Preakness: Delgado, Mage are getting used to Ky. Derby win

Baltimore

Winning the Kentucky Derby still is sinking in for Gustavo Delgado Jr.

“I’m getting used to it,” he said Thursday morning.

Like the rest of the connections associated with Mage, Delgado is wearing it well. He, his father Gustavo, the trainer of the colt, and Ramiro Restrepo, the man who put the ownership group together, have been gracious all week at Pimlico. They have fielded a seemingly endless number of interview requests with ease.

All the while they are continuing to make sure Mage is ready for Saturday’s running of Preakness 2023, the next step toward a possible Triple Crown.

Although the horse might be oblivious to it all, the humans surrounding him could be forgiven for feeling a little extra pressure. The younger Delgado, though, said he is not.

“No, no. Not really,” he said as an interview turned into a media gaggle at the annual Alibi Breakfast that precedes the Preakness. “It’s about the horse. He earned it. It’s about having him deliver, too.”

The Delgados have tried to keep Mage on an even keel by putting him through the same ritual every morning since May 8, two days after he won the Derby. Walk the shed row. Gallop 1 1/2 miles. Get a bath. That was how it went at Churchill Downs. That is how it has been this week since Mage was vanned to Baltimore.

Oh, there was one variation Thursday.

“He schooled at the gate this morning,” Delgado said. “I wasn’t there. My dad was there, but he said the horse behaved perfectly. He did everything right. And then when he came back, he looked more professional today than yesterday. On his way back to the barn he was calm and collected.”

It was a bit different 24 hours earlier. Usually looking unflappable, Mage reared up on his hind legs as he left the main track after his gallop Wednesday.

“He was showing off a little bit,” Delgado said at the time. “He was just feeling good.”

But back to Thursday’s schooling. Mage’s losses in the Fountain of Youth (G2) and Florida Derby (G1) began with trouble at the start. The Delgados did not appear to panic. There was one session of gate schooling at Churchill Downs before the Derby, but that was it.

“We did do that at Churchill,” the younger Delgado said. “Forty-eight hours before. Thursday for Saturday. Same thing (as this week). I think he’s just a half-step slower than the rest of the horses. If he does the same thing that he did last time, we’ll be fine with it. Sometimes you don’t want to change too much, because then they get too racy. If you keep bringing him into the gate, then they get anxious. We don’t want that.”

Coming from 13 lengths off the pace to win the Derby, the start clearly was not everything for the Good Magic colt whose only previous win was in his gate-to-wire debut in a seven-furlong race at Gulfstream Park in January. Not that anyone expects Mage to lead from go to whoa covering 1 3/16 miles Saturday. Not that anyone is certain who actually will set the pace in the Preakness, either.

“I know (Coffeewithchris) has got some speed,” Delgado said. “National Treasure, blinkers on, makes sense. That kind of thing. Other than that, I don’t know anything else.”

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano will try to parlay his first Derby victory into a third triumph in the Preakness, which he won with Bernardini in 2006 and Cloud Computing in 2017.

“My dad and him, they already spoke about it,” Delgado said. “He liked the post, the 3, and it’s pretty much about how he breaks and getting a good rhythm and making his run. We just want him to be relaxed the first half of the race and then have a fair shot to make his move.”

If all goes according to plan, Mage would be in position to go to the Belmont Stakes on June 10 with a chance to complete the third Triple Crown sweep in nine racing seasons. Like Justify, he would be trying to get that done in only his sixth career race with none coming at age 2.

Even before all that, it is a lot to ask of a lightly raced colt such as Mage to come back and race in the Preakness only two weeks after a grueling Kentucky Derby victory.

“I don’t think there’s any trainer who will tell you he is 100 percent sure that he’s not going to regress,” Delgado said. “Other than that, all the signs, the good ones that we wanted to see in order to take this chance, are there. It’s pretty much about him making his run Saturday. Hopefully he puts in the same kind of effort he did at the Derby or even his previous race at the Florida Derby. If he does that, we should be right there.”