Mage Can Calm the Turbulent Post-Derby Waters

Pity the poor Preakness Stakes, a grade 1 American classic with a history of migraine-level headaches. It all started to go wrong in 1954 when Andy Crevolin, the owner of Kentucky Derby winner Determine, wanted to run in the Preakness. So did Bill Molter, Determine's trainer, until he didn't. The little gray colt went back to California and won a race at Hollywood Park in early June, thus becoming the first healthy, eligible Derby winner of the relatively modern era to pass on a chance to win the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. On the afternoon of May 19, 1962, L.A. Times sports reporter Dan Smith was hanging around the wire room when a photo came across of the head-on finish of the 87th Preakness run earlier that day. "Hey, guys," Smith said to the desk. "I think you're going to want to run this." The image, taken by Baltimore Sun photographer Joseph A. DiPaola Jr., showed Manuel Ycaza, on Ridan, leaning halfway out of the saddle with his left elbow heading for the chin of John Rotz, aboard Greek Money. To the surprise of everyone who did not know Ycaza, Manny claimed foul on Gentleman John, whose colt had finished first by a nose. The claim was dismissed, Ycaza was suspended, and both Hall of Famers had a story to tell to the end of their days. It was 39 years before they finally got the record clocking of Secretariat's 1973 Preakness straight. In 1974 Buck's Bid, runner-up in that year's Louisiana Derby (G2), stumbled and dumped Don MacBeth at the start of the Preakness, then ran around the track at the back of the field. Then jump ahead to 1980 and the top of the Pimlico stretch, where Angel Cordero on Codex took Derby winner Genuine Risk on a tour of the Inner Harbor before drawing off to win for fun. The result stood, Genuine Risk's owners appealed, and Maryland was dragged through a racing commission hearing that rubber-stamped the Preakness stewards, 19 days after the race was run. Two years later, trainer Eddie Gregson stood on the winner's stand after the upset Derby victory of Gato Del Sol and told Maryland's own Jim McKay of ABC that his colt would not be running in the Preakness. Pimlico Race Course's Chick Lang responded by installing a goat in the stall traditionally reserved for the Derby winner. It never ends. In 1983, the pre-Preakness headlines read like a "St. Elsewhere" episode with a veterinary twist. Sunny's Halo, the Derby winner, broke out in a vicious case of hives. The owners of Desert Wine, the Derby runner-up, had to go to court for their colt to be allowed the use of Lasix. Both were beaten by Deputed Testamony, who trained on a Maryland farm. The WWE came to town in 1988, featuring a grudge match between the 1-2 Derby finishers, Winning Colors and Forty Niner. Pat Day, riding to the instructions of Woody Stephens, spent most of the race packing Gary Stevens and the filly wide, which made Eddie Delahoussaye smile as he watched from atop Risen Star, who had a hole on the rail wide enough for a semi whenever he wanted to hit it and go on to win. The incident prompted the Daily Racing Form in a rare editorial to accuse the Forty Niner team of unsportsmanlike conduct. This century has been no kinder to the kinks in the Preakness story. Look what happened in 2003 and the silliness over published allegations that Jose Santos used some kind of device on Funny Cide to win the Derby. It took a stewards' hearing to put the rumors to rest, but then the ABC telecast on Preakness day spent seven and a half minutes at the top of the show essentially telling viewers there was nothing there. Pulling up that day, as Funny Cide drew off to win by nearly 10 lengths, a rightfully indignant Santos displayed an open hand for all to see. The tragedy of Barbaro's breakdown a few steps from the start of the 2006 Preakness continues to reverberate through the soul of the game. It had been 13 years since Union City suffered his fatal injury in the 1993 Preakness, but no major race is ever safe from such consequences. Barbaro lingered for eight months, the memory of the Preakness in tow, before taking his final breath. In keeping with tradition, there has been a recent run of turbulence at the Preakness thanks to some truly odd Derby drama. In 2019, Maximum Security was disqualified from first in the Derby on an interference charge—an historical first—prompting his people to pass the Preakness and live to fight another day. Country House, the elevated winner at Churchill Downs, came away from the Derby the worse for wear and never ran again. In 2021, the glow of Medina Spirit's Derby victory lasted only a week before his post-race test came up positive for an unacceptable amount of a legal therapeutic. The preemptive strike by Churchill Downs to ban his trainer, Bob Baffert, for a two-year term dropped like a wet muck sack in Pimlico's lap. Track officials put Medina Spirit through a heightened series of tests and pre-race scrutiny. It was all anyone could talk about, even after he finished third to Rombauer. In 2022, the people running the Rich Strike show became the first to say no to the Preakness since Spend a Buck in 1985. They said they wanted to wait and win the Belmont Stakes (G1), which they did not, nor any of the other five races in which the colt has competed since then. Whatever happened to striking while the iron is hot? The 148th Preakness Stakes will be run on Saturday, May 20. So far, the post-Derby debris has bequeathed the Preakness hosts another banned trainer in Saffie Joseph Jr., who would like to run Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) winner Lord Miles at Pimlico, and a scratched Derby favorite in Forte, who probably would have been fine to run in Baltimore had he not been on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission veterinarian's list while his trainer, Todd Pletcher, is fighting a suspension stemming from a post-race positive from one of Forte's 2-year-old races. So let's give forth a song of thanksgiving for Mage, the inspiring Derby winner, and offer a racetracker's prayer that he has a perfect week at Pimlico and makes the Preakness look good. Or at least sane.