Taj Mahal, Crupper aim for Preakness after stakes wins

Two 3-year-olds punched their tickets to the 151st Preakness Stakes on Saturday, with undefeated Taj Mahal rolling to an 8 1/4-length victory in the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park and Crupper taking the Bathhouse Row Stakes at Oaklawn by a half-length. Both wins came with automatic berths to the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

The Preakness will be run at Laurel for the first time May 16 during the reconstruction of Pimlico. Taj Mahal, trained by Brittany Russell and a perfect 3-for-3, calls Laurel home. Crupper, trained by Donnie Von Hemel for owner-breeder Robert Zoellner, is under consideration for a trip to the Preakness.

Nominated to the Triple Crown at the late April 6 deadline, Taj Mahal's front-running triumph in his two-turn debut booked his place in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness. This marks the 11th straight year the Tesio has offered the incentive.

"It was really impressive. You see a lot of these horses at home win the Tesio and go on to the Preakness and I thought to myself before the race, I hope he runs like 'wow.' You want to see a really big run from him to give you confidence that he should go on to the Preakness, and I do. I feel like he did that," Russell said Sunday. "I feel like it was a really big race, his first time going two turns. We've learned so much about him each run. I feel like he continues to improve."

Russell was also impressed with how Taj Mahal exited the Tesio, his third career start but second straight stakes win following Laurel's one-mile Miracle Wood Stakes Feb. 21, which came two weeks after his 4 1/4-length debut victory.

"Back at the barn after the race and then this morning, he's just got some kind of air about him right now. He knows he's the man," she said. "He was looking for his feed tub. He was taking in all the attention. He acts like he knows what's going on. I took him out and jogged him on the road this morning and he's as confident as a horse can be. He was making sure everybody was looking at him."

Taj Mahal had to overcome outermost post 10 in the Tesio, sprinting to the lead by the first turn and taking a four-length advantage after a quarter-mile. The lead extended to 10 lengths through a half, and after Russell's husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, saw it shrink to fewer than three on the far turn, he set Taj Mahal down for a drive to the wire that saw them steadily open up on their rivals.

"I've got to give Sheldon some credit. He broke sharp and he got him right over," Russell said. "He said I'll be honest with you, I had to. He said when [Taj Mahal] locked on, he wasn't going to be content until he got there so he had to get him in front and see if he could get him to relax a bit. He was running hard.

"He said he knew he had horse the whole time," she added. "He was just trying to give him a breather because he ran so hard. He said he was just hard on his hands the first part of the race, so he had to give him a chance to take a breath. He knew he had gears."

A total of 24 Tesio winners have gone on to run in the Preakness, the most recent being Pay Billy last spring. Maryland-bred Deputed Testamony, in 1983, is the lone horse to sweep both races.

Taj Mahal is by 2016 Florida Derby (G1) and Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and fetched $525,000 as a yearling. He is owned by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Bashor Racing, Determined Stables, Golconda Stable, Waves Edge Capital and Catharine Donovan. He began his career on the West Coast with Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and was unraced before being sent to Russell last fall.

"He just wasn't progressing out there, that's all. There was nothing wrong with him or anything like that, we just took our time," she said. "Those guys are good, when they come this way they let me take my time and kind of figure them out. He just sort of started to do good. When he started to train good and do good I pressed on him a little bit and he responded. We decided to debut him and I was really confident going into his debut."

All of Taj Mahal's training and racing has been done at Laurel. He would be the first Triple Crown starter for Russell, who has dominated the standings as Maryland's winningest trainer each of the past three years.

"It feels good to have one good one like this in the barn. It kind of gets you going in the morning," Russell said. "He's walking out of his own stall. He's never left his stall in his barn at Laurel. On the big day, for him to be able to have the chance to do it at home, I'd love to think it's a major advantage. No traveling or anything."

Crupper, among the original Jan. 26 Triple Crown nominations, is earning a longer look from his connections after the Bathhouse Row.

"That was a big topic of conversation yesterday evening," Von Hemel said Sunday. "We're certainly going to talk about it. I think a lot of times you have to watch the Derby and see who does or doesn't move forward from there. We won a nice race. We've got some work to do though if we're going to be competitive with those top 3-year-olds. He has to move forward from this race."

Crupper, by Candy Ride, was making his stakes debut in the Bathhouse Row, like the Tesio contested at 1 1/8 miles. He sat off the lead through a quarter-mile after bumping with a rival out of the gate before taking over on the backstretch and turning back all challengers down the lane.

"We thought all along that he had some talent in his early training and everything," Von Hemel said. "His mother [She's All In] was second in the [2013] Delaware Handicap at a mile and a quarter to Royal Delta, so further is better. I was trying to convince the racing secretary to run a mile and an eighth a-other-than but it never did happen, so I said let's just give this race a try. It's the right distance going a mile and an eighth and lucky for us, it all worked out."

Von Hemel was pleased with the way Crupper came out of the Bathhouse Row, which has seen three of its seven winners go on to the Preakness – Red Route One, fourth in 2023; Mr. Big News, seventh in 2020; and Laughing Fox, fifth in 2019.

"He's good in the feed tub. It doesn't matter if he races or not, he's usually licked it up," he said. "He just walked the shedrow this morning, of course, but I've got no complaints right now."