Can a seventh filly win the Preakness Stakes?

Only six fillies have won the first 146 editions of the Preakness Stakes, which will be run Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore minus the Kentucky Derby winner.

One was an exceptional filly, one a very good one and, well, the first four we don’t know that much about.

Flocarline was the first in 1903, and she later was sent to France for her career as a broodmare. She foaled stakes winner Master Robert and later had a stakes race named for her at Pimlico.

Just three years later, Whimsical led start to finish, winning the Preakness by four lengths when the race was held at Gravesend Race Track on Coney Island before she was retired to become a broodmare.

In 1915, Rhine Maiden won the race by 1½ lengths over a muddy track. It was the same year that Regret became the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby, but the Derby winner did not challenge Rhine Maiden in the Preakness. It was the only time in racing history that more than one of the Triple Crown races was won by a filly.

Then in 1924 there was Nellie Morse, who went on to enjoy a productive breeding career after her racing days. That year, the Kentucky Oaks was run after the Preakness, and she finished second via disqualification in the Oaks after the original winner, Glide, was DQ’d.

So four fillies won the Preakness in a span of 22 years before another earned a trip to the winner’s circle 85 years later. She was a very special filly who accomplished so much as a 3-year-old but paid the price when she returned to the track at age 4 and was never the same horse after such a rigorous sophomore campaign.

Rachel Alexandra, Horse of the Year in

2009, was spectacular at 3. A daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, she won six races in six states (Kentucky, Maryland, Louisiana, Arkansas, New York and New Jersey). She beat the boys three times that year, including a victory in the Woodward Stakes against older males at Saratoga.

Of course, her most scintillating victory came in that year’s Kentucky Oaks, when she won the race by 20¼ lengths, prompting her sale of what is believed to have been in excess of $10 million to billionaire

Jess Jackson. Her new owner decided to race her in the Preakness, and she became the first Kentucky Oaks winner to win the race.

Overall, Rachel Alexandra won 13 of 19 starts for earnings of $3.5 million. She was one of the best fillies I’ve seen run. It would have been an epic matchup to see her face Zenyatta, but, sadly, the two never met on the track even though they were by far the two best fillies at the time.

The latest filly to win the Preakness (2020), Swiss Skydiver, was not in Rachel Alexandra’s class, but she was a very good race horse who showed up every time she ran. She also won the Santa Anita Oaks, Alabama Stakes and Beholder Mile during a career that saw her win seven of 16 starts for earnings of $2.2 million.

This year, Secret Oath, trained by 86-year-old Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, can become the seventh filly to win the Preakness and the 13th to win a Triple Crown race. Three have won the Kentucky Derby (Regret, Genuine Risk and Winning Colors) and three took the Belmont (Ruthless, Tanya and Rags to Riches).

A victory would be Lukas’

seventh in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, tying him with Bob Baffert and R. Wyndham Walden (1875-88) for most all-time. Lukas has started a record 45 horses in the Preakness since winning his first with Codex in 1980.

Secret Oath, a daughter of the late Arrogate, has already faced the boys once this year, finishing third in the Arkansas Derby on April 2. She since won the Kentucky Oaks on May 7 by two lengths.

“She should have won that race,” Lukas said of the Arkansas Derby. “She should have won by open lengths. We did not get the trip and we did not get the ride.”

So Lukas switched things up in the Oaks, putting Luis Saez aboard instead of Luis Contreras. Saez will be back aboard Saturday when Secret Oath matches up against Derby runner-up Epicenter, Simplification and Early Voting.

Despite his advanced age, Lukas says he has no plans to retire. He still climbs aboard his pony, Riff, in the mornings and accompanies his horses to the track.

“I don’t know what I would do,” said Lukas, who began training thoroughbreds in 1978 after 10 years in the quarter horse game. “I think my wife (Laurie) thinks I should keep doing it, too. I might be hard to live with. I get bored real easy if I’m not in competition. I might become a gambler, and that would be really bad because I am terrible at it. I have to have something to get up for. I need to do this. It’s the best therapy in the world.”

So Lukas needs horse racing, and racing is a much better sport because of what he’s accomplished. There will be a lot of folks in the industry rooting for Secret Oath on Saturday because of that.