LAUREL, Md. – Finishing third in the Kentucky Derby is obviously not as good as winning. But for the connections of Ocelli, their colt’s third at 70-1 as a maiden in the 152nd Kentucky Derby two weeks ago at Churchill Downs felt pretty satisfying. Ocelli, who only drew into the Derby off the also-eligible list two days before the race, made a sustained rally under Tyler Gaffalione that carried him from 17th to the lead inside the sixteenth pole. The lead was short-lived, however, as Ocelli was passed by Golden Tempo and Renegade, ultimately beaten one length at the wire. “Once the dust settled and all things considered and you look at the charts and you look at the ground covered, he ran a really, really, really good race – a winning race,” trainer Whit Beckman said. “I won’t say it’s as good as winning, but it was a lot of validation for everything that we had really put in in terms of faith and confidence in this horse. But for a second there it was like ‘[damn], I could have won this race.’ ” Based on experience with his previous two Derby runners – Honor Marie in 2024 and Flying Mohawk in 2025 – Beckman was not immediately considering another Triple Crown race for Ocelli. :: Get ready for Preakness with DRF past performances, picks, and betting strategies! But on Tuesday morning, here Beckman was at Laurel Park, where they will hold Saturday’s 151st Preakness as Pimlico undergoes renovation. Ocelli simply came out of the Derby too well not to give this a try. “A lot of horses, they run at 7 o’clock at night, you put them back in the stall, they’re not going to finish their food,” Beckman said. “He had his head out of his stall ready to go the next morning, cleaned his feed tub. Brought him out, he was just bouncing around the shed row.” After giving Ocelli three walk days, Beckman brought him to the track for a jog the morning of May 6 and “it was apparent that horse was not knocked back by the experience,” Beckman said. Ocelli, a son of Connect, is winless in seven starts. He has appeared in four stakes races. Sixth-place finishes in the Sam Davis at Tampa Bay Downs and the Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs left him a 28-1 shot in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. Beckman felt Ocelli was trying to look around his blinkers in the Virginia Derby, which broke his momentum and led to the poor result. Beckman removed the blinkers for the Wood and Ocelli came with a late run to finish third, beaten 1 1/4 lengths. He was beaten a nose for second which left him without the sufficient points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby. When entries were taken for the Derby, Ocelli was two deep on the also-eligible list. It wasn’t until two days before the Derby that Ocelli got the scratch he needed to get into the field. Beckman said the uncertainty about getting into the Derby made for a somewhat less-stressful week – up until the moment Ocelli got into the race. “At that point, it kind of set in, now we need to worry about [stuff] we weren’t worrying about before,” he said. Ocelli’s third-place Derby finish was the best result of 14 maidens who have attempted to win the race since 1937. As far as the Preakness goes, six maidens won from 1873 to 1888. :: Get Preakness Betting Strategies for exclusive wagering insights, contender analysis, and more Ocelli will be just the fifth maiden to run in the race since 1980, according to research done by Equibase. In 1980, Bing finished fifth at 63-1. In 2019, the maiden Bodexpress finished 13th in the Kentucky Derby, then two weeks later unseated jockey John Velazquez leaving the starting gate as a 20-1 shot in the Preakness. Ocelli has been tabbed as a 5-1 shot for the Preakness, a race that lacks a standout – as well as the Derby top two finishers – in a field of 14. “The horse proved he’s not a 70-1-type horse against these fields,” Beckman said. “He’s always been one we knew in the morning was a highly talented animal, had a ton of ability. He always did everything the right way, always came out of his works the way a good horse would, always handled himself the way a good horse would. Now 5-1, 6-1, it’s a more fair representation of him now that everyone’s been able to witness it. But it’s not surprising to me.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.