Seize the Grey earns wire-to-wire Preakness Stakes win on muddy track
BALTIMORE — One truism in horse racing is never count out Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas. At 88, he walks with a cane but still climbs about his pony and supervises morning workouts.
On Saturday, in the 149th running of the Preakness Stakes, Lukas won this race for the seventh time with Seize the Grey in a wire-to-wire effort. It ended Mystik Dan’s effort to compete for the Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby champion ran a good race, finishing second, 2 1/4 lengths behind the winner.
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Lukas won his first Preakness in 1980, 44 years ago, with Codex.
Asked how this one felt, he deadpanned, “Like the first one.”
The horse is owned by MyRacehorse, a company that buys horses and sells microshares to those who want to be a horse owner. It’s believed there are about 2,570 people who have part of the horse.
“Can you imagine the number of people who are going to relish in this,” Lukas said. “I don’t even know how many people own this horse. It’s a lot of people, I know.”
As Lukas made his way to the winner’s circle, he experienced a lot of fellow trainers who have been influenced by Lukas.
“That makes it special,” Lukas said of the reception. “I think they are trying to get rid of me. I think they want me to retire. I don’t think that will happen.”
It was also the first Triple Crown race and win for jockey Jaime Torres as he guided the 3-year-old over the muddy track.
Seize the Grey ran two weeks ago, but not in the Kentucky Derby but the Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs. The thinking was he didn’t have enough distance for the 1 3/16-mile race. But he went to the front with Imagination along side him. Seize the Grey moved to the front on the first turn and never surrendered the lead.
Mystik Dan made a nice run at him but came up short.
Seize the Grey paid $21.60 to win. He was followed by Mystik Dan, Catching Freedom, Tuscan Gold, Just Steel, Uncle Heavy, Imagination and Mugutu.
The race lost a lot of its intrigue on Wednesday when Muth, the morning-line favorite, scratched after spiking a fever. The Bob Baffert trainee had beaten Mystik Dan and Just Steel in the Arkansas Derby. Everyone was looking forward to a rematch of a horse that wasn’t allowed to enter the Kentucky Derby because of his trainer and the winner of the Kentucky Derby.
