Preakness Stakes 2024: Mystik Dan hunts for the Triple Crown

Rain was falling at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday hours before the Kentucky Derby win Mystic Dan Goes for back-to-back Triple Crown victories when He takes on seven other horses In the Preakness Stakes.

He will be the first to win the Derby and Preakness since Justify in 2018. That would set up an extraordinary historic moment next month with the Triple Crown on the line in the Belmont Stakes, which will be held for the first time At Saratoga Raceway in upstate New York because Renovations at Belmont Park In New York City.

Mystik Dan will have to overcome Bob Baffert was trained imagination, Brad Cox Catching Freedom and Chad Brown Tuscan Gold, the two main contenders, and the Preakness could be run on a muddy track, with rain expected to continue throughout the afternoon.

Baffert was scheduled to saddle two horses in the race scheduled to start after 7 p.m. EST, but Favorite morning line Moth been scratched During the week due to fever. Mystik Dan opened Saturday as a 3-1 favorite, with Catching Freedom and Tuscan Gold each 7-2 and Imagination 9-2.

“Catching Freedom trained well in the Derby,” Mystic Dane trainer Kenny McPeek said this week. “He’s a very nice horse. And Bob, he wouldn’t bring a horse in that wasn’t a good one, and Chad also has a horse coming off (finishing third behind winner Catching Freedom in) the Louisiana Derby. Yeah, that’s not a given.”

It was not a given That McPeek will send Mystik Dan to Baltimore is a two-week turnaround from the colt’s nose-thumping win in the Kentucky Derby. But he is One of three Horses from this race are running in the Preakness, up from one last year and two in 2022.

The reluctance of many trainers to do the Derby-Preakness double, which was once the norm for horses on the Triple Crown track, has raised questions about The prestige of the middle jewel And fears that he has become the series’ unwanted stepchild. There are discussions about spacing races to adapt to modern Thoroughbreds racing less frequently than in previous eras.

this will be Final Preakness At the old Pimlico Racecourse as it is now, demolition is scheduled to begin early next year. The 150th race will continue in 2025 at the track during construction before moving to Laurel Park in 2026 and then back to the rebuilt Pimlico in 2027.

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AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing