ELMONT, N.Y. – In case you haven’t heard, this is the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s Triple Crown tour de force. And while those five weeks will always be memorable to racing historians and fans, so too is the five-week battle staged between Sunday Silence and Easy Goer 34 years ago. The stretch drive of the 1989 Preakness still resonates when people think about one of the best rivalries in racing. The nose victory by Sunday Silence over Easy Goer in the Preakness is something Easy Goer’s trainer, Shug McGaughey, says he still thinks about quite often. “Not like it hurts me or anything, but I do think about it,” McGaughey said. “And you get reminded quite a bit of it.” Especially this time of year, with the 148th Preakness to be run Saturday at Pimlico. Remarkably, when he runs Perform, McGaughey, 72, will be participating in just his second Preakness since 1989, fourth overall. In 2013, Kentucky Derby winner Orb finished fourth in the Preakness, a race McGaughey summed up as “a disaster.” In 1984, Pine Circle finished sixth for McGaughey. Though Easy Goer lost a heartbreaker, McGaughey thought the performance actually validated his chestnut colt who was beaten 2 1/2 lengths by Sunday Silence when finishing second in the Derby. :: DRF's Preakness Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, and more “The first thing that came to my mind was at least I know I’m as good as Sunday Silence,” McGaughey said. “He beat us pretty easy in the Derby. I didn’t think there was any kind of a problem, but to me that sort of validated that he’s as good as him and then he proved it here.” McGaughey was speaking Sunday on the apron at Belmont Park, where three weeks after the Preakness, Easy Goer beat Sunday Silence by eight lengths in the Belmont Stakes. The two would meet once more, with Sunday Silence beating Easy Goer in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park. Perform, McGaughey’s entrant in Saturday’s Preakness, won’t be 3-5 like Easy Goer and Orb, but he won’t be 53-1 like Pine Circle. Perform enters the Preakness off back-to-back wins around two turns, in a maiden race on March 11 at Tampa Bay Downs and the Federico Tesio on April 15 at Laurel Park. It was off the Tesio performance that McGaughey talked with his owners – Woodford Racing, Lane’s End Farm, Phipps Stable, Ken Langone, and Edward Hudson – about paying the $150,000 supplemental fee to run in the Preakness. “They said if you feel like it’s worthy of doing we’re ready to go,” McGaughey said. “They’re ready to go and that’s what they’re in the game for, these kinds of situations. They’re all excited about; I didn’t have to twist any arms by any means.” Perform, a son of Good Magic, had run in four sprint races before getting stretched out around two turns at Tampa. The last of those sprints came Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park, where Perform finished fourth, 5 1/2 lengths behind a first-time starter named Mage, who would go on to run fourth in the Fountain of Youth and second in the Florida Derby before winning the Kentucky Derby. McGaughey felt Mage might have a made a premature move in the Florida Derby. “I thought he ran a really, really good race in there and if they made that adjustment that he could be really tough,” in the Kentucky Derby, McGaughey said. “I had people arguing with me about the experience factor, which had always been over the years a lightly raced horse couldn’t win. I think he’s pretty good. He’s got that one run, so he’s a little bit one dimensional, but when he makes it, he’s pretty tough.” McGaughey believes Perform could be tough as well in what will be an eight-horse Preakness. Perform is 2 for 2 around two turns and following a half-mile workout in 48.16 seconds Sunday morning at Belmont, McGaughey believes he’s seeing the horse progress. “I think the two-turn races on the dirt have been really good,” McGaughey said. McGaughey’s presence in the Triple Crown used to depend largely on the stock he was given by the Phipps family and Stuart Janney III, the cousin of the late Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps. Janney and the Phipps family owned Orb. :: Get ready to bet the Preakness! Join DRF Bets and score a $250 Deposit Match + $10 Free Bet + Free PPs - Promo code: WINNING Over the last few years, McGaughey has been able to train for outside entities, and those clients have spent big money at auction. General Jim is a promising 3-year-old who won the Pat Day Mile on Derby Day and is pointing to the Grade 1 Woody Stephens on the Belmont Stakes undercard. Signator was highly thought of at 2 before ankle issues sidelined him. On Sunday, at Belmont, he had his first work at the track, and McGaughey is hopeful of running him once at Belmont before Saratoga. Moreover, there does seem to be a pipeline of 2-year-olds on the way as well. Stop the Press, a son of Uncle Mo who sold for $1.5 million as a yearling at Saratoga last summer, is owned by Woodford and West Point, as is Cugino, a son of Twirling Candy and a half-brother to Battle of Normandy. McGaughey said he has a Speightstown colt for the Phippses and a Frosted colt for Janney that show promise. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.