BY PREAKNESS PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
LAUREL, MD – For undefeated two-time stakes winning Florida-bred Taj Mahal, Saturday’s 151st Preakness Stakes (G1) at Laurel Park is all about the break.
Taj Mahal drew the rail in the first full field of 14 horses assembled for the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown since 2011. The husband-and-wife team of jockey Sheldon Russell and trainer Brittany Russell have since had plenty of time to talk strategy.
“We anticipate he’s going to be forward as long as he breaks good,” Brittany Russell said. “Sheldon’s going to be smart. If something tries to go with him and be silly, I hope Taj cooperates and can settle in for Sheldon. We don’t have to be on the front end. We want Taj to be comfortable. We just want him to be comfortable that first part so hopefully he’s not over-running.”
Taj Mahal has been a front-running winner of each of his last two races. He earned a determined neck decision in the $100,000 Miracle Wood going a mile on February 21 after being pressed the whole way by favorite Let’s Go Lando, then returned with a dominant eight-and-a-quarter-length decision from outermost Post 10 in the $150,000 Federico Tesio over a mile-and-an-eighth on April 18.
By 2016 Xpressbet.com Florida Derby (G1) and Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands (G1)-winner and Preakness third-place finisher Nyquist, Taj Mahal rallied from last to score by four-and-a-quarter lengths in his Feb. 6 unveiling after breaking belatedly from Post 2 in a field of six.
“The whole thing is going to be the pace, what pressure he’s going to take from outside assuming he gets away well, and how that unfolds,” Brittany Russell said. “Sheldon, going a mile-and-an-eighth from the 10-hole, he had to waste no time getting over. Now he’s on the rail. It’s a little bit different because there’s just a little bit more of a run going into the first turn.”
The mile-and-three-sixteenths Preakness will end at the first of two finish lines Laurel Park utilizes for racing, with the starting gate positioned just before the sixteenth pole. Laurel last ran a race at the Preakness distance on Aug. 6, 2022, when Vance Scholars won an off-the-turf edition of the Bald Eagle Derby.
Taj Mahal has trained and raced exclusively at Laurel, the only Preakness horse to leave from his own stall rather than the Preakness Barn and with afternoon experience over the track. Lexington (G3) runner-up The Hell We Did has been training at Laurel since April 28, with the rest of the horses arriving this week.
Sheldon Russell has been aboard for all of Taj Mahal’s races. Exercise rider Alex Beitia, who works as a jockeys’ valet in the afternoons, is his regular morning partner.
“He’s breezed a minute and a piece the last two times. He doesn’t need to go faster than that in the morning. I don’t need to have him that [much] on the engine,” Brittany Russell said. “Alex did get him to settle last time. The thing is, he’s just naturally fast. There’s a fine line there where you don’t want to take his natural running away from him.”
Taj Mahal jogged and galloped one mile over the main track Friday, going out at his usual time just after 6 a.m. and will walk the morning of the Preakness. He is rated the co-second choice on the morning line at 5-1 with Incredibolt and Chip Honcho. Iron Honor is the 9-2 program favorite.
Taj Mahal is out of the stakes-placed Florida-bred mare Oola Gal, by Quality Road and was bred in Florida by Peter Vegso of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina in the name of his Vegso Racing Stable located in Ocala. He was a $525,000 purchase by bloodstock agent Donato Lanni for SF Bloodstock, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stable at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. He was then sent to Eddie Woods in Ocala for early training.
He is owned by a large group made up of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Bashor Racing, Determined Stables, Golconda Stable, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan.
Return to the May 15 issue of Wire to Wire
