Mandaloun, Essential Quality out of Preakness
Kentucky Derby favorite Essential Quality and runner-up Mandaloun will not run against Medina Spirit in the Preakness, trainer Brad Cox said Thursday.
Cox said he’ll skip the second jewel of the Triple Crown with those two horses and Caddo River, who was scratched from the Derby for spiking a fever. Mandaloun finished a half-length back of Medina Spirit as a 27-1 long shot, while Essential Quality was fourth after going off as the 3-1 Derby favorite.
Mandaloun jogged Thursday, and Cox said the horse was moving extremely well with good energy, adding Mandaloun showed “everything you want to see from a colt that performed at a high level at a mile and a quarter race.”
But the decision was made to skip the May 15 Preakness in Baltimore in the hope of keeping Mandaloun ready for more races as a 3-year-old and beyond.
Mandaloun “ran extremely well and hard and just feel like we would like to give him some time,” Cox said on a National Thoroughbred Racing Association conference call. “We just feel like in the best interest of the horse to run him back in two weeks is just not the right thing for him.”
The Travers Stakes this August at Saratoga Race Course is the new target for Essential Quality, who fell short of being the first gray horse to win the Derby since Giacomo in 2005. Cox said Caddo River, who has early speed and was expected to challenge Medina Spirit out of the gate in the Preakness, will be pointed to the Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 29.