Preakness: Mage, Forte are among 13 horses in conversation

Forte beat Mage both times they met on the racetrack in Florida, but he did not get his chance Saturday the Kentucky Derby. Now it looks like the scratched favorite and the new classic winner could have their rematch May 20 at Preakness Stakes 2023 in Baltimore.

“We don’t point for the Preakness, per se,” Forte’s trainer Todd Pletcher told publicist Jennie Rees on Sunday morning at Churchill Downs, “but this might be a situation where it becomes the backup plan. He’s a special horse, a champion 2-year-old, a Breeders’ Cup winner, undefeated at 3.”

How 18 Kentucky Derby finishers look the morning after.

Pletcher is keeping himself and Forte at Churchill Downs through the early part of the coming week with a gallop planned for Monday, 48 hours after a Kentucky state veterinarian Nick Smith ordered the four-time Grade 1 winner scratched from the Derby because of a right-front foot bruise.

“I thought the foot looked good this morning,” Pletcher said. “I thought he galloped well (Saturday). We’ll train (Monday), and if he has a good week, we’ll breeze at some point.”

Usually one to skip the Preakness and point instead toward the Belmont Stakes at his home track, Pletcher said he did not think he would do that with Forte. Instead, it was more likely to be the other way around.

“I would think if he runs in the Preakness, he probably would not run in the Belmont,” Pletcher said. “We would focus on the Travers after that. We would probably have a race in the Jim Dandy (G2) or the Haskell (G1).”

On the other side of the Churchill Downs stable area, the new Kentucky Derby winner Mage was being pointed to make his next start in the Preakness, as long as everything continues to go well.

“He’s awesome. He’s really happy and alert and looks good, and he’s feeling good in the stall,” co-owner Ramiro Restrepo said Sunday morning at Churchill Downs. “If all remains as is, we’re going to Preakness.”

Trainer Gustavo Delgado, nicknamed Puma because of his thick mane of silver hair, said that Mage came out of his stretch-running, one-length victory over Two Phil’s in “very good” condition.

With a crowd of media and racing enthusiasts looking on, Delgado took the traditional call from Maryland Jockey Club interim president Mike Rogers officially inviting Mage to the 1 3/16-mile Preakness, the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.

“I know my dad. He doesn’t need much,” assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr. said. “If it’s up to what we see now, it’s high expectation that we’ll go to the Preakness.”

Restrepo, a Florida-based bloodstock agent and representative for the Fasig-Tipton sales company, called the Preakness “the logical move.”

“Obviously it’s a dream in the background,” Restrepo said. “But in the end, Mage has to want the Triple Crown. If he comes out of the race as he appears to us here, then I know Puma is going to want to go to the Preakness, and all the partners are going to want to go, too, but it’s never going to be at the expense of the horse. If my guy is feeling the way he’s feeling (now), then on to Baltimore and crab cakes we go."

The elder Delgado said Mage likely will get two days off before returning to the track Tuesday. The colt will remain at Churchill Downs with the Delgados having a couple of other horses to run at the Louisville track.

The 1 1/4-mile Derby, for which Mage went off at 15-1 odds, was his first start away from Gulfstream Park. The Good Magic colt won his debut Jan. 28, was fourth to Forte in the Fountain of Youth (G2) and then closed from last of 12 to take second, again behind Forte, in the Florida Derby (G1).

Jockey Javier Castellano has won the Preakness Stakes twice, coincidentally with unraced 2-year-olds Bernardini in 2006 and Cloud Computing in 2017. Castellano, who, like the Delgados, is from Venezuela, rode Mage for the second time in the Kentucky Derby, having previously been aboard in the Fountain of Youth. The Derby victory was the Hall of Fame jockey’s first in his 16th attempt.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said Kentucky Derby fourth-place finisher Disarm and Red Route One are under consideration for the Preakness. “One, if not both,” he said. “Both would definitely be under consideration.”

Red Route One earned a fees-paid berth in the Preakness by virtue of winning Oaklawn’s Bath House Row Stakes. Both colts are owned by Ron Winchell and are sons of Gun Runner, the 2017 horse of the year campaigned by Winchell and Three Chimneys Farm.

Disarm, the Louisiana Derby runner-up who finished third in Keeneland’s Lexington (G3), finished 1 3/4 lengths behind Mage.

Red Route One worked five furlongs in 1:01.2 on Sunday at Churchill, the second-fastest of eight at the distance. Asmussen said he would work again Saturday, and Disarm would work next Monday. He had said previously his Preakness day horses would ship to Baltimore four days before the race.

“They’re very similar,” Asmussen said of the two chestnut colts. “They match up with each other. They’re just at different stages as far as their development.”

Asmussen has won the Preakness with Curlin in 2007 and two years later with the filly Rachel Alexandra. Both were horses of the year and eventual Hall of Famers.

Trainer Larry Rivelli, en route to Chicago, indicated the Preakness was possible for Kentucky Derby runner-up Two Phil’s. The winner of Turfway Park’s Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3), Two Phil’s pressed a hot pace and took the lead at the top of the stretch, digging in stubbornly but unable to hold off Mage while finishing a half-length ahead of 4-1 favorite Angel of Empire.

Trainer Brad Cox has a definite Preakness contender in Lexington winner First Mission, another unraced 2-year-old. Right after Saturday’s race, Cox called it doubtful any of his Derby quartet led by third-place Angel of Empire and fifth-place Hit Show would run back in two weeks.

“Right now First Mission is our Preakness horse,” Cox said. “I don’t know if we’ll add any of these horses, but we’ll have to make a decision soon. First Mission had a fantastic work yesterday (five furlongs in 59.8 seconds). I’m very happy with what we’re seeing.”

Trainer Keith Desormeaux said Confidence Game was all but definite for the Preakness, telling the Churchill Downs media team in a text, “Yes, if he’s up to it. Absolutely.”  Confidence Game finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby in his first start in 10 weeks since he won Oaklawn Park’s 1 1/16-mile Rebel (G2).

Bob Baffert, who has won the Preakness seven times, said National Treasure would be his Preakness horse. The runner-up in the American Pharoah (G1) was a debut winner last summer at Del Mar. He since has finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, third in the Sham (G3) and fourth in the Santa Anita Derby (G1).

According to the Maryland Jockey Club racing office, other non-Derby horses under consideration for the Preakness included 2022 Champagne (G1) winner Blazing Sevens, exiting a third in the Blue Grass (G1) for defending Preakness-winning trainer Chad Brown; Il Miracolo, most recently sixth in the Florida Derby; and Mine That Bird Derby winner Henry Q, third in the Sunland Park Derby (G3). The MJC also said Arabian Knight for Baffert and Instant Coffee could be in the mix, but the two trainers did not include them in their responses to reporters Sunday.

Chase the Chaos, who earned an automatic berth in the Preakness for his victory in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields, also is being considered.

Perform, winner of the Federico Tesio at Laurel Park, also has a spot but would need to be supplemented by next Monday for $150,000 in order to run.