Mage’s path through Triple Crown season is not an easy one.
The Kentucky Derby winner opened as the favorite for this weekend's Preakness Stakes, but Mage will have to top a field that includes Bob Baffert -trained National Treasure and others to become the first horse to take the first two Triple Crown races since Justify in 2018.
The race changed when top contender First Mission was scratched early Friday, leaving only seven to run. The result will depend on how Mage handles the two-week turnaround, what pace develops and whether jockey Javier Castellano can set up another winning trip down the stretch.
After winning in Kentucky at odds of 14-1, Mage was set as the 8-5 morning line favorite in a field of eight for the Preakness. He's the only horse back from the Derby two weeks ago.
The biggest question leading to the Preakness has been similar to the Derby: How fast will the pace be? Mage co-owner Ramiro Restrepo also assumed there'd be little pace in Kentucky to set things up well for his horse to close.
“You know what happens when you assume, right?” he said earlier this week.
Now the assumption is Coffeewithchris will provide early speed. Baffert's top horses also tend to be forwardly placed.
Mage is not a front-runner, so the faster the other horses go, the better. His training team just wants him to be relaxed the first half of the race and let Castellano navigate from there.
