The Preakness Stakes (G1) gained a likely starter May 4 when MyRacehorse's Seize the Grey won the $594,710 Pat Day Mile Stakes (G2) on the Kentucky Derby (G1) undercard at Churchill Downs.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas said his vote will decide the next race among the partners of MyRacehorse, which sells fractional shares in horses, but he thinks the decision will be popular if the colt comes out of the race well.
"I think that the 680 people will want to vote for that," he said of the Triple Crown's middle jewel. "My vote'll be the one that counts, but I'll vote with them. We've got nothing to lose (if) we stick him in there. And he earned his way to run in the Preakness. He's qualified for it, and he's nominated for it, so why wouldn't we give those people that opportunity. That's what we're getting paid for, to make that many people happy."
Lukas considered entering Seize the Grey in the Kentucky Derby, but the colt would have been on the also-eligible list.
"I agonized over running him in the Derby," Lukas said. "We wanted to put him on the also-eligible and hope for some scratches. That's a negative feeling in a lot of ways because you put them on the also-eligible, and then you hope somebody else has bad luck so you get in. I didn't like that feeling. ... I wish they wouldn't even have that."
So he chose the 100th running of the Pat Day Mile for 3-year-olds instead. "I thought this horse would fit this mile pretty good," he said.
It was the third win and first graded stakes score in nine starts for the gray or roan son of Arrogate out of the Smart Strike mare Smart Shopping and raised the earnings for the $300,000 yearling, purchased at Fasig-Tipton's The Saratoga Sale, to $619,938. And it was the fourth win in the race formerly known as the Derby Trial for Lukas.
Seize the Grey entered the Blue Grass Stakes (G1) after a third in the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3), but finished seventh at Keeneland. Lukas said he's had other horses run off form at Keeneland, citing Thunder Gulch finishing fourth as the favorite in the 1995 Blue Grass.
Seize the Grey "has trained so well here, I wasn't worried about that," Lukas said.
Lukas said the race was run just as he discussed with jockey Jaime Torres in the paddock before starting from post five. Eventual third-place finisher Vlahos led most of the way until overtaken by the winner approaching the sixteenth pole. The winning margin was 1 1/4 lengths over favored Nash with a time of 1:35.96. Vlahos held on for third.
"If you'd have stood there with me when I talked to Jaime Torres before the race you'd have thought we saw it already," Lukas said. "It was exactly like we said. We said stay a lap down, stalk the speed. Don't lose touch with the speed, don't lose touch with the lead. Stay there, and then when we get to the eighth pole or approaching it, go inside-outside and go for it. He rode it right to the letter.
"I could tell I was loaded around the three-eighths pole," Torres said. "He went back into the bridle really strong and never gave in. What an amazing atmosphere and race to win."
Godolphin's Nash finished second after being unable to catch Seize the Grey in the stretch.
Jockey Florent Geroux on Nash said he had a "great stalking trip on the outside. I was able to follow the 11 (Vlahos) and it looked like the (eventual winner) had to back out a little bit. Right before the half-mile, I thought I was in a lovely spot. I wish he would have finished a little bit stronger for me because I thought he was there for me pretty much the whole race, but when I asked him to go it took him a little while to get the engine going. I was able to secure second but he really had to fight pretty hard to get that. ... The winner just split horses and was a little bit better than us."
Seize the Grey, at odds of 9-1, returned $20.84 for the win in the 12-horse field.
Video
