Preakness bids are at stake Saturday at Laurel and Oaklawn

Nine Triple Crown-nominated horses will be vying this weekend for an automatic berth in the 150th Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, May 17 at Pimlico.

Ten 3-year-olds are entered in Saturday’s 44th running of the $150,000 Federico Tesio at Laurel Park, a 1 1/8-mile test that includes five Triple Crown nominees: Surfside Moon, Studlydoright, Sacred Thunder, Pay Billy and Just a Fair Shake.

Meanwhile, seven more sophomores are set to line up in the seventh renewal of the $200,000 Bathhouse Row Saturday at Oaklawn Park, also at 1 1/8 miles. Among the group are Triple Crown-nominated Hymn, Caldera, Tiz Secure and Pretty Capable.

Both two-turn races earn Triple Crown-nominated connections automatic entry into the 1 3/16-mile Preakness. Horses may supplement to the $2 million Preakness for a fee of $150,000.

Most notably, Instant Replay, the 4-5 morning-line favorite for the Bathhouse Row, is not nominated to the Triple Crown. In addition to a $150,000 supplement fee for the Preakness, entering the second jewel would also require another $15,000 to enter and $15,000 to start.

Named for the noted Italian breeder, owner and trainer whose homebreds Nearco and Ribot dominate Thoroughbred bloodlines around the world, the Tesio is offering the Preakness incentive for a 10th straight year. A total of 23 Tesio winners have gone on to run in the Preakness, the most recent being Perform in 2023. Maryland-bred Deputed Testamony, in 1983, is the lone horse to sweep both races.

Surfside Moon broke his maiden on the Delaware Park turf last August and exits a runner-up finish behind Captain Cook in the 1 1/8-mile Withers Feb. 1 at Aqueduct. Just a Fair Shake was third in an off-the-turf edition of the Laurel Futurity last fall and went six months before racing again, winning an optional claiming allowance March 25 at Laurel.

Pay Billy, Sacred Thunder and Studlydoright are all stakes winners. Pay Billy, second by a nose in Laurel’s one-mile Miracle Wood Feb. 22, came back to win the 1 1/16-mile Private Terms on March 22. Runner-up that day, Sacred Thunder has placed in four other stakes and won the six-furlong James F. Lewis III in November at Laurel.

Studlydoright graduated on debut last spring at Laurel then won the Tremont and was second in the Sanford (G3) at Saratoga in successive starts. He has gone winless in four starts since winning last fall’s one-mile Nashua at Aqueduct, most recently running fifth in the 1 1/8-mile Virginia Derby March 15.

Debuting in 2019 as the Oaklawn Invitational and run as the Oaklawn Stakes from 2020-2022 before being renamed, the Bathhouse Row has seen three of its six winners go on to the Preakness – Red Route One, fourth in 2023; Mr. Big News, seventh in 2020; and Laughing Fox, fifth in 2019.

Though not nominated to the Triple Crown, Brad Cox trainee Instant Replay is the 4-5 morning-line favorite off of a third-place finish behind Tiztastic and Chunk of Gold in the Louisiana Derby (G2) on March 22. That race was his stakes debut, and came after a strong five-length victory in an allowance at Fair Grounds on Feb. 17. He will be ridden by Flavien Prat.

Hymn adds blinkers after finishing second in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance March 14 at Oaklawn Park, where he beat older horses in his Feb. 8 unveiling sprinting six furlongs. Caldera also defeated elders when breaking his maiden Jan. 17 at Oaklawn, subsequently finishing second in the Sunland Derby and eighth in the Louisiana Derby for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, a seven-time Preakness winner including Seize the Grey in 2024.

Tiz Secure was a 4 3/4-length maiden winner at first asking going six furlongs Feb. 22 at Santa Anita, then ran fourth in the one-mile Pasadena on turf March 9 in his stakes debut. His trainer, Hall of Fame inductee Bob Baffert, owns a record eight Preakness victories, most recently with National Treasure in 2023. Pretty Capable broke his maiden on his fourth try, going 1 1/16 miles March 12 at Fair Grounds.