Mystik Dan will race in the Preakness Stakes on May 18 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland only two weeks after winning the Kentucky Derby.
The quick turnaround between races has discouraged two of the last four Kentucky Derby Winners. Mystik Dan will be joined by the 17th-place finisher Just Steel at the Preakness, but no other Derby competitors plan to join. Jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who rode the second-place finisher Sierra Leone, will jockey for Tuscan Gold during this next race.
“All systems go,” trainer Kenny McPeek said on Saturday. “The horse is doing fantastic.”
McPeek last won the Preakness in 2020 with Swiss Skydiver, who beat the then-Derby champion Authentic. Swiss Skydiver, now a seven-year-old retiree, went on to win four more races that year.
This time around Mystik Dan has a 3-1 odds of winning, while Just Steel has a 10-1 odds. The favorite will be Mutago, with odds of 33-1.
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Last Saturday’s race was the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby. The event has gone on since 1875.
The Kentucky Derby also marked the first event of the illustrious Triple Crown, which will also include the Preakness Stakes on May 18 and the Belmont Stakes on June 8. The last Triple Crown winner was Justify in 2018.
