Why is the Preakness more fun for trainers than the Kentucky Derby?

Los Angeles Times

12-05-2025

The horses have barely passed the finish line at Churchill Downs when many heads turn to the east, pointing to Baltimore, and start thinking about the Preakness, the second stop on racing's Triple Crown. And that quickness belies the problem. It's only two weeks after the Kentucky Derby.
It used to not be a problem when horses raced more often than they do today. The only racing that goes on nowadays is to see how fast you can get your superstar-in-the-making into the breeding shed, which is where the real money is made.
The Preakness is different from the Derby in so many ways. The biggest technical reason is the race is a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the Derby. The biggest non-technical reason is the Preakness is fun, an experience trainers and owners enjoy rather than the price-gouging pressure cooker that is Louisville on Derby week.
'What the Derby thinks it is, that's what the Preakness is,' Mickey Taylor, one of the owners of Seattle Slew, once said.
This year's 150th anniversary of the Preakness is full of intrigue but short on stars, especially with Derby winner Sovereignty skipping the race. But it's still an interesting race and the winner will etch his name in history. Here are five storylines to look for this week.
Trainer Bill Mott, a Hall of Famer, just didn't think it was worth it to run Sovereignty back in two weeks and compromise his chances of winning the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. First of all, the Derby, especially over a very wet track, takes a lot out of a horse. Second, the race is shorter and Sovereignty's strength, it seems, is going longer. Third, the horse is owned by Godolphin, the racing arm of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. And, well, he doesn't need the money and the Preakness doesn't fire up people in the Middle East. He leaves the decision making to Mott and Michael Banahan, who heads Godolphin's bloodstock operation, and they decided to wait for New York.
Kenny McPeek, who won the Kentucky Derby last year with Mystik Dan, regrets running his colt back in two weeks. 'If I could have a do-over, I wouldn't have gone last year,' McPeek said on the 'Tony Kornheiser Show,' a podcast hosted by the ESPN host and former Washington Post journalist. 'I think it was a mistake on my part.'
Another factor, brought up by McPeek on the podcast, is that there used to be $5-million bonus for any Triple Crown winner, paid by Visa. That is gone, along with some of the prestige of the race.
The Preakness is not without some star power. On Sunday night, the connections of Journalism announced that the Kentucky Derby runner-up and winner of the Santa Anita Derby will be running in Saturday's Preakness.
'Journalism has been grand since the Kentucky Derby and trainer Michael McCarthy has greenlighted him to head to Pimlico for the 150th Preakness,' controlling owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners posted on X on Sunday.
'We look forward to showcasing Journalism's talents in Baltimore in such a coveted American Classic with Umberto Rispoli to ride.'
The colt will likely be the favorite in the race.
There are two other Derby horses that are confirmed for the race. Sandman, winner of the Arkansas Derby and seventh in the Kentucky Derby, will run for trainer Mark Casse. And American Promise, winner of the Virginia Derby and 16th in the Kentucky Derby, will run for Wayne Lukas.
The status of the Preakness remains a subject of discussion, but it has a strong advocate in Gov. Wes Moore (D-Md.), who has been pushing for the rebuild of Pimlico Race Course. According to plans that seem about as fluid as a lazy river, this is the last year of the race at Pimlico, as it is currently constructed … or deconstructed. The race will move to Laurel for a couple years before returning to Baltimore. At least that's the plan.
Pimlico, in short, is a dump. The water sometimes doesn't work, some of the grandstand has been condemned and uninhabitable, and the barns, well, almost all but the stakes horses ship in from training tracks or Laurel.
But, it's not the track as much as the spacing — two weeks between the Derby and Preakness — that seems under the most scrutiny. Two years ago, Aidan Butler, chief executive of 1/st Racing, which will operate the Preakness for two years before surrendering to Maryland regulatory agencies, pushed for a new schedule with three or preferably four weeks between races.
However, the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, shut that idea down. It comes three weeks after the Preakness and has shown no willingness to move its dates. The one thing you can always count on in racing is each of the owning entities don't often end up on the same page.
Let's see. Do you want this gold bar or the other gold bar? Trainer Bob Baffert has won the Preakness eight times. Wayne Lukas has won it seven times, including last year with Seize the Grey. They are close friends and if one couldn't win they seem very happy when the other one does.
Baffert has Goal Oriented, a lightly raced colt who won an allowance on Derby Day. He has won both of his races. Baffert was also going to run Rodriguez, but like the Derby, he was pulled from Preakness contention by a sore hoof. Lukas has American Promise, who ran poorly in the Derby.
'I really think that the race changes so much from the Derby to the Preakness that it's a whole different animal,' Lukas said. '[It's] different not only in the distance change, but the surface and a lot of things coming back in two weeks. There are so many variables going into the Preakness that it's not easy. It's not just another horse race. It takes some management and some thought, and it damn sure takes a good horse.'
After watching horses slip and stomp in the slop on Kentucky Derby day, racing followers are looking for an honest track on Preakness Saturday. It's too early to tell if it will come about. According to weather.com, it will be raining early in the week. By Friday, afternoon thunderstorms are predicted with a precipitation figure of 43%. On Saturday, it's the same forecast with a 38% chance of rain. That same percentage holds for race time at 7 p.m. EDT.
Of course, getting weather predictions correct this far out, is about as easy as calling a superfecta cold. Check back on Friday.