Preakness 150: Gosger, Bracket Buster possible for Preakness after 1-2 Lexington Finish

By David Joseph —-

Gosger, Bracket Buster possible for Preakness after 1-2 Lexington Finish

LEXINGTON — Gosger and Bracket Buster both are possible for the 150th Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico after finishing 1-2 in Saturday’s $400,000 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes (G3) at Keeneland.

While not committing to the 1 3/16-mile Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, Gosger trainer Brendan Walsh and Bracket Buster trainer Vicki Oliver both said after the race that their colts earned consideration for the May 17 Preakness at Pimlico Race Course.

Gosger wore down front-running 25-1 shot Bracket Buster in the final sixteenth-mile for a two-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile Lexington. It was Gosger’s first start since winning a Gulfstream Park maiden special weight race in his second start on Feb. 15.

Bracket Buster was making his first start at age 3. In his last start, he finished fifth in Churchill Downs’ Oct. 27 Street Sense (G3). The first three finishers that day were Sovereignty, Gulfstream’s Coolmore Fountain of Youth (G2) winner and Curlin Florida Derby (G1) runner-up; Louisiana Derby (G2) winner Tiztastic, and Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Sandman.

“He’s still got a lot of maturing to do,” Walsh said of Gosger. “He’s still a little raw. But I love what I saw today. He was a little green, but he beat a couple of really nice horses. I think he’s a very nice horse in the making. We gave him a little time off after his maiden win because I felt, when I looked at him, that he was doing a lot of growing. Even in the paddock today I was thinking he still has a bit of filling out to do.

“[Jockey] Irad (Ortiz) said he only really got going and straightened out when he got to the second wire (a sixteenth-mile past the finish for Keeneland’s 1 1/16-mile races). He said he really started to run then, which is a very encouraging thing to hear. It’s always nice to win a nice race like that with a young horse, a lightly raced horse. I think he’s got some big days in front of him.”

Asked about the Preakness five weeks later, Walsh said, “We’ll see how he comes out of this. There is a nice bit of spacing to it, and if he was doing well we’d have to consider it, absolutely. I thought at the start he could potentially be a Kentucky Derby (G1) horse, but we brought him down to Florida and had a maiden race planned for him and he got sick… He’s making us be patient, but he’s paying us back for it.”

Gosger is campaigned by the family of Harvey Clarke, the late breeder of 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another. Gosger’s second dam, Arch’s Gal Edith, is the mother of I’ll Have Another. Gosger’s sire is 2016 Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, who finished third in the Preakness.

Bracket Buster in his third start won a 1 1/16-mile maiden race Oct. 9 at Keeneland at 33-1 odds, followed by his fifth place in the Oct. 27 Street Sense.

“I thought he ran really, really well,” Oliver said. “I wish we’d had a race in him before this race, but it was just the way it set up. We gave him a long break and just decided this was a better spot than the allowance race that was a big, huge field. We took our shot here, and it paid off.”

She said the Preakness is a possibility.

“He’s always been in consideration for the 3-year-old stakes,” Oliver said. “That’s why we didn’t really push on him for the early, early 3-year-old races on the Derby trail. He’s a late, late May (22nd) foal and needs a lot of time to develop, and that’s what we gave him. He’s run in very, very tough company, so he’s proved to everyone he can be a part of all of this. It’s just if we get the right trip and the right place and hopefully we get lucky.”

Others being considered for the Preakness are Hill Road, third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) and Tampa Bay Derby (G3), and UAE Derby runner-up Heart Of Honor. The April 19 Tesio at Laurel Park and Bathhouse Row at Oaklawn Park will be ‘Win and In’ Races for the Preakness as long as the winners are Triple Crown eligible. The Oaklawn Handicap on the 19th will also be a ‘Win and In’ for the Pimlico Special (G3).

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