Preakness 148 Contender Updates

It's been a quiet week on the Triple Crown front as all eight contenders continue to prepare for Saturday's $1.65 million GI Preakness S. at Pimlico. Following is a brief update on each as of Wednesday morning:

• GI Kentucky Derby winner and 8-5 Preakness favorite Mage (Good Magic) galloped 1 1/2 miles over the Pimlico surface and playfully reared as he exited the track. “He was showing off. He was showing off a little bit,” said Gustavo Delgado, Jr., the assistant and son of trainer Gustavo Delgado. “He was just feeling good.” He continued: “It was the same routine since we got here. He looked better, had more energy. He wanted to do more. His exercise rider–J.J. Delgado–said he's doing good.”
• 'TDN Rising Star' and GIII Lexington S. winner First Mission (Street Sense) had an easy gallop. “We had a great morning,” said trainer Brad Cox. “He galloped a little further today than yesterday but was every bit as good as yesterday.” The colt is tabbed at 5-2 on the morning line.
• National Treasure (Quality Road) had a “routine gallop,” per Jimmy Barnes, assistant to trainer Bob Baffert.
• 'TDN Rising Star' and GISW Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) galloped about 1 1/4 miles under exercise rider Peter Levia. “I think he is sitting on a big race,” said Jose Hernandez, assistant to Chad Brown. “I've got the same feeling with this one that I did with the others [winners Cloud Computing, 2017, and Early Voting, 2022]. This is a pretty nice horse to work with.”
• Red Route One (Gun Runner) arrived Tuesday afternoon. “He settled in nice, jogged a mile this morning on the track, and seemed to do everything right,” said Darren Fleming, assistant to Steve Asmussen. “Relaxing now.” He will paddock school Thursday.
• Perform (Good Magic) visited the Pimlico surface for the first time Wednesday morning. Just after he entered, a loose horse running the wrong direction passed close by. “It didn't really bother him, but he got buzzed pretty good,” said Anthony Hamilton, Shug McGaughey's assistant. “It was right as we got on the track. Obviously, it's not what you want, but [exercise rider] Noemi [Pauquet] did a great job. The horse was as professional as a horse could be in that situation. He is a feel-good horse and that woke him up a little bit. Then he went out and galloped a mile just like we wanted him to.” Perform was supplemented to the Preakness for a fee of $150,000.
• Chase the Chaos (Astern {Aus}) arrived from Northern California late Tuesday. “He traveled about 16 hours, but it looks like he handled it good,” said trainer Ed Moger, Jr. “He cleaned up his food and he was pretty happy this morning.”
• Local horse Coffeewithchris (Ride On Curlin) vanned to Pimlico from Laurel Park. “He's settled in. He's doing fine,” trainer John Salzman, Jr. said. “He's doing good. He's training perfectly. He's done everything I've asked of him. He's galloping, playing, and kicking, so at this point he's doing as good as he can do. If he goes forward a little bit I'm looking forward to him running a big race.”