakness. It’s a very quiet environment, which is one reason why we wanted to bring him here,” Delgado said. “He came out of the race fine and could have run back in the Belmont if we wanted, but the plan was only to run him in that race if he won the Preakness. He’s doing fine, and the Travers is the target right now. He’ll have a couple more works at the training center then head to Saratoga around the second week of July. From there we’ll let him tell us whether to run in the Jim Dandy or just train up to the Travers.”

Delgado said one topic that never came up in conversation with either Antonucci or Castellano – who rode both Mage and Arcangelo to their Triple Crown race victories – after the Belmont was the potential decision Castellano would have to make if and when both ultimately race against one another for the first time.

“That’s a conversation for a later date,” Delgado said.

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