The second leg of the Triple Crown is upon us and that means it’s time for another ‘Keeping it In The Family’ blog. For the Preakness, I looked closer at individual stallions and how two evergreen stallions atop the sire standings year after year are playing a huge part in this year’s field. Read below for six Preakness Stakes field facts with a large focus on the bloodstock side of the sport.
The Curlin Show
Six of Curlin’s 11 crops of classic age have produced top three placers in the Triple Crown races with one other year also producing a top four finisher (Known Agenda was fourth in the 2021 Belmont Stakes). Among those are two classic race winners (Palace Malice in 2013 and Exaggerator in 2017). While he didn’t have top three placers in 2019 through 2022 (and none through one leg of 2023), he’s also proved to be a sire-of-sires in the Triple Crown as the grandsire of the last two Kentucky Derby winners (Mage is by his Derby second Good Magic and Rich Strike by his Belmont third place finisher Keen Ice) with Exaggerator siring Belmont Stakes third place finisher Skippylongstocking last year as well.
Did you miss it?
Watch the 2023 Kentucky Derby! pic.twitter.com/NmojWepHwh
— Kentucky Derby (@KentuckyDerby) May 6, 2023
Curlin won’t be adding to his own classic siring reputation in the Preakness but has the potential to build his sire-of-sires legacy. As of Thursday afternoon, Curlin is the grandsire of half the field with Good Magic siring three of the runners and Ride On Curlin (who was second in the Preakness) the sire of one other. Two of those runners are out of mares from the Danzig line (Mage out of a Big Brown mare and Coffeewithchris out of a Outflanker mare) with the other two out of Tale of Ekati and Warrior’s Reward mares.
Don’t Sleep on Medaglia
Medaglia d’Oro sired the winner of one of the most memorable G1 Preakness Stakes in recent times when Rachel Alexandra won the 2009 edition. This year he doesn’t have any runners of his own, but he does play a part in the immediate pedigree of three of them.
His former reverse shuttle son Astern is the sire of Chase the Chaos and three of his daughters or granddaughters produced Preakness runners. The Godolphin-bred First Mission, who is by his studmate Street Sense, is out of his winning daughter Elude and Quality Road’s National Treasure is out of his daughter Treasure. Meanwhile, Good Magic’s Blazing Sevens is out of a mare by Medaglia d’Oro’s Grade 1 winner Warrior’s Reward.
In all, every runner in the field sees either Curlin or Medaglia d’Oro close up in the pedigree.
Prep Races
Only one runner from the Kentucky Derby doubles back here with Mage looking to win two legs of the Triple Crown. Not surprisingly, the rest of this year’s Preakness runners made their last starts in April to give them at least three weeks off before the Preakness.
Chase the Chaos has the least rest after Mage with a run in the California Derby on April 29. Red Route One won the Barn House Stakes on April 22 to be the third most recent runner with three runners coming into the race off April 15 starts (First Mission and Perform both won those starts) and two coming into the race of April 8 starts (National Treasure and Blazing Sevens).
Birthdays
While the Kentucky Derby leaned more toward a later foaled field, the Preakness is more for the early crew. Two of the eight runners were born in February and three others were born in March. Only First Mission was born later than April 18 with his birthday coming on May 6. Perform, who was born on February 1, is the oldest of the field by 18 days with a February 1 birthday.
#7 PERFORM ($22.00) surges late to win the Federico Tesio Stakes @LaurelPark. A Win & In to the @PreaknessStakes. Feargal Lynch with the winning ride for trainer Shug McGaughey. Congratulations to the connections! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/uVmsYfUrUF
— TVG (@TVG) April 15, 2023
Kentucky Derby winner Mage was part of the younger group in the Kentucky Derby and again takes up that place here with his April 18 foaling date the second latest of all the runners.
Sale Prices
Six of the eight runners in the field went through the ring at least once with two selling as weanlings/short yearlings, six selling as yearlings, and one selling as a 2-year-old. Blazing Sevens was the only weanling/short yearling to go through the ring twice, bringing $140,000 as a short yearling and $225,000 seven months later during the summer yearling sales.
Kentucky Derby winner Mage’s price didn’t go up too much when he was offered as a juvenile after bringing $235,000 as a yearling, but that $290,000 his racing owners spent now looks like a bargain.
Doubling Back
With the field cut in half from the Kentucky Derby, it’s no surprise that not many stallions have representatives in both races. However, the young stallions again are showing how strong they are with both Good Magic and Gun Runner among the sires in both races.
While Good Magic obviously has Mage running, his other two are horses who didn’t run in the Derby – giving him four runners from his first 3-year-old crop to run in classics. Gun Runner is in the same position with his second crop with two runners in the first two legs of the Triple Crown.
Quality Road is the only other stallion with runners in both the Derby and Preakness this year – he had Jace’s Road in the Derby and National Treasure in the Preakness.
Post time for this year’s Preakness Stakes is at 7:01PM ET as the last of nine Thoroughbred stakes on the card.
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