Two weeks after losing the Kentucky Derby, Journalism gets a second crack at a Triple Crown jewel as the 3-year-old colt is the morning line favorite for the Preakness Stakes on Saturday in Baltimore.
Trainer Michael McCarthy’s stakes-winning horse, who started the Derby as the 3-1 favorite, rallied from the middle of the pack to claim the lead briefly coming out of the turn at Churchill Downs before Sovereignty chased him down and won by 1 1/2 lengths.
Sovereignty’s connections opted to skip the Preakness in favor of preparing for next month’s Belmont Stakes in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. While Journalism won’t have a chance to avenge the loss that snapped a four-race winning streak, he’s scheduled to face eight other horses at Pimlico Race Course. That includes Sandman, the Arkansas Derby-winning colt who finished seventh on May 3 in Louisville as Derby bettors’ second choice.
Journalism is currently 8-5 on the morning line, but the colt sired by Curlin could be bet down to less than even money by the time the 1 3/16-mile race starts around 7 p.m. ET. McCarthy told reporters this week that he likes what he has seen from Journalism, who’s being asked to race just two weeks after a race for the first time.
“Sometimes with good horses, it’s a lot harder to tell when they’re not on top of their game because they can handle it,” McCarthy said. “They handle these things so easily. We’ll see on Saturday, but my gut tells me we’re in for good things.”
Only one other Kentucky Derby entrant joins Journalism and Sandman in the Preakness Stakes field as D. Wayne Lukas’ American Promise sits at 15-1. The Virginia Derby winner finished 16th at Churchill Downs. However, another horse that ran on Derby Day is also in the field.
Goal Oriented (6-1) went wire-to-wire to win a 1 1/16-mile allowance race on the Derby undercard. The Preakness will be just the third race and first stakes effort for the Bob Baffert-trained colt.
Baffert, who has won eight Preakness races, hopes to follow Lukas’ path to victory last year. The 89-year-old trainer entered Seize The Grey after he won the Pat Day Mile in Louisville two weeks earlier. However, Baffert told reporters Thursday that, while Goal Oriented has prepared well, he knows Journalism, who beat two of his horses in the Santa Anita Derby in April, is the one to beat.
“That is the whole thing,” the Hall of Fame trainer said about Journalism. “He has proven it. If he brings his ‘A’ game, he is going to be tough. We need luck.”
Goal Oriented, ridden by Flavien Prat, drew the inside post, just like Baffert’s Citizen Bull did in the Kentucky Derby. Journalism, with Umberto Rispoli aboard, will break from the second gate while American Promise and jockey Nik Juarez drew the third gate.
Sandman (4-1) has John Velazquez on board and will break from the seventh gate. Of the more rested horses, River Thames (9-2) is likely Journalism’s biggest challenger. The Todd Pletcher-trained colt qualified for the Kentucky Derby after a runner-up finish in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park and Keeneland’s Blue Grass Stakes, but the horse’s connections withdrew him from consideration to focus on the Preakness. Irad Ortiz Jr. gets the call on River Thames, who will break sixth.
There has been considerable rainfall in the Baltimore area this week and additional precipitation is in the forecast. That could lead the Preakness to be run in off-track conditions like the Kentucky Derby.
Saturday marks the 150th running of the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. It will also be the last one held at Pimlico before it undergoes a $400 million rebuild that will require the 2026 Preakness to be held at Laurel Park, located 30 miles southwest of Pimlico between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The race is expected to return to Pimlico in 2027.
–Field Level Media
