BY PREAKNESS PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
It’s easy now to see the talent that has helped Taj Mahal go undefeated with two stakes wins from three starts. Now the Florida-bred colt is leading up to his biggest race yet as one of the main contenders in Saturday’s 151st Preakness Stakes (G1) at Laurel Park.
But that wasn’t the case when the son of 2016 Xpressbet.com Florida Derby (G1) and Kentucky Derby presented by YUM! Brands (G1)-winner and Preakness third-place finisher Nyquist showed up at trainer Brittany Russell’s barn as a 2-year-old early last fall.
“He didn’t show us a whole lot right away, but we took our time and he just started to come around,” she said. “Taj did get some time up at Fair Hill. We freshened him up a little bit after he arrived. We never really stopped on him. He was fine, but he just needed a little something different. We sent him up and turned him out a little bit and just tried to reset him.”
The Fair Hill Training Center, about 75 miles northeast of Laurel in Elkton, Md., is a bucolic facility with hills and trails and tracks with three different surfaces where Russell has two barns with about 80 horses. Her main string of 40 is at Laurel, where Taj Mahal has done all of his training and racing.
“I worked him a couple of times and he was working fine, nothing super eye-catching. But I was like, ‘He’s coming around. We’ll get him to the races,’” Russell said. “He’s probably a maiden special weight here. I felt good about that.
“But I worked him with [older three-time stakes winner and twice Grade 3-placed] Prince of Jericho one morning and he handled him. He really handled him and then I’m like, ‘Hmm,” she added. “I thought, ‘Is Jericho not doing as good? Because Jericho’s form has been a little spotty, too, but I worked him alongside horses and he held his own. He just improved.”
Taj Mahal, whose name translates to ‘crown palace,’ didn’t wind up making his debut until February 6, when he drew off to win a six-furlong maiden special weight sprint by four-and-a-half lengths despite breaking slowly and trailing the field for the first quarter-mile.
“He maybe hopped just a touch and I don’t know if they caught him by surprise. But in the mornings going into his debut, he was good in the morning,” Russell said. “I never expected him to get away like that. Maybe he needed to do it once to figure it out in the afternoon.”
Taj Mahal has had no such trouble since, coming back with successive front-running victories starting with the $100,000 Miracle Wood at one mile just 15 days after his unveiling. In that race, he was tested up front nearly the entire way and was a determined neck winner in front of even-money favorite Let’s Go Lando.
“I was a little skeptical running him back in two weeks—just because it took some time to get to the races and you kind of want to see if they progress and develop in between. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to do that, but he did well,” Russell said. “I feel like we didn’t set him up to run his best race that day. I feel like he did that on talent and, honestly, heart. That just showed how tough and gritty he is. He wanted to do it.”
Taj Mahal was under consideration for the April 4 Wood Memorial (G2) at Aqueduct, but a minor foot issue kept him from making the race. Two days later he was nominated to the Triple Crown at the late, and final, deadline and cashed in with a dominant eight-and-a-quarter-length triumph in the $150,000 Federico Tesio April 18 that earned him an automatic spot in the Preakness.
In the nine-furlong Tesio, his two-turn debut, Taj Mahal had to overcome outermost Post 10 to clear his rivals and get position, then opened up by as many as 10 lengths on the backstretch before jockey Sheldon Russell – Brittany’s husband – gave him a breather. When other horses started to come to him, Taj Mahal responded with another gear and drew off impressively through the lane.
“When he won the Miracle Wood I thought, ‘okay, cool,’” Russell said. “We had thoughts of taking him to New York and he had a little foot issue; that sort of changed things. Luckily, I guess it might have been a blessing in disguise. Everything happens for a reason. The team was really patient and we got him right. When we got him right, I felt like he was really right going into the Tesio.”
First run in 1981, the Tesio has produced just one horse to sweep both the Preakness and its local prep – Maryland-bred Deputed Testamony in 1983. Four other horses have hit the board – Oliver’s Twist was second in 1995 and Broad Brush (1986), Rock Point (1989) and Icabad Crane (2008) all ran third. Last year’s Tesio winner, Pay Billy, was seventh.
“Yeah, he’s the local horse and he’s the Tesio winner, and he won the Tesio in impressive fashion. We wanted to see him beat the local horses like that to give us the confidence to come here,” Russell said. “In years past, the Tesio winner has been fine. They get there and everything. But when you look at the race, it’s a big ask. We’re excited.”
Return to the May 13 issue of Wire to Wire
