Post Positions, Odds, And What Mage Has To Do To Win

The Preakness is the brutal sleeper within the three Triple Crown races, shorter by a sixteenth of a mile than the Derby but, at two short weeks out from the longest race the three-year-olds have run in their lives, its timing pushes the young athletes’ resilience to its limit. That’s the very good reason some trainers prefer to skip the Derby and point their chargers specifically to Pimlico, as seven of the eight trainers in the 2023 Preakness have done.

Derby winner Mage is lone exception, and at 8-5 in the Pimlico morning line, he is this year’s young man to beat. He is this year’s only Triple Crown contenter. His question is the eternal one for the horses in that class: Will his rather splendid Derby performance two weeks ago beat him, or can he beat it? This is sharp, business end of the truism that every Triple Crown contender is always, also, racing against himself.

We’ll bring in our trusted Kentucky horseman, The Bluegrass Wise Man, to help us understand what Mage faces in these seven new three-year-olds in a moment, but first, the post positions have been drawn and the morning line has been set at Pimlico:

(Post Position, Horse, Trainer, Morning Line)

1. National Treasure, Bob Baffert, 4-1

2. Chase the Chaos, Ed Moger Jr., 50-1

3. Mage, Gustavo Delgado, 8-5

4. Coffeewithchris, John Salzman Jr., 20-1

5. Red Route One, Steve Asmussen, 10-1

6. Perform, Shug McGaughey, 15-1

7. Blazing Sevens, Chad Brown, 6-1

8. First Mission, Brad Cox, 5-2

(Source: Pimlico, 5/15/2023)