Rain was falling at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday hours earlier than Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan goes for back-to-back Triple Crown victories when he takes on seven different horses within the Preakness Stakes.
He could be the primary to win each the Derby and the Preakness since Justify in 2018. That may arrange an uncommon and historic second subsequent month with a Triple Crown on the road on the Belmont Stakes.
Mystik Dan must beat Bob Baffert-trained Creativeness, Brad Cox’s Catching Freedom and Chad Brown’s Tuscan Gold, who’re the principle challengers, and the Preakness might be run on a muddy observe, with showers anticipated to proceed all through the afternoon.
What time does Preakness 2024 begin?
The submit time is at 6:50 p.m. ET however you possibly can catch the protection on NBC beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET, or stream on Peacock.
Baffert was set to saddle two horses within the race set to go off simply after 7 p.m. EDT, however morning line favourite Muth was scratched throughout the week due to a fever. Mystik Dan opened Saturday because the 3-1 favourite, with Catching Freedom and Tuscan Gold every 7-2 and Creativeness 9-2.
“Catching Freedom skilled rather well going into the Derby,” Mystik Dan’s coach, Kenny McPeek, mentioned this week. “He’s a really good horse. And Bob, he wouldn’t convey a horse with out it being a very good horse, and Chad’s additionally bought a horse popping out of (ending third behind winner Catching Freedom in) the Louisiana Derby. Yeah, it isn’t a given.”
It was not a given that McPeek would ship Mystik Dan to Baltimore on a two-week turnaround from the colt’s exhausting win by a nostril within the Kentucky Derby. However he is one in all three horses from that race working within the Preakness, up from one final yr and two in 2022.
Many trainers’ reluctance to do the Derby-Preakness double, as soon as the norm for horses on the Triple Crown path, has raised questions on the status of the center jewel and issues that it has turn into the undesirable stepchild of the collection. There are debates about spacing the races out to adapt to trendy thoroughbreds that race much less often than in earlier eras.
This might be the ultimate Preakness at ageing Pimlico Race Course because it stands now, with demolition set to start early subsequent yr. The one hundred and fiftieth working in 2025 will nonetheless happen on the observe throughout development earlier than shifting to Laurel Park in 2026 after which returning to a rebuilt Pimlico in 2027.
When is the Belmont Stakes and the place?
The ultimate leg of the Triple Crown is going down on June 8, and for the primary time, on the Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York due to renovations at Belmont Park in New York Metropolis.
Building is anticipated to final into 2025, so there is a good probability of the Belmont at Saratoga two years in a row.
Racing in New York is at the moment occurring at Aqueduct in Queens, which was house to the Triple Crown finale from 1963-67, the final time Belmont Park was renovated.
