Jaime Torres, atop Seize The Grey, reacts after crossing the finish line to win the Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course Saturday in Baltimore.
Julio Cortés/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Julio Cortés/AP
Jaime Torres, atop Seize The Grey, reacts after crossing the finish line to win the Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course Saturday in Baltimore.
Julio Cortés/AP
BALTIMORE — D. Wayne Lukas rode his way to Seize the Gray after his horse won the Preakness Stakes and kept getting interrupted with congratulatory wishes.
“I think they are trying to get rid of me,” Lukas said. “They probably want me to retire. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Not when the 88-year-old Hall of Fame trainer continues to win big races.
Seize the Gray ended Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan’s Triple Crown on Saturday by going wire-to-wire to win the Preakness, giving Lukas his seventh victory in the race, one shy of the record held by his good friend Bob Baffert.
“I’m only one behind him – I’ve already warned him,” Lukas said. “You never get old at this level and I love the competition. I love being here with the others.”
The sturdy gray colt took advantage of the muddy track as Lukas hoped, pulling off the surprise in a second straight impressive start two weeks after going wild in a race on the Derby undercard at Churchill Downs. Starting at 9-1 as one of the longest shots on the board, Seize the Gray immediately took the lead from the start and never looked back, finishing in 1:56.82.
“I thought his action at the back was magnificent and I knew he handled the track,” Lukas said. “I said, ‘Careful, he’s not going to give up.'”
Mystik Dan finished second in the eight-horse field competing in the $2 million, 1 3/16-mile race. After failing to come back in a row following his victory by a nose in the Kentucky Derby, it would be a surprise if he runs in the Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga Race Course.
“My colt is fantastic and I’m proud of him,” said trainer Kenny McPeek. “It just wasn’t his day, but he’ll live to race again.”
Seize the Gray was a surprise winner in the Preakness against tougher competition than in the Pat Day Mile on May 4. Although given the connection with Lukas, it should never come as a surprise when one of his horses is covered in a blanket of Black-Eyed Susan flowers.
No one in the race’s 149-year history has saddled more horses in the Preakness than Lukas, with 48 since his debut in 1980 and his victory with Codex. He had two in that time, with Just Steel finishing fifth, but Seize the Gray – owned by 2,570 people involved in the MyRacehorse group – took the win.
“I just couldn’t be happier for each and every one of them,” said Michael Behrens, founder and CEO of MyRacehorse. “We had high expectations, but this exceeds all those expectations.”
Seize the Gray paid $21.60 to win, $8.40 to place and $4.40 to stand. Mystik Dan paid $4.20 and $2.80, while third-place Catching Freedom paid $3.20 to show up.
Baffert, seeking a record ninth Preakness victory, was supposed to have two horses in the field, but morning line favorite Muth was scratched earlier in the week because of a fever. Baffert’s Imagination finished seventh.
“He’s still learning,” Baffert said. “I think we are learning his style. I saw today a lot of things that I can change in the future. I don’t think he wants to run like that. We didn’t really have a plan. We thought it would be Wayne or us.
Muth’s absence made Mystik Dan the 2-1 favorite, but he and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. could not replicate their perfect Derby trip to win this race’s first three-way photo finish since 1947. Instead, Jaime Torres rode Seize the Gray to victory. in his first Triple Crown race of any kind, just two years after he started riding.
“I have no words,” said Torres, a Puerto Rico native who only started running after seeing it on television in late 2019. “I’m very excited, very excited and very grateful to all the people who have been behind me, helping me.
It was the last Preakness held at Pimlico Race Course as is before demolition began on the historic but deteriorating track, which will host its 150th edition again next year mid-construction.
That process is already well underway at Belmont Park, which is why the final leg of the Triple Crown is being held for the first time at Saratoga and shortened to 1 1/4 miles due to the shape of the course. Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone, just a few steps from victory, is expected to headline, although Lukas said he would wait until he sees Seize the Gray also in contention.
NPR News
