Beaten by Sovereignty down the stretch in the slop in the Kentucky Derby, Journalism is favored to get the job done in the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes.
Journalism opened as the 8-5 morning line favorite when post positions were drawn Monday night for the middle leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. There were no arguments about that coming from two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert.
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“He should be the favorite,” said Baffert, who has won the Preakness a record eight times and is saddling No. 1 Goal Oriented looking for a ninth. “Watching him run and chasing him, he ran a great Derby. … He is a really good horse and ran a big race in the Derby. Usually a horse with a good Derby form will run well in the Preakness.”
Journalism, trained by Michael McCarthy, is again set to be ridden by jockey Umberto Rispoli and leave the starting gate from the No. 2 post. Post time is set for 7:01 p.m. EDT on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course.
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No. 7 Sandman is the 4-1 second choice in the field of nine, which does not include Sovereignty, after his owners and trainer decided not to run the Derby winner two weeks after his triumph at Churchill Downs. The Preakness goes on without a true shot at a Triple Crown winner for the fifth time in seven years since Justify swept all three races in 2018.
Fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas can tie Baffert if he wins the Preakness back-to-back, this time with American Promise a year after Seize the Grey ended Mystik Dan’s Triple Crown bid. American Promise drew the No. 3 post and opened at odds of 15-1.
Goal Oriented is 6-1 for Baffert.
“The 1 hole is not as bad here as it would be in the Derby,” said Baffert, who reminisced about American Pharoah also drawing the rail a decade ago. “Once you draw it, you can’t think about it. That’s it. That’s a (jockey Flavien) Prat problem.”
There are three Derby horses running in the $2 million Preakness in Baltimore: Journalism, American Promise and Sandman, the latter of whom will be ridden by John Velazquez for trainer Mark Casse. Sandman finished seventh in the Derby.
“We wanted a better trip out of him,” shareholder Griffin Johnson said at the draw at Guinness Open Gate Brewery just outside Baltimore. “With the talent that he has, he had the potential to run a little bit better. The mud wasn’t great, and we just are going to do our best coming up.”
New to the Triple Crown trail, along with Goal Oriented, are No. 4 Heart of Honor (12-1), No. 5 Pay Billy (20-1), No. 6 River Thames (9-2), No. 8 Clever Again (5-1) and No. 9 Gosger (20-1). River Thames is the latest chance for Todd Pletcher to win the Preakness for the first time in his Hall of Fame training career.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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