Preakness 2024: Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan to run in second jewel of Triple Crown series
Kenny McPeek said it again and again.
He didn’t fear the two-week turnaround from the Kentucky Derby or the fresher horses waiting for Mystik Dan in the Preakness Stakes field. He simply wasn’t going to rush a decision before the Derby winner indicated through training he was sufficiently recovered to take on the second leg of the Triple Crown series.
By Saturday morning, McPeek had seen enough and confirmed what he’d hinted at for days: Mystik Dan will run in the Preakness.
“All systems go,” he said after the colt galloped 1 1/2 miles over the track at Churchill Downs. “He’ll ship out in the morning.”
Mystik Dan’s entry immediately spiced up a field that previously included just one Derby horse, 17th-place finisher Just Steel. Fourth-place Derby finisher Catching Freedom is also a possibility for the Preakness after he impressed trainer Brad Cox with his work coming out of last weekend’s race.
In addition to his rivals from Churchill Downs, Mystik Dan will face several well-rested challengers, led by the Bob Baffert-trained duo of Muth and Imagination. Muth, who easily bested Mystik Dan in the March 30 Arkansas Derby, could be the favorite as Baffert seeks his record-extending ninth Preakness victory. Last year, he beat Derby champion Mage with a fresher horse, National Treasure.
Baffert was one of the first people to call McPeek after Mystik Dan’s defining win, and he was among those who hoped the Derby champ would go on to Pimlico Race Course.
“I think it takes a week to just get over [the Derby], let the dust settle, and then you realize this is a very important race, and it’s a historical race,” Baffert said.
McPeek knows the joy of winning the Preakness. He did it in the pandemic-delayed 2020 race when his filly, Swiss Skydiver, out-dueled Baffert-trained Derby champion Authentic.
But the morning after the Derby, he declined to commit Mystik Dan to the second leg of the Triple Crown, noting that the horse had struggled when he tried to come back on 13 days’ rest after a breakout win in his 2-year-old season. His cautious tone and talk of shipping Mystik Dan straight to New York fueled speculation that he would skip the trip to Baltimore, much as long-shot Derby winner Rich Strike did in 2022.
It’s still unusual for a Derby winner to bypass the Preakness if there’s no injury or illness involved. The last to do so before Rich Strike was Spend a Buck in 1985. But with fewer and fewer Derby trainers eager to return their horses to action so quickly, analysts have predicted other champions will not even attempt to win the Triple Crown.
Baffert-trained Justify was the last horse to win both the Derby and Preakness on his way to a Triple Crown in 2018. But 15 different horses won the 15 Triple Crown races between 2019 and 2023, so Mystik Dan will attempt to buck a trend toward parity.
McPeek said the colt’s hearty appetite and vitality during morning gallops suggested he was ready to take the shot.
“I don’t have any reluctance; I just don’t have to make a decision yet,” the trainer said during a Thursday conference call with reporters. “Everyone’s different. You just really want to get through the weekend and make sure he’s in good shape.”
He said he could see extending the schedule to put a month between each Triple Crown race, which might create more competitive fields in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
“You stick your neck out coming back in two weeks. It’s a bit of a tightrope you’ve got to walk,” McPeek said. “But the good horses that have done it deserve it, and I don’t believe the thoroughbred today is any more fragile than it was 50 years ago. I think there are thoroughbreds plenty capable of running back in two weeks or three weeks. There are horses all over America that do it. But this is what makes the Triple Crown difficult. It takes an unbelievable horse to do it, and maybe that’s why it should stay the same.”