Road to Triple Crown is getting bumpy for Mage

BALTIMORE — Mage’s path through Triple Crown season is not an easy one.

The Kentucky Derby winner opened as the favorite for this weekend’s Preakness Stakes, but Mage will have to top a field that includes Bob Baffert-trained National Treasure and others to become the first horse to take the first two Triple Crown races since Justify in 2018.

The race changed when top contender First Mission was scratched early Friday, leaving only seven to run. The result will depend on how Mage handles the two-week turnaround, what pace develops and whether jockey Javier Castellano can set up another winning trip down the stretch.

Mage’s journey

Purchased for $290,000 a year ago up the road from Pimlico at a sale in Timonium, Mage is making just his fifth career start after not running as a 2-year-old and making his debut Jan. 28. He joined Justify as the only Derby winners not to run as 2-yearolds since Apollo in 1882.

Mage was beaten by Forte — who was the Derby favorite before getting scratched — in his second and third career races, finishing fourth and second.

That was enough to get him into the field at Churchill Downs, and winning it quieted any doubts about Mage being too lightly raced to contend with the best 3-year-olds in the world.

“Experience at this point, I don’t think it’s relevant,” assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr. said. “Every time he races, he’s getting more mature. Last race, he didn’t look like an apprentice to anybody.”

His chances

After winning in Kentucky at odds of 14-1, Mage was set as the 8-5 morning line favorite in a field of eight for the Preakness. He’s the only horse back from the Derby two weeks ago.

Although trainer Gustavo Delgado Sr. has experience from his native Venezuela bringing a horse back on that short of rest, it’s less common in the U.S. among top thoroughbreds.