Tom Pedulla presents 5 takeaways from the $2 million Preakness Stakes, the center leg of the Triple Crown, and different main developments this weekend at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course.
DEFYING TIME: By no means thoughts the world of racing. The perfect story in sports activities now – definitely probably the most optimistic one – revolves across the oldest coach in historical past to win a Triple Crown race. That, in fact, can be 88-year-old D. Wayne Lukas following Seize the Gray’s front-running Preakness triumph. Lukas typically says there isn’t a textbook about methods to practice a terrific horse. However his capacity to get on his pony every morning to oversee coaching and the way in which he goes about his job ought to shed a light-weight for a lot of senior residents on how finest to combat the inevitable toll that point takes. Lukas addressed that topic throughout his post-race Preakness information convention by saying, “Don’t let that couch pull you down. It’s slightly straightforward when that alarm goes off to say, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t know if I actually wish to do that as we speak.’ Erase that. Crucial determination you’ll ever make in your life is your perspective determination. Make it early and make the fitting one.”
BOON FOR RACING: Seize the Gray’s victory on behalf of MyRacehorse demonstrates past a doubt that the possession of a racehorse, and the thrilling roller-coaster journey of highs and lows that always entails, is extra approachable than ever earlier than. The micro-share idea can take traders of comparatively modest means to heights as soon as unimaginable. That’s what occurred on a doubtlessly game-changing Saturday at Pimlico when 2,570 traders from 42 states rooted house a proficient, well-bred colt made obtainable to them for $127 per share. The large second was not misplaced on Michael Behrens, founding father of MyRacehorse, who mentioned shortly after the center jewel of the Triple Crown, “This implies every part for our enterprise. What we tried to do 4 years in the past is to permit anyone the largest thrill of profitable the largest races and we had 2,570 individuals expertise one of many biggest thrills in racing.” May there be a larger commercial for the micro-share idea than the Preakness?
WIDE OPEN: It appears as if the race for champion 3-year-old honors may go all the way in which to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships earlier than being determined. Kentucky Derby Offered by Woodford Reserve winner Mystik Dan must be considered because the division chief, however dents in his armor embody a third-place end within the Arkansas Derby and a runner-up effort by 2 ¼ lengths to Seize the Gray within the Preakness on a muddy observe he relishes. Seize the Gray completed a distant seventh within the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes earlier than he swept the Pat Day Mile Stakes Offered by SAP and the Preakness. Blue Grass winner Sierra Leone missed by a nostril within the Derby earlier than sitting out the Preakness. Two-year-old champ Fierceness, a runaway Curlin Florida Derby Offered by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms at Xalapa winner, misfired badly on the primary Saturday in Might however may rebound within the Belmont Stakes Offered by NYRA Bets. All of it ought to make for compelling races and nice enjoyable the remainder of the way in which.
MILESTONE EDITION: The George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan Stakes was run for the a hundredth time Friday at Pimlico and Gun Music, with John Velazquez aboard, used the event to say her high quality with an emphatic 3 ¼-length victory towards Corposo within the 1 1/8-mile contest. It was a outcome coach Mark Hennig yearned to see after the daughter of newly-elected Corridor of Famer Gun Runner completed a troubled fourth within the 1 1/16-mile Gulfstream Park Oaks Offered by FanDuel TV March 30 in what had been her stakes debut for proprietor Lee Lewis. “I didn’t have any doubt she was a great horse. I had slightly doubt in regards to the distance after her final race,” Hennig mentioned. “However I didn’t have sufficient doubt not to do that.”
BIG AFTERNOON: Cherie DeVaux, who reveals each signal of being a rising star within the coaching ranks, loved a giant afternoon at Pimlico Friday by sweeping three stakes races. Pyrenees offered the largest spotlight when he scored within the $250,000 Pimlico Particular Stakes. Earlier than that, Shotgun Hottie got here via for DeVaux within the $100,000 Allaire du Pont Distaff and She Feels Fairly within the $100,000 Hilltop. She Feels Fairly, third within the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, made an auspicious season debut. DeVaux, a former assistant to Chad Brown, mentioned it was her first three-win day. “You simply hope you are available in right here and the horses run their race, they arrive out sound, they arrive out wholesome,” she mentioned. “That’s a very powerful, the final half.”
