Copper Tax will skip Preakness 2024, bringing field to 9

Copper Tax, who qualified for the Preakness with a win in the Federico Tesio Stakes, will not run in the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Eleanor Albert, stakes coordinator for the Maryland Jockey Club, confirmed that the colt would miss the race after it was reported in a social-media post by David Grening of Daily Racing Form.

Trainer Gary Capuano could not be reached for comment.

Capuano told the Preakness media team after the Tesio that the Preakness was a "consideration."

"It wasn’t my real goal going in, I was just hoping he ran a really good race and showed himself again, which he did. He really ran tremendous,” he said. “We will take a look and see how things shape up and how he bounces back and how he trains in the next week or two. We’ll look at who might be coming and who might not. (We) probably won’t make any decision until after the (Kentucky) Derby. We’ll let him tell us. It’s not out of the question, but it’s kind of still a long shot. We’ll see how it goes."

The decision brings the likely Preakness field to nine.

Copper Tax was 25-1 in the Preakness futures at one international book. Before the Tesio, the son of Copper Bullet won the Private Terms Stakes, also at Laurel Park. He has an overall record of 10: 7-1-0.

His seven wins were interrupted by an attempt at the Kentucky Derby trail. Copper Tax was sixth in the Grade 2 Remsen in December and 10th in the Sam F. Davis (G3) in February.

He had been working at Laurel Park, most recently breezing 1 mile in 1:44.0 on Thursday.