Perform

Continuing on the heels of a stacked card Friday, Pimlico offers a robust eight-stakes offering Saturday, led by the $1.5 million GI Preakness S. With GI Kentucky Derby winning Mage (Good Magic) looming as the one to beat, the race suffered a notable blow Friday with the defection of Godolphin's 'TDN Rising Star' First Mission (Street Sense), shaving the field back to seven. Having not only showed a recency in form but also the ability to win at the highest level, none of the chestnut's rivals can really make the...

At this year's GI Preakness S., Shug McGaughey is aiming to win his own version of the Triple Crown. The Hall of Fame trainer won the third leg of the series in 1989, when Easy Goer famously defeated Sunday Silence in the GI Belmont S., and then Orb (Malibu Moon) earned the Kentucky horseman a GI Kentucky Derby score in 2013. This Saturday, McGaughey could claim his final Triple Crown jewel with a promising contender in Perform (Good Magic). On Thursday morning shortly after eight, as Perform walked the Preakness...

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...

GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) drew post three in the field of eight set to go in the $1.65-million GI Preakness S., to be held Saturday, May 20, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The second jewel of the Triple Crown drew only one starter from the Kentucky Derby, but it was the one who won the Derby and the only one with a chance for a Triple Crown. Mage was installed as the 8-5 favorite at the draw, which was held at Baltimore's Guinness Open Gate Brewery....

GI Kentucky Derby champion Mage (Good Magic) stretched his legs around Pimlico Race Course Monday morning in preparation for a start in Saturday's GI Preakness S. The Gustavo Delgado-trained 3-year-old, who went to the track shortly after 8:30 a.m., jogged in the company of a pony once around the mile oval before galloping once around under exercise rider J.J. Delgado. "He looked good, quiet, relaxed," said Gustavo Delgado, Jr, his father's assistant. "There were only one, two, three horses on the track the same time he was. He was getting...

Perform (Good Magic) tuned up for Saturday's GI Preakness S. with a half-mile drill in :48.09 (2/42) over the main track at Belmont Park Sunday. Trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, Perform worked just after the renovation break under partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-60s, completing his exercise to the outside of his maiden workmate Weyhill Road (Quality Road). McGaughey said the work was just what he hoped to see ahead of the colt's graded stakes debut. "I was very pleased with the way he worked and...

Two Phil's (Hard Spun), a game runner-up in the GI Kentucky Derby, will skip the May 20 GI Preakness S., according to a report from Jim O'Donnell in the Chicago Daily Herald. "Too soon," trainer Larry Rivelli told O'Donnell. "Phil came out of the Derby great. We shipped back to Chicago Sunday, but the Preakness is just 12 days away. That's just too soon." Two Phil's, coming off a win in the Mar. 25 GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks, was the only runner close to the hot pace to still be...