Perform takes unconventional road to Preakness
Baltimore
Having Perform compete in the Preakness was the furthest thing from Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey’s mind as winter turned to spring.
The Good Magic colt had flashed ability but failed to find the winner’s circle through four starts as a juvenile. A debuting Mage had whipped him by 5 1/2 lengths at seven furlongs on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park, keeping him winless through five one-turn contests.
McGaughey knew it was time for two turns and Perform responded. With Irad Ortiz aboard, he finally produced the kind of race the trainer thought was in him and drew off by 2 3/4 lengths going one mile and 40 yards at Tampa Bay Downs on March 11.
“Irad riding him in Tampa was a big plus because he got him to relax good and finish good,” said McGaughey, adding, “That was a big part of his education. I know it was in Tampa, but that’s what I was looking for.”
Even after that breakthrough, there were no thoughts of attempting the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.
The strong Tampa effort did lead to the April 15 Federico Tesio, going a mile and an eighth at Laurel Park. Perform stumbled at the start and trailed badly for much of the contest. At one point, he and jockey Feargal Lynch appeared to be hopelessly blocked. But they found a seam and prevailed by a hard-fought head.
Then McGaughey listened to Lynch’s post-race interview and heard the rider lamenting that his mount was not nominated to the Preakness. “He’s a Preakness-type horse,” Lynch told the interviewer.
And the wheels started turning. The more the trainer thought about it, the more appealing the Preakness became. “In the Tesio, he ate a lot of dirt. He had to maneuver around a little bit,” McGaughey noted. “In these types of races, that’s what happens.”
The cost of supplementing was considerable – as in $150,000. What did owners Woodford Racing, Lane’s End Farm, Phipps Stable, Ken Langone and Edward Hudson, Jr. want to do?
McGaughey texted that question to Bill Farish, founder of Woodford Thoroughbreds on behalf of Lane’s End Farm, a few days before the deadline to supplement. “I thought we were going to run in the Preakness,” Farish responded.
It was that easy a sell to Farish and the rest. “Ownership was all in. They were all in from day one. Nobody questioned it,” said McGaughey. “They were all excited. A bunch of them are coming and really looking forward to it.”
With Lynch retaining the mount, Perform will break from post six in a field of seven for the 148th Preakness, after the scratch of First Mission on Friday morning. He is listed at 15-1 in the morning line as one of six new shooters opposing Kentucky Derby winner Mage. With the decision to supplement, the purse swelled to $1.65 million.
Perform has turned in several sharp works at Belmont Park ahead of his first test against Grade 1 competition. On May 2, he produced a bullet four-furlong move in 47.65 seconds. Five days later, it was five furlongs in 1:00.56. Then, on May 14, his four-furlong drill in 48.09 seconds ranked second among 44 at the distance.
McGaughey, 72, will be returning to the Preakness for the first time since Kentucky Derby-winning Orb drew the rail and encountered all kinds of trouble in finishing fourth as a heavy favorite in 2013. Perform will represent only his fourth Preakness starter, with Easy Goer providing his best finish when he dueled rival Sunday Silence the length of the Pimlico Race Course stretch before missing by an agonizing nose. Easy Goer, of course, avenged that defeat with a resounding triumph in the Belmont.
McGaughey readily acknowledges that he would relish the opportunity to add the Preakness to his loaded resume. “It’s at the top of my list right now because I’ve won the Belmont and the Derby. I’d sure like to put this one on my list and then we’ll start over,” he said, shrugging off his age.