Preakness 150: Rispoli: Journalism Probably Smartest Horse I Ever Rode

By David Joseph —-

PREAKNESS 150 NOTES

Rispoli: Journalism Probably Smartest Horse I Ever Rode

Jose Ortiz: Clever Again Has a Really Good Chance to Win

Cauthen to Saffie Osborne: Turns are Tight, Keep Turning Left

BALTIMORE – Jockey Umberto Rispoli teed up some high praise after Journalism had his morning exercise Friday at Pimlico Race Course.

Rispoli will be aboard when the 8-5 morning-line favorite faces eight others Saturday in the 150th Preakness Stakes (G1). It will be the sixth time that Rispoli has ridden Journalism. They are 4-1-0 together. The lone loss was a second by 1 ½ lengths in the Kentucky Derby (G1) May 3.

“As I’ve always said, it’s a very intelligent, smart animal,” Rispoli said. “Probably is the smartest horse I’ve ever rode in my career.”

Journalism, co-owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Bridlewood Farm, Don Alberto Stable, Robert LaPenta, Elayne Stables 5 LLC, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith. Aron Wellman, founder and president of Eclipse Thoroughbreds, is the managing partner of the ownership group.

Rispoli, 36, was born in Italy and started his career there. He rode in France and Hong Kong before relocating to Southern California in December 2019.

“It’s funny, I was talking to Aron and I said, ‘I have to wait 20 years of my career to ride such an intelligent horse like that,’” Rispoli said. “You can see that it’s a very different horse. You don’t see many horses come out of the Kentucky Derby acting in the way he’s acting like. For him, everything is natural, is normal. Hopefully he’s going to carry these qualities even on the Preakness.”

Trainer Michael McCarthy said that Journalism had a routine gallop Friday morning and will walk Saturday morning.

Jose Ortiz: Clever Again Has a Really Good Chance to Win

Jockey Jose Ortiz earned his first victory in the Preakness Stakes (G1) in 2022 with Early Voting, a horse who had only three lifetime starts. Now Ortiz will try to win his second on another horse making his fourth career start in Saturday’s 150th running of the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown at Pimlico Race Course: Clever Again.

“He’s done nothing wrong. He earned a spot there,” Ortiz said by phone of Clever Again, trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen. “Very happy with him, the way he’s going toward the race. He worked amazing [ at Churchill Downs] two weeks ago. I think he has a really good shot to win.”

Clever Again, a $500,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase, is a son of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. He’s owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds and Coolmore partners Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith.

The colt, who has a forehead blaze that looks a bit like a question mark or wrench, debuted at Keeneland in April of his 2-year-old season, going head-and-head for the lead before finishing second by a head in the 4 ½-furlong race. Off 10 months, he returned for a front-running romp at Oaklawn Park in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race, followed by wiring the field to take the $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes by four lengths over favored Gaming, a Grade 1 winner.

Clever Again is rated fourth on the morning line at 5-1 in the Preakness field of nine 3-year-olds.

“If he runs the same kind of (handicapping) numbers, he’s very competitive,” Ortiz said.

As does Asmussen, Ortiz likes that Clever Again drew Post 8. All the other speed is to his inside, including 2-for-2 Goal Oriented from the rail. Ortiz also can keep an eye on Journalism from post 2 coming out of the gate. For all of Clever Again’s speed, Ortiz says his Preakness mount will be content to lay off another horse as circumstances require.

“I know he can,” Ortiz said. “He’s done it in the mornings. He’s proven to us that he can. He’s a very professional horse. He’s very laid back. He lets you do your work. And when you’re ready to go, he goes.

“He obviously has speed. If he breaks good, he can clear, and that would be fine,” he added. “If somebody goes crazy (for the lead) against us, better to be on the outside than being on the inside, where they force you to go. It really gives me the opportunity to make a better decision. The main thing is to break good. If he breaks well, I will see where I am and go from there. But it’s very hard to put it together beforehand. Hopefully everybody breaks well. But we have stumbles. You got bumping. My main thing is to break good, grab a good position going into the first turn, and I’ll worry about my horse. Make sure he’s breathing and relaxed. In the second part of the race, I’ll start worrying about the other horses.”

Clever Again stood in the Pimlico starting gate and galloped a mile Friday morning.

Cauthen to Saffie Osborne: Turns are Tight, Keep Turning Left

Jockey Saffie Osborne got her first feel for Pimlico Race Course Friday morning aboard her Preakness Stakes (G1) mount Heart of Honor, who jogged, galloped, visited the starting gate and the paddock during an extended training session.

“It’s great to be here, and it was really good to have a day at the track on him this morning,” she said. “He feels great.”

Osborne, the 23-year-old daughter of Heart of Honor trainer Jamie Osborne, has never ridden in the United States. But new countries are hardly a new experience.

“It’s something I’m fairly used to,” she said. “I’ve ridden on a lot of different tracks around the world. I think this is the 10th different country I’ve ridden in, and I’ve been riding five years. I’m used to having to do a lot of homework beforehand to make sure you’re at no disadvantage.”

Both Great Britain-based Heart of Honor and his rider could make history. Heart of Honor would be the first European-based horse and only the second horse based outside North America to win the Preakness (joining 1971 Derby and Preakness winner Canonero II, a Kentucky-bred whose pre-Derby racing was in Venezuela). Saffie Osborne would join Julie Krone, winner of the 1993 Belmont Stakes (G1) on Colonial Affair, as the only female jockeys to win a U.S. Triple Crown race. The trainer dad-jockey daughter combo also would be unprecedented in a Classic race.

“It’s not something that really crosses my mind,” Saffie Osborne said. “It’s obviously pretty much the only sport where women and men compete on a level playing field. I don’t really feel male or female. I just feel like a jockey, and these are the races any jockey wants to win.

“Obviously it’s something when you look back — like being the first woman to ride a winner at Meydan — that was something that was really cool to do,” she added. “It’s been a dream of mine growing up to ride winners there. Yeah, I suppose it’s something no one can take from you.”

Heart of Honor has an American dirt pedigree but is a Great Britain-bred because his mom, purchased with him in utero, gave birth in Britain. After one race on Southwell’s synthetic surface, he has only raced on Meydan’s dirt track, including three straight seconds in stakes – the last being a nose defeat in the UAE Derby (G2). Like U.S. tracks, horses run counter-clockwise at Meydan.

“I suppose he is a European horse, but he’s also a horse that’s been trained on dirt in Dubai for five months,” Osborne said. “He’s a European horse, but he kind of isn’t. He’s only raced once in England, so it’s not like we’re bringing him here on the back of three turf runs. He’s well-used to the surface. He moves beautifully on it. He’s an out-and-out dirt horse.”

As part of her preparation, she called jockey Steve Cauthen, the Kentucky product who swept the 1978 Triple Crown on Affirmed and who went on to become a three-time British riding champion. His advice for Pimlico: “He kept it very simple,” Osborne said. “He just said, ‘The turns are tight and keep turning left.’

“If you put an American jockey at Goodwood (in England), I think they’d get lost,” she added. “You go up, down, left, right. Whereas here, at least you just keep turning left. So, it’s a bit more straightforward in that respect.”

Heart of Honor is not so straightforward. He’s difficult to saddle, Jamie Osborne said, adding, “I’d say tomorrow night, once he walks out of here (the barn) the fuse is lit.”

Saffie Osborne termed Heart of Honor “like trying to keep a lion tamed until he leaves the gates. He can get quite fractious,” she said. “He’s a very alert horse, and he really takes everything in. We put him in the gates this morning and he was a little bit on edge. Your gates are quite a lot smaller than the ones he’s used to, so it was just a different experience.

“But hopefully now he’s used to it,” she added. “It’s just trying to keep him as calm as possible. That’s why he wears the red hood (to the gate) as well as the blinkers. The blinkers really transformed him in the UAE Derby. He was a horse that was not slow away, but just not the fastest into stride the first three strides out of the gate. But he was very fast in the UAE Derby, and he was able to hold a lovely position.”

Of the nose defeat to Japan’s Admire Daytona, the jockey said: “One stride before and one stride after, his head was in front. I heard the commentator say quite quickly, ‘I think Admire Daytona held on.’ So, I kind of knew, but it was still a fairly gutting experience to come so close to something you wanted so badly. But it’s in the past, and we look forward to Saturday.”

Hall of Famer John Velazquez Solution to Casse’s Dilemma

Before he ever decided that Sandman was going to run in Saturday’s $2 million Preakness Stakes (G1), Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse had to let jockey Jose Ortiz go.

Following the disappointing seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby (G1), Casse, at first, was not thinking about bringing the son of Tapit to Baltimore for the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown. Ortiz rode Sandman in the Derby and he was also the pilot when the big gray was victorious in the Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn Park.

Ortiz had a dilemma as he was also the rider of the Steve Asmussen-trained Clever Again, who was already being pointed to the Preakness. Casse got a call from Steve Rushing, Ortiz’s agent wondering what was going to happen with Sandman.

“That was maybe the Monday after the Derby,” Casse said Friday. “I said I didn’t want to hold him up. I didn’t want to keep Jose out of the Preakness, so I said, ‘Go ahead and do what you got to do’ and if we decided to run there are plenty of capable guys out there. I am friendly with most of those riders, and I would never want to keep them from losing a Preakness mount. And [Jose] has a good one. That horse has a big shot.”

Ortiz rides plenty of horses for Casse. One is Nitrogen, perhaps the best 3-year-old turf filly in the country. The Casse-Ortiz relationship is a good one.

Casse will have the services of Hall of Famer John Velazquez for the Preakness and that’s not a bad sub.

Velazquez won his first Preakness in 2023 with National Treasure. He has had success with Casse, winning races like the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) with World Approval and the 2018 Queen’s Plate with Wonder Gadot.

According to Equibase, Velazquez has ridden 241 horses for Casse in his career and has 35 wins, 32 seconds and 33 third place finishes.

“It won’t be an issue,” Casse said of the rider switch. “I don’t give instructions. I say, ‘good luck, be safe.’ If I have to give instructions, I have the wrong guy.”

Sandman went to the track at 6:20 Friday morning with assistant trainer Shane Tripp. He jogged a mile, a typical move for Casse the day before a race.

“I hope he is a factor,” Casse said. “I just don’t think we saw the best of him in the Derby. If we did, we’re in trouble.”

River Thames Tunes Up for Preakness 150 with Routine Gallop

WinStar Farm LLC, CHC Inc., Pantofel Stable LLC and Wachtel Stable’s River Thames had a routine gallop around the Pimlico Race Course oval Friday for the second morning following his arrival from New York Wednesday.

Rated third at 9-2 on the morning line for Saturday’s 150th Preakness Stakes (G1), River Thames won his first two career starts at Gulfstream Park by a combined 11 ¼ lengths before finishing second, beaten a neck by Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Sovereignty in Gulfstream’s Fountain of Youth (G2). The son of Maclean’s Music enters the Preakness off a third-place finish in the Blue Grass (G1) at Keeneland, beaten by three-quarters of a length following a wide trip throughout.

Should the New York-bred River Thames prevail over eight rivals in Saturday’s 1 3/16-mile Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, the victory would complete a personal Triple Crown for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, who has saddled two Kentucky Derby winners and four Belmont Stakes (G1) winners.

Irad Ortiz Jr. has the return mount aboard River Thames.

Lightly Raced Goal Oriented Has Foundation for Preakness

It has been well-documented that Goal Oriented, from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, is short on experience. The son of Not This Time will be making just his third career start in the 150th running of the $2 million Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course.

Goal Orientated just had his third birthday on Thursday and now takes on eight others in the 1 3/16-mile American Classic.

“He really is just a youngster coming into his own at the right time and we could not be prouder of him,” said SF Racing LLC’s Tom Ryan, the managing partner of the ownership group. “He has handled everything we have thrown at him so far.”

SF owns Goal Oriented along with Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables, Robert E. Masterson, Ryan, Waves Edge Capital LLC and Catherine Donovan.

Goal Oriented, rated fifth at 6-1 on the Preakness morning line, will start from the rail post position.

Goal Oriented had a routine gallop Friday with exercise rider Humberto Gomez on board.

Baffert is not worried about running a horse with little racing experience. He is confident that Goal Oriented and jockey Flavien Prat will make good accounts of themselves.

“My horses, I put a lot of foundation into them before I ever start them,” Baffert said. “We bring them in, work them out of the gate.”

Baffert puts plenty of trust in his assistant Mike Marlow, who works at Los Alamitos, about 35 minutes south of Santa Anita, and Marlow sent word to Baffert that Goal Oriented was turning heads early.

“Mike said he thought this could be a good one, and he’s usually right,” Baffert said.

Goal Oriented began his career with a 3 ¼-length win April 6 at Santa Anita and followed up with a front-running victory by three quarters of a length at Churchill Downs in an allowance optional claimer on the Kentucky Derby (G1) undercard.

Having a horse rise through the ranks quickly is nothing new for Baffert.

“I won a Grade 1 the second start with a horse named American Pharoah and I won the Santa Anita Derby (G1) with a horse in his third start and his name was Justify,” Baffert said. “If they are good enough …”

Baffert certainly wasn’t comparing Goal Oriented to his two Triple Crown winners. But when he has a horse that he thinks fits, he brings them. He has been right plenty of times with his Preakness horses. He has won the race a record eight times.

“He is doing very well,” Baffert said. “He is well mannered. He’s smart. We only bring the smart ones.”

Walsh Looking for Better Trip for Gosger in Preakness

Trainer Brendan Walsh said he expects Gosger to show a bit more early speed in Saturday’s 150th Preakness Stakes (G1) than he has in his previous races, but he doesn’t want jockey Luis Saez engaging in a hot pace if one develops.

“I’d say he’ll probably just find himself in behind the speed,” Walsh said of Harvey A. Clarke Stable LLC’s 3-year-old son of Nyquist. “He’ll probably show a little more speed than what he did at Keeneland, not that he was that far away at Keeneland.”

In winning the Lexington Stakes (G3) at Keeneland last month, Gosger was never more than two lengths off the leader at any call before taking over in the stretch and drawing off to win by two lengths.

“There’s a couple of obvious speed horses in [the Preakness], and I think there will be three or four right behind them, and then there will be a couple of more coming from behind, as well,” Walsh said.

Like many, Walsh feels Kentucky Derby (G1) runner-up and 8-5 morning-line Preakness favorite Journalism is the horse to beat.

“He wasn’t far off winning the Derby, so without a doubt he’s the horse to beat — unless he doesn’t show up,” Walsh said. “But good horses like him generally do.”

Lukas: American Promise Better Now than Before Derby

Two days short of seven years after his sire, Justify, took the second step on the road to the Triple Crown, BC Stables’ American Promise will try for the biggest victory of his young career Saturday in the 150th Preakness Stakes (G1).

Justify won the 2017 Preakness by a half-length over Bravazo in the mud at Pimlico Race Course and completed his sweep of the Triple Crown three weeks later in the Belmont Stakes (G1). He was elected to the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing in 2024.

American Promise showed himself to be a Triple Crown series-caliber colt on March 15 with a victory in the Virginia Derby for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. With the qualifying points for the Derby in hand, Lukas trained him up to the race on May 3.

The Derby was a nightmare for Lukas and the massive colt. He twice encountered traffic issues and ended up 16th in the 19-horse field. By the next morning, Lukas had decided to run American Promise in the Preakness.

After the colt galloped two miles Friday morning, Lukas said the colt was ready for the test.

“I couldn’t change anything,” Lukas said. “I’m really pleased with him. Good energy. Getting in the feed tub. There is no reason for him not to run well.”

It took six starts for American Promise to win his first race, and Lukas said the chestnut has continued to develop.

“He’s gotten better in the last month or so,” Lukas said. “I thought every week, the last two months, every week has been a better week for him. I feel better about him now than I did a week before the Derby. That’s really unusual when you start talking about that two-week turnaround. He’s excellent. He’s very good right now.”

American Promise will be Lukas’ record-extending 49th starter in the Preakness. He has won the race seven times.

Nik Juarez and American Promise will leave from Post 3.

Preakness Stakes ‘a Big Deal’ for owners of Pay Billy

RKTN Racing’s Pay Billy is the local hope in Saturday’s 150th Preakness Stakes (G1), having earned all four of his career wins at nearby Laurel Park, where he was based throughout the winter before moving with trainer Mike Gorham’s string to Delaware Park.

As such, the bay son of beaten 2019 Preakness favorite Improbable figures to have a sizeable rooting section at Pimlico Race Course, one made larger by nearly three dozen folks RKTN is bringing in from Minnesota, where managing partner Nate Nelson and his colleagues call home.

“We’re very excited, very thrilled,” Nelson, a Minneapolis-based attorney, said. “What we all have in common is that we’re super competitive and pretty excitable. I suggested to them that maybe horse racing could deliver a lot of energy and fun for all of us. It certainly has worked out that way.”

Nelson is joined in RKTN by partners Bob Nitti, Keith Hurley, Tony Nitti and Mike Mikan, all of whom are bringing their spouses and friends to join the Preakness party, one they hope reaches its crescendo in the infield cupola with Pay Billy’s red and white silks painted overhead on the horse and rider-shaped weathervane.

“It’s just amazing. My wife is all excited. The partners’ wives are all excited. Everyone on the team in the barn is so excited, and that’s just one horse,” Nelson said. “It’s just the energy that the horses bring. We’re bringing 31 people to the Preakness from Minnesota. It’s a real big deal for us. We realize it’s a special opportunity. It might be once in a lifetime, but we hope it happens more often.”

Nelson is also the managing partner of On Your Left Racing, which campaigns Omaha Omaha and, like Pay Billy, is trained by Gorham and ridden by Raul Mena. The Virginia homebred was on the Triple Crown trail until a ninth-place finish in the April 5 Wood Memorial (G2) dashed his chances.

Now, the connections are banking their Triple Crown race hopes on Pay Billy, a horse Gorham picked out of the OBS April 2024 sale of 2-year-olds in training for $60,000. To date he has four wins, one second, one third and $234,475 in purse earnings from eight starts.

“When we invited everyone into the group, they wanted to raise the bar a lot higher than I even imagined. They wanted to get a horse that might be eligible for the Triple Crown, which was never really on my radar whatsoever,” Nelson said. “I really challenged the group. I was planning on going to the sale at OBS April. I was saying, ‘Let’s just get the best horse available, colt or filly,’ and to an individual they were adamant that it would be a colt and a colt that would be strong enough to perhaps, if everything went right, be on the [Triple Crown] trail somehow.”

It turned out to be Pay Billy, who is a nose shy of five consecutive victories. After running second in the one-mile Miracle Wood Feb. 22, he followed up with back-to-back stakes wins around two turns in the March 22 Private Terms and April 19 Tesio, all at Laurel, the latter earning him an automatic berth in the Preakness.

“Mike laid out a plan where if we do this and we do this and we do this and win the Federico Tesio, we go to the Preakness. Son of a gun, it came out exactly as Mike planned it out,” Nelson said. “Mike did a great job getting him started. He didn’t come out and win until his fourth race at 15-1. I never gave up on him. He was our only horse of racing age and to have only one horse and start off kind of underwhelmingly, [the partners] showed a lot of patience.

“I wondered if he was a morning glory because the exercise riders all liked him, the jocks all liked him. Mike was like, ‘No, he’s good, he’s just got to figure it out,’ and boy he sure did. Winning that maiden special weight, it was a real big win and it pumped up the whole team. From there, we got pretty excited. He came out and won his next race, the allowance, by air and then everyone was really excited.”

Pay Billy drew Post 5 in a field of nine led by Kentucky Derby (G1) runner-up and 8-5 program favorite Journalism. Mena will be back aboard the bay colt, who is rated at 20-1 on the morning line.

“[His] first couple races, you’re looking for that ‘wow’ or give me something to report positive back on. Mike Gorham always saw something in him, but it was really hard to see it on tape. He’d go wide, he’d miss the start, it was really hard to get a lot of enthusiasm for him, other than just the belief that when he figures out he’s going to get there,” Nelson said. “[We’re] very proud of him [and] hoping for the best.”

Pay Billy had a second straight walk day Friday following a 1 ½-mile gallop Wednesday, his first morning at Pimlico. After that, he settled in and took a nap.

“That’s his move. He’s not afraid to relax, that’s for sure,” Gorham said. “We’ll just rest him up for tomorrow’s action. It’s going to be a long day.”

About The Stronach Group and 1/ST

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