What happens after horses wheel back in Preakness?

Never mind wheeling back two weeks after the Kentucky Derby to go in the Preakness Stakes. What about afterward?

Journalism, Sandman and Goal Oriented made up three-fourths of the superfecta Saturday in the Preakness after racing only two weeks earlier on Derby day. The landscape beyond that is full of horses who tried both and had limited success afterward when they have stayed on the racetrack.

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Since American Pharoah’s Triple Crown campaign in 2015, there have been 44 horses who raced in the Preakness who also raced no more than 15 days beforehand, mostly in the Derby. Not counting this year’s quartet that also includes American Promise, four of those horses are still in training. They are Mystik Dan from last year, Creative Minister from 2022, Ram from 2021 and Everfast from 2019.

Eight of those last 40 wheel-backs from Preaknesses before this year were Grade 1 winners afterward, most recently 2024 winner Seize the Grey with his victory in the Pennsylvania Derby. Aside from American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown champion Justify, subsequent top-level winners included Exaggerator, Bodexpress, Win Win Win, Improbable, Medina Spirit and Epicenter.

Twelve of the 40 were next-out winners, but there has been none since Epicenter finished second in the 2022 Derby and Preakness and then first in the Jim Dandy (G2) at Saratoga.

Nineteen of the 40 ran their next race in June, including eight who did not go in the Belmont Stakes. Twelve others came back in July, five in August, two in the fall, one the following year and one, Classic Empire, never raced again.

The most durable were the 13 who raced at least 10 more times. Abiding Star, who won the Parx Derby two weeks before he finished last in the 2016 Preakness, had another 44 starts and 10 wins before he was retired in 2021.

Rather than an argument for or against changing the spacing of Triple Crown races or altering the training-to-breeding paradigm, this is meant to be food for thought. Or perhaps fuel to stoke either side of the debate.

This list of the horses who raced 15 or fewer days before their starts in the Preakness since 2015 shows what they did afterward. The year 2020 is not included, because COVID pushed the Preakness into the fall and a month after the Derby.