Preakness: Mage’s connections confirm he will go to Pimlico

Louisville, Ky.

The way things had been going the past couple weeks at Churchill Downs, the announcement Friday morning that Mage definitely would go to Preakness 2023 was as much a relief as it was a formality.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Mage will be headed to the 148th running of the Preakness Stakes,” Chase Chamberlin of co-owner CMNWLTH declared outside the barn where the Kentucky Derby winner has been stabled for the past 2 1/2 weeks.

That was minutes after Mage took his usual morning gallop around the fast, main track over which he raced to a 15-1 victory last weekend.

Flatter Pod: Kentucky Derby recap, Preakness preview.

“Pretty consistent, I would say,” co-owner and assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr. said. “We pretty much were surprised with the way he came back to us in a good way.”

Delgado said Mage showed a lot more energy than he expected of a lightly raced colt who had competed at a career-long 1 1/4 miles only days earlier.

“The very first day he went out (Monday), he wanted to go more,” Delgado said. “The second day, too. Yesterday and today he’s been more easy to handle. I think it’s because of the fact that he’s just lightly raced. Just the four starts.”

Ramiro Restrepo, the guiding prod who put together his ownership group, admitted the original strategy this week was to ease Mage back into training because of the short, two-week gap between the Derby and next Saturday’s Preakness. The $290,000 Good Magic colt who has earned $2,107,200 apparently was having none of that.

“He was a little bored with the kid gloves that we put on him the two days after the Derby,” Restrepo said. “We were obviously wanting to monitor him. It was a great effort. It was a mile-and-a-quarter, which he had never run before, so you’re curious and cautious until we see how they come out of it. That’s why you don’t want to jump to conclusions, and you have to let Mage talk. Unfortunately, he speaks horse and not English, so it’s up to us to be his stewards.”

Mage’s message to turn him loose every morning this week buoyed the confidence of his owners.

“I have a great deal of confidence in the way that he’s been training,” Chamberlin said. “I haven’t seen any difference between pre-Derby and even the days and weeks before that,” Restrepo said. “I think he’s got an incredible rhythm going across the surface. He looks very, very confident.”

Mage was expected to get what Restrepo called “a happy gallop” early Saturday morning, basically a two-minute lick, before boarding a trailer for the 600-mile ride to Baltimore. He was expected to arrive overnight Saturday or even early Sunday morning.

“But I don’t think he needs it,” Delgado said. “It’s just the same routine that we’ve been doing.”

It has been that reliable consistency of Mage’s daily work with exercise rider J.J. Delgado that convinced connections to continue their pursuit of the Triple Crown. It has been in stark contrast to the build-up to the Derby, when five horses including early betting favorite Forte were scratched.

“The way he’s striding out over the track, J.J. said he hasn’t lost any luster from his pre-Kentucky Derby training,” Restrepo said. “He feels a lot of horse under him. The horse is just thriving right now at the moment. J.J., who we trust so much, he’s obviously the F1 practice driver. He’s in the cockpit, and he feels the horse is just full of himself. He hasn’t missed any meals. He hasn’t missed any shredded carrots or mints. Everything that you could ask for, he’s given us all the green lights.”

Trainer Gustavo Delgado Sr. said the training plan at Pimlico will not include any breezes, and it will depend a great deal on the weather.

“I see a 60 percent chance of rain next week,” he said. “We will just have to watch and see.”

Consider how Mage, a creature of habits in South Florida, acclimated to his first major trip to Kentucky, his connections did not seem too flustered by whatever surprises the weather might throw their way next week.

“It’s on to Baltimore and crab cakes,” Restrepo said. “Here we come.”

Mage will try to become the first horse to win two U.S. classic races in a single year since Justify’s Triple Crown of 2018.

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