Preakness

Back in early 2022 when John and Diane Fradkin announced that their homebred GI Preakness winner Rombauer (Twirling Candy) was being retired after suffering a soft tissue injury they went to work to find him his new home. The horse has a good pedigree and is a Grade I winner, so the expectations were that he'd stand at stud in Kentucky. Regional markets were also considered. Another option was Japan. But no matter where their horse might land, the Fradkins decided that Rombauer's racing career was over. That was the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--A decision will be announced Tuesday on whether Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) will run in the GI Haskell S.  July 22 or train up to the GI Travers S. Aug. 26, co-owner Ramiro Restrepo said Friday. Mage was given a break from training by trainer Gustavo Delgado after his third-place finish in the GI Preakness S. May 20. He had his fourth timed work Friday--six furlongs in 1:13.40--at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Ky. "Gustavo just wants to watch the horse until Tuesday," Restrepo said....

ELMONT, NY -- Last year's champion 2-year-old colt and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), scratched on the morning of the GI Kentucky Derby with an untimely foot bruise, was tabbed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite for the 155th running of the GI Belmont Stakes at Tuesday's post-position draw held in the Triple Crown Lounge at Belmont Park. The Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable colorbearer, last seen defeating subsequent Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) in dramatic fashion in the GI Curlin Florida Derby Apr. 1, will exit from post...

Jockey Jevian Toledo and trainer Brittany Russell defended their titles as leading jockey and trainer respectively as the Preakness Meet at Pimlico Race Course drew to a close Sunday. Toledo, who ranked second in earnings behind only GI Preakness S. winner John Velazquez, finished with a comfortable 10-win margin over co-runners-up Sheldon Russell, Horacio Karamanos and Victor Carrasco. Both Toledo and Russell are represented by agent Marty Leonard. "It feels great. I'm just blessed that God gave me the good health to be here," Toledo said. "My agent does a...

National Treasure (Quality Road), winner of last Saturday's GI Preakness S., has made his way to Belmont Park for a potential start in the GI Belmont Stakes June 10. Bob Baffert said National Treasure got a feel for the Belmont Park main track Thursday with a light jog. "He's going well. We're going to get him up there, train him and see how he's doing," Baffert said. He added National Treasure will have one work at Belmont before a decision is made whether to test the 1 1/2-mile race. "When...

Even in the heyday of the great owner-breeders, it would have been remarkable for a Classic winner to represent the seventh generation of a single program. In the commercial era, it is beyond extraordinary. Yet in the long, tenuous line linking GI Preakness S. winner National Treasure (Quality Road) to his foundation mare Mono, only once did Peter Blum come close to letting it break. That was when a Mt. Livermore filly named Proposal was sold as a 2-year-old at Keeneland in 1999, for $375,000. "I sold her to John...

Hall of Fame jockey Johnny Velazquez earned his first Preakness victory aboard National Treasure over the weekend and he joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss the big win.

There was an exciting race, a thrilling stretch duel between winner National Treasure (Quality Road) and runner-up Blazing Sevens (Good Magic), and the first-ever win in the GI Preakness S. by classy Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. And think what you want of Bob Baffert, but his winning the first Triple Crown race he entered since the suspensions and bans had ended was a compelling chapter to this story. The man sure can train a race horse. But those stories will start to drift away as we head to...

Eclipse Award winner Forte (Violence) worked a half-mile in :50.31 breezing Sunday morning at Belmont Park, which has him back on a path to make it to the GI Belmont S. It was his first work since he was scratched the morning of the GI Kentucky Derby by a state veterinarian due to a foot bruise. After the scratch, Forte was placed on the vet's list in Kentucky for 14 days, which meant he could not run in the GI Preakness S. "He looked very good in this work and...

Hoping that the GIII Dinner Party S. might be a sampling of things to come later on the Preakness Day card, Never Explain came from off the pace to collect his first black-type victory for trainer Shug McGaughey. Handily away from gate six, the dark bay settled off the pace in fourth as GI Pegasus World Cup Turf winner Atone (Into Mischief), sent off at 5-2, strode to the front with MGSW 'TDN Rising Star' Emmanuel and Rising Empire (Empire Maker) in hot pursuit rounding the first turn. With the...

'TDN Rising Star' Arabian Lion (Justify) was sent off the 2-5 jolly for Saturday's Sir Barton S. at Pimlico and came away in the final 150 yards to become the 11th worldwide stakes winner (sixth in the U.S.) for his outstanding young stallion. Off extremely alertly in a scratched-down field of five, the $600,000 OBS April breezer led through a leisurely opening quarter in :24.47 under an easy John Velazquez hold, but was forced to pick it up some in the middle stages, as second choice Tapit's Conquest (Tapit) went...

Continuing on the heels of a stacked card Friday, Pimlico offers a robust eight-stakes offering Saturday, led by the $1.5 million GI Preakness S. With GI Kentucky Derby winning Mage (Good Magic) looming as the one to beat, the race suffered a notable blow Friday with the defection of Godolphin's 'TDN Rising Star' First Mission (Street Sense), shaving the field back to seven. Having not only showed a recency in form but also the ability to win at the highest level, none of the chestnut's rivals can really make the...