While trainer Bill Mott is bypassing a two-week turnaround into the Preakness Stakes (G1) with Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Sovereignty to have his colt await the June 7 Belmont Stakes (G1), the Preakness will still have a Derby competitor trained by another Hall of Famer, D. Wayne Lukas.
Lukas, 89, runs Virginia Derby winner American Promise, a colt that could give the training legend a record-tying eighth victory in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness, the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Lukas' colt will need to outrun a medium-sized field, including two 3-year-olds trained by fellow Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who currently holds the Preakness win record and is gunning for his ninth victory. Baffert runs Goal Oriented, a promising winner of each of his two starts.
Lukas' participation in the Preakness Stakes has become a near annual event since he first rose to the heights of the sport, winning with his first Preakness starter when Codex triumphed in 1980. No trainer has run more horses in the second leg of the Triple Crown than Lukas, who has outrun and outlived many of his counterparts. He has started 48 horses in the race over the past 45 years, leaving him with 41 losses to accompany his seven triumphs.
Asked during a National Thoroughbred Racing Association teleconference May 8 which of those defeats might have been one that got away, Lukas replied, "Every one of 'em."
"The Coach," as he is nicknamed, is from the Wayne Gretzky school of thought that "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
"I always felt real confident with the horses I brought in there," Lukas continued before adding that his memory has faded.
Later during the NTRA teleconference, he would acknowledge that Bravazo —a close second in the fog to Justify in the 2018 Preakness—was one near miss that left him wondering what might have been with a change in tactics or racing luck.
Indeed, the Preakness record books would look different if that half-length decision in 2018 had gone the other way. Baffert would be one win behind Lukas, instead of the other way around. Still, if Lukas had to lose, he said he was glad the victory came for Baffert, his friend. Justify would become a Triple Crown winner and eventual stallion, coincidentally siring American Promise.
So his Preakness tally stands at seven. Besides Codex, Lukas won the 1985 Preakness with Tank's Prospect, the 1994 renewal with Tabasco Cat, the 1995 Preakness with Timber Country, the 1999 race with Charismatic, the 2013 classic with Oxbow , and most recently, Seize the Grey last year. The latter victory gave him 15 overall wins in Triple Crown events.
Whether American Promise can join that select company as a Preakness winner will be determined May 17 in the final Preakness Stakes run at "old" Pimlico Race Course. A new facility, replacing the aging grandstand, will be built on the property, and Laurel Park will serve as a temporary Preakness home during the reconstruction.
Lukas believes American Promise was compromised in the Derby.
"It all went to hell in a handbasket right out of the gate when Citizen Bull came over," Lukas said of the Baffert-trained front-runner who broke outwardly into the path of other Derby runners, one of which was his horse.
American Promise then chased the pace on the inside, and with jockey Nik Juarez looking to go to the lead with American Promise down the backstretch, "He tried to split those two horses and they shut him down and that was the end of it," Lukas said.
Third, a head behind a demanding six-furlong Derby fraction of 1:10.78, American Promise wilted to finish 38 1/2 lengths behind Sovereignty. The two other front-runners, Neoequos and Citizen Bull, faded to 13th and 15th, respectively. The top four runners from the Kentucky Derby, including second-place Journalism—the only one of the top runners under consideration for the Preakness—rallied from the middle or rear of the pack.
As usual, the Preakness will include some new shooters to the Triple Crown, including a number that are untested in graded stakes.
Among those is Clever Again, trained by two-time Preakness winner Steve Asmussen. A son of American Pharoah owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds and the Coolmore-affiliated Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, Clever Again is perfect in two starts this year, winning a maiden race and the Hot Spring Stakes, both at Oaklawn Park. He had been second in his only other start when debuting 13 months ago at Keeneland.
His Hot Springs performance earned him a 108 Equibase Speed Figure, higher than the 103 Sovereignty posted in the Derby, though Clever Again did not face the depth of talent or the elements as those who raced in a sloppy Kentucky Derby.
"He has shown a lot of talent, obviously. He's definitely mature beyond his races," said Asmussen, a Hall of Famer and North America's winningest trainer in Thoroughbred racing history.
