Preakness picks up Win Win Win, loses Mr. Money

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – While the second jewel of the Triple Crown takes on a far different look than the first, a fourth Kentucky Derby holdover surfaced Wednesday as a good possibility to run in the May 18 Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore while one of the would-be “new shooters” dropped out.

Win Win Win, ninth in the Derby last Saturday here at Churchill Downs, is being given serious consideration for a Preakness run, said trainer Mike Trombetta, while Mr. Money, a romping winner of the Pat Day Mile on the Derby undercard, is no longer a Preakness candidate, said trainer Bret Calhoun.

Those lineup tweaks keep the prospective Preakness field at 10 and come less than 24 hours after Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott reached out to inform Daily Racing Form that Country House, the colt who was awarded the Derby victory in a controversy that still rages, will not run in the Preakness after the colt began to show signs of becoming ill at Churchill, where he remains stabled.

“He developed a little bit of a cough this morning,” Mott said Tuesday from New York. “His appetite is good. He doesn’t have a fever. But he’s coughing. We drew blood. He’s acting like he’s going to get sick. He’s off the training list, and if he’s off the training list he’s off the Preakness list.

“It’s probably a little viral thing. Hopefully it doesn’t develop into anything serious. Usually when something like this happens a horse misses a couple weeks of training. He’s not seriously sick right now. But he’s showing indications that something is going on.”

Country House crossed under the wire second in the Derby but was elevated to first following the historic disqualification of Maximum Security, who finished first but was ruled by the Churchill stewards to have interfered with several rivals when he ducked out suddenly at the five-sixteenths pole.

Kenny McCarthy, the longtime Mott assistant based at Churchill, said Wednesday that Country House would remain here “at least for a little while.”

“He’s on antibiotics now,” McCarthy said. “We’ll keep monitoring him very closely and decide where he’ll go and what he’ll do when that time comes.”

The defection of Country House means the Preakness will lack the first four horses under the wire in the Derby for the first time since Count Turf upset the 1951 Derby. Maximum Security, now at Monmouth Park, is not running, and neither are Code of Honor (ran third, awarded second) nor the Mott-trained Tacitus (ran fourth, awarded third).

Country House, who at 65-1 was the second longest-priced winner in race history behind Donerail in 1913, becomes just the fifth Derby winner in 60 years not to contest the Preakness. The others were Tomy Lee (1959), Gato Del Sol (1982), Spend a Buck (1985), and Grindstone (1996).

The defection of Country House means there will be no Triple Crown bid this year. The Triple Crown has been swept twice this decade, by American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify last year.

Code of Honor will be pointed for a summer campaign that trainer Shug McGaughey hopes includes the Travers at Saratoga. The July 6 Dwyer at Belmont Park is probably next, said McGaughey.

“I want to give him a chance,” McGaughey said Tuesday at Belmont. “He’s still young.”

Win Win Win, no factor at 16-1 in the Derby, returned to the Fair Hill Training Center in northern Maryland early this week and was sent out for an easy jog there Wednesday morning. If he runs in the Preakness, he will join Improbable (fourth after the disqualification), War of Will (seventh), and Bodexpress (13th) from the Derby.

The other Preakness probables are Alwaysmining, Anothertwistafate, Bourbon War, Laughing Fox, Owendale, and Signalman.

Win Win Win, said Trombetta, “seems like he came out of it good, but I told the [Pimlico] racing office I’ll need until Friday to really know if we’re running.”

Win Win Win “just spun his wheels” in the Churchill slop, he added.

“And still we only got beat five lengths by Improbable, who sure looks like he’ll be the favorite,” Trombetta said. “This looks like a completely different race than what the Derby was, so, yeah, I’ve got to take a serious look.”

Calhoun said several factors entered into his decision to bypass the Preakness with Mr. Money, a 5 1/4-length winner of the Pat Day Mile, including the two-week turnaround and the fact there are “so many other options for a horse of his caliber this summer.”

He said the June 15 Matt Winn at Churchill followed by the Indiana Derby is the likely path he will take.

Laughing Fox had his first day of training since winning the inaugural Oaklawn Invitational last Saturday, galloping Wednesday at Churchill for trainer Steve Asmussen. Owendale and Signalman are slated for serious breezes here Saturday.

– additional reporting by Jay Privman and David Grening

Potential Preakness Starters
Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Last Race
Alwaysmining	Kelly Rubley	Daniel Centeno	Tesio, 1st
Anothertwistafate	Blaine Wright	Jose Ortiz	Lexington, 2nd
Bodexpress	Gustavo Delgado	undecided	Ky. Derby, 13th
Bourbon War	Mark Hennig	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	Fla. Derby, 4th
Improbable	Bob Baffert	Mike Smith	Ky. Derby, 4th
Laughing Fox	Steve Asmussen	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	OP Invitational, 1st
Owendale	Brad Cox	Florent Geroux	Lexington, 2nd
Signalman	Kenny McPeek	Brian Hernandez, Jr.	Blue Grass, 3rd
War of Will	Mark Casse	Tyler Gaffalione	Ky. Derby, 7th
Warrior's Charge	Brad Cox	Javier Castellano	OP allowance, 1st
Win Win Win	Mike Trombetta	Julien Pimentel	Ky. Derby, 9th