Trainer Chad Summers said April 27 that 2025 Champagne Stakes (G1) winner Napoleon Solo is being aimed for the May 16 Preakness Stakes (G1), a decision reached after weighing options with owner Al Gold of Gold Square.
The gray or roan son of Liam's Map , one of the top 2-year-olds of last year, also had been considered for the May 2 Pat Day Mile (G2) at Churchill Downs and the possibility of gaining a berth in Saturday's Kentucky Derby (G1) there if his 25 qualifying points had been sufficient. He would have been the second also-eligible had he been entered.
Ultimately, those options were ruled out in favor of a start in the $2 million Preakness, contested on dirt at 1 3/16 miles at Laurel Park.
Napoleon Solo stamped himself among the leading juveniles of his class last season, taking his debut and following with a decisive score in the Champagne at Aqueduct Racetrack. But both of his races this year have resulted in fifth-place finishes under less-than-optimal circumstances. He broke slowly and raced wide when returning from a layoff in the Feb. 28 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park, then he was compromised when hounded into demanding fractions while setting a contested pace in the April 4 Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct. He lost by 2 3/4 lengths in the Wood to victorious Albus, a longshot in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.
Napoleon Solo sizzled 6 furlongs in 1:11.42 on the Belmont Park training track April 24 in a second workout that followed the Wood.
"Obviously you want to see how he breezes next week and see what happens in the Derby, but for this point in time you only get an opportunity to run the Triple Crown races one time," Summers said. "We feel like he's continuing to move forward."
Napoleon Solo has yet to show the same effectiveness routing this year as a 3-year-old as he did when racing around one turn as a juvenile. He possesses speed in abundance, having broken his maiden at 6 furlongs at Saratoga Race Course before throwing down scintillating splits of :44.24 and 1:07.88 en route to completing a one-turn mile in 1:34.56 with a 6 1/2-length score in the Champagne.
The Preakness, run at Laurel this year because of the construction of a new facility at the race's traditional home at Pimlico Race Course, is the shortest of the three Triple Crown races and usually the softest race in the series. Only a limited number of Derby horses return in the Preakness two weeks later, with many trainers preferring to run more-rested Derby horses in early June in the Belmont Stakes (G1), the third and final Triple Crown race.
Trainer Bill Mott, for example, chose to bypass running 2025 Derby winner Sovereignty in last year's Preakness to point for the Belmont, where he defeated Journalism, the Preakness winner. The latter was the only horse to run in all three Triple Crown races in 2025.
According to track publicity, other horses under consideration for this year's Preakness include (with trainers) include Crude Velocity and Cherokee Nation (Bob Baffert); Iron Honor and Ottinho (Chad Brown); Talk to Me Jimmy (Rudy Rodriguez); Crupper (Donnie Von Hemel); Taj Mahal (Brittany Russell); Talkin (Danny Gargan); and The Hell We Did (Todd Fincher).
Should Crude Velocity compete, he would do so on a quick turnaround. He is entered in the Pat Day Mile on Kentucky Derby Day. Seize the Grey completed that double in 2024.
