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Forte in a pre-Derby work. (JennyPhoto/Past The Wire)
Middle Jewel of Triple Crown May 20 at Pimlico Race Course
David Joseph/Maryland Jockey Club
BALTIMORE, Md. – In the Preakness, Kentucky Derby champ Mage very likely will get a rematch with Forte, last year’s 2-year-old champion and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) winner who was scratched the morning of the Derby with a foot bruise. Forte won Gulfstream Park’s Fountain of Youth (G2) and Florida Derby (G1) in his only two starts this year, races in which Mage came in fourth and second, respectively.
Trainer Todd Pletcher termed Forte’s foot as “good” Sunday morning and said the champion should have a timed workout in the next few days. Both Forte and Pletcher will stay in Kentucky for the near future, with Pletcher having a division at Churchill Downs. Forte, who galloped Saturday morning before being withdrawn from the Derby, did not train Sunday but will go back to the track Monday, Pletcher said.
The Hall of Fame trainer has never won the Preakness. He generally skips it with his Derby horses unless they win the race, preferring to target the 1 1/2-mile Belmont (G1) at his home track of Belmont Park in New York to running back in two weeks. Pletcher’s two Derby winners, Always Dreaming in 2017 and Super Saver in 2010, both finished eighth at Pimlico.
Pletcher said Forte deserves the opportunity to try to win a Triple Crown race. However, if Forte doesn’t make the Preakness, he said the colt likely will be pointed for the Travers (G1) in August at Saratoga rather than the Triple Crown finale.
“If he runs in the Preakness, then he’d probably not run in the Belmont,” he said. “We’d probably focus on the Travers after that, have a race before in the Jim Dandy or Haskell.”
Asked if watching the Derby won by a horse Forte had twice beaten added salt to the wound of the scratch, Pletcher said: “I think it maybe puts some of the naysayers about the Florida Derby and [that] Forte didn’t run a good race … to rest. As far as salt to the wound, look, it didn’t work out. But we know he’s a special horse: champion 2-year-old, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, two-for-two at 3.”
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said Kentucky Derby fourth-place finisher Disarm and Red Route One are under consideration for the Preakness. “One, if not both,” he said. “Both would definitely be under consideration.”
Red Route One earned a fees-paid berth in the Preakness by virtue of winning Oaklawn Park’s Bath House Row. Both colts are owned by Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds and are sons of Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year campaigned by Winchell and Three Chimneys Farm.
Disarm, the Louisiana Derby runner-up who secured enough points to get in the Kentucky Derby by finishing third in Keeneland’s Lexington (G3), finished a total of 1 3/4 lengths behind Mage.
“I was very happy with how Disarm came out of the race, bright and alert and traveling well,” Asmussen said. “He’s a tough horse. We thought Disarm ran solid. We wanted a little better result, but he competes well against the best 3-year-olds in the country, and we expect him to continue to get better.
“[Jockey] Joel [Rosario] gave him a good trip — just hung up with a little traffic a couple of times,” he added. “I think the horse might find just a bit more acceleration. He obviously stays on nice.”
Red Route One worked five furlongs in 1:01.20 Sunday at Churchill, the second-fastest of eight at the distance. Asmussen said he would work again May 13, while Disarm would work a week from Monday. He had said previously that his Preakness Day horses would ship to Baltimore on the Tuesday before the race.
“They’re very similar,” Asmussen said of the two chestnut colts. “They match up with each other. They’re just at different stages as far as their development.”
Asmussen has won the Preakness twice: with two-time Horse of the Year Curlin in 2007 and two years later with the filly Rachel Alexandra, who also was voted Horse of the Year. Both horses are in the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.
Trainer Larry Rivelli, en route back to Chicago, indicated that the Preakness is possible for Kentucky Derby runner-up Two Phil’s. The winner of Turfway Park’s Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3), Two Phil’s pressed a hot pace and took the lead at the top of the stretch, digging in stubbornly but unable to hold off Mage while finishing a half-length ahead of 4-1 favorite Angel of Empire.
Trainer Brad Cox has a definite Preakness contender in Lexington winner First Mission, another unraced 2-year-old. Right after Saturday’s race, Cox called it doubtful any of his Derby quartet — headed by third-place Angel of Empire and fifth-place Hit Show — would run back in two weeks. He softened that stance slightly Sunday morning, indicating that it’s still too early to know if any of his four Derby horses would move on to the Preakness.
“Right now, First Mission is our Preakness horse,” Cox said. “I don’t know if we’ll add any of these horses, but we’ll have to make a decision soon. First Mission had a fantastic work yesterday [five furlongs in :59.80 seconds]. I’m very happy with what we’re seeing.”
Trainer Keith Desormeaux indicated that Confidence Game will be considered for the Preakness. Confidence Game finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby in his first start in 10 weeks since he won Oaklawn Park’s 1 1/16-mile Rebel (G2).
According to the Maryland Jockey Club racing office, non-Derby horses under consideration for the Preakness include Jan. 28 Southwest (G3) winner Arabian Knight and National Treasure, second in the American Pharoah (G1) and third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Sham (G3), for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert; 2022 Champagne (G1) winner Blazing Sevens, exiting a third in the Blue Grass (G1) for defending Preakness-winning trainer Chad Brown; Il Miracolo, most recently sixth in the Florida Derby; Mine That Bird Derby winner Henry Q, third in the Sunland Park Derby (G3); and Lecomte (G3) and Kentucky Jockey club (G2) winner Instant Coffee, also trained by Cox.
Chase the Chaos, who earned an automatic berth in the Preakness for his victory in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields, is also being considered. Perform, winner of the Federico Tesio at Laurel Park, also has a spot but would need to be supplemented for $150,000 on entry day to run. Perform is also a son of Good Magic.
