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05/18 06:25 CDT Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan takes on 7 other horses in the
149th Preakness
Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan takes on 7 other horses in the 149th Preakness
By STEPHEN WHYNO
AP Sports Writer
Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan is looking for back-to-back Triple Crown
victories when he t akes on seven other horses in the Preakness Stakes on
Saturday night.
He would be the first to win both the Derby and the Preakness since Justify in
2018. That would set up a unusual and historic moment next month with a Triple
Crown on the line at the Belmont Stakes, which is taking place for the first
time at the Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York because of renovations at
Belmont Park in New York City.
Mystik Dan will have to beat Bob Baffert-trained Imagination, Brad Cox's
Catching Freedom and Chad Brown's Tuscan Gold, who are the main Preakness
challengers and it could come on a muddy track with the possibiliity of rain in
the forecast. Baffert was set to saddle two, but morning line favorite Muth was
scratched during the week because of a fever.
"Catching Freedom trained really well going into the Derby," Mystik Dan's
trainer, Kenny McPeek, said this week. "He's a very nice horse. And Bob, he
wouldn't bring a horse without it being a good horse, and Chad's also got a
horse coming out of (finishing third behind winner Catching Freedom in) the
Louisiana Derby. Yeah, it's not a given."
It was not a given McPeek would send Mystik Dan to Baltimore on a two-week
turnaround from the colt's exhausting win by a nose in the Kentucky Derby. But
he's one of three horses from that race running in the Preakness, up from one
last year and two in 2022.
Many trainers' reluctance to do the Derby-Preakness double, once the norm for
horses on the Triple Crown trail, has raised questions about the prestige of
the middle jewel and concerns that it has become the unwanted stepchild of the
series. There are debates about spacing the races out to adapt to modern
thoroughbreds that race less frequently than in previous eras.
This will be the final Preakness at aging Pimlico Race Course as it stands now,
with demolition set to begin early next year. The 150th running in 2025 will
still take place at the track during construction before moving to Laurel Park
in 2026 and then returning to a rebuilt Pimlico in 2027.
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AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing
