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D. Wayne Lukas looking for Secret Oath to become seventh filly to win the Preakness Stakes

D. Wayne Lukas didn't enter a horse in the Kentucky Derby, but he comes to Pimlico with a filly.

D. Wayne Lukas' Secret Oath, with Exercise rider Oscar Quevedo, is looking to become the seventh filly to win the Preakness.
D. Wayne Lukas' Secret Oath, with Exercise rider Oscar Quevedo, is looking to become the seventh filly to win the Preakness.Read moreJulio Cortez / AP
    by Ed Barkowitz, For The Inquirer
    Published 

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas hasn’t had a horse run in this year’s Triple Crown yet, but his fingerprints are all over it.

Two weeks ago, Ethereal Road was set to go in the Kentucky Derby. It would have been the 50th horse to run in the Derby for Lukas, which would have made for a good story. Instead, Lukas decided Ethereal Road wasn’t ready, so he scratched him, and sat out the race. Rich Strike stepped in and wrote an historic story.

Now Lukas, 86, is coming to the Preakness with filly Secret Oath, who won the Kentucky Oaks. Six fillies have won the Preakness, including two of the last three entered.

Lukas explained to the Louisville Courier-Journal how he went about deciding to enter Secret Oath.

“He figured, ‘Epicenter is going to be the favorite. Chad Brown is putting [Early Voting] in.’ What I always did on those is, I list all the horses going and say, ‘Can I beat this one?’ Yes. ‘Can I beat that one?’ Maybe. Go right down the line.”

» READ MORE: Epicenter, Secret Oath, Happy Jack? A look at betting the Preakness field

Secret Oath will be the 46th Preakness horse saddled by Lukas, almost double the next most prolific trainer (Bob Baffert, 24). He’s won this race six times, the last with Oxbow in 2013.

Ethereal Road actually will be running on the undercard as the 1-horse in the 11th race on Saturday at Pimlico. One of his competitors, Philadelphia fans should note, is the No. 5 B Dawk, named for the Eagles Hall of Fame safety. B Dawk broke his maiden in his most recent outing, April 29 at Keeneland.

Filly Specials

Secret Oath will be only the seventh filly in the last 83 years to run in the Preakness, and the fourth this century. A look at the most recent:

  1. 1980 – Genuine Risk, finished second to Codex.

  2. 1988 – Winning Colors, finished third to Risen Star.

  3. 1999 – Excellent Meeting, pulled up and finished last to Charismatic.

  4. 2009 – Rachel Alexandra, won the 13-horse race.

  5. 2014 – Ria Antonia, finished 10th to California Chrome.

  6. 2020 – Swiss Skydiver, won the 11-horse race.

Details

  1. What: 147th Preakness Stakes

  2. When: Saturday, 7:01 p.m. (Race 13)

  3. Where: Pimlico Race Course/Baltimore

  4. Distance: 1 3/16 miles.

  5. TV: CNBC, 2-4 p.m.; NBC 4-7:30 p.m.

  6. Streaming: PeacockTV.com.

  7. Other Triple Crown races: Kentucky Derby (May 7/winner: Rich Strike), Belmont Stakes (June 11).

  8. Purse: Total: $1,650,000. First place: $990,000. Second place: $330,000. Third place: $181,500. Fourth place: $99,000. Fifth place: $49,500.

  9. Weather report: Sunny and hot during the day, temps in the 80s at post time.

  10. Predictions: Ed Barkowitz, sports writer: 5-Early Voting, 8-Epicenter, 9-Skippylongstocking, 1-Simplification; Luke Reasoner, Inquirer news designer: 8 Epicenter, 4 Secret Oath, 2 Creative Minister, 5 Early Voting

Preakness points

  1. Trainer Steve Asmussen will try to rebound from another Derby disappointment with early favorite Epicenter, who finished second. Asmussen is 0-for-24 at the Kentucky Derby, and 2-for-14 in the Preakness with wins by Curlin in 2007 and Rachel Alexander in 2009. Curlin finished third in the Derby that year.

  2. Fenwick, the No. 3 horse trained by Kevin McKathan, was sired by Curlin.

  3. Smarty Jones holds the record for the largest margin of victory at the Preakness. He won in 2004 by an astounding 11.5 lengths. Taproom trivia: Rock Hard Ten finished second.

  4. Early Voting had a good second-place run to Mo Donegal in the Wood Memorial, but owner and Baltimore native Seth Klarman skipped the Derby. Klarman made a similar decision in 2017 when Cloud Computing finished third at the Wood, passed on the Derby and won the Preakness by a head over Classic Empire.

  5. The purse for the Kentucky Derby (20 horses) was $3 million. The purse here (nine horses) is $1.65 million.

  6. Skippylongstocking is a son of Exaggerator, who won the Preakness in 2016 after finishing second to Nyquist in the Kentucky Derby. Pippi Longstocking is the title character to a series of Swedish children’s books from the 1940s.

  7. ”There’s still a little bit of a question with that horse at a mile and a quarter, so I thought going a mile and 3/16, getting six weeks rest instead of four, running in a [much smaller] field instead of 20, it’s probably more fair for the future of the horse,” Early Voting trainer told the Baltimore Sun earlier this month. “And I have a tremendously patient owner with Seth Klarman ... so it was a pretty easy decision to do the right thing by the horse.”

  8. Simplicity, the No. 1 horse, was bred in Florida. The other eight horses in the field are from Kentucky.

  9. ”I don’t know if another shocker can happen,” said Saffie Joseph, trainer of 20-1 Skippylongstocking, “but we’re going to give it a go.”

Biggest longshots

The 81-1 shot that won the Kentucky Derby will probably never be duplicated at the Preakness. The field is much smaller and the odds hardly ever get that high. Rich Strike paid $163.60 for his win two weeks ago. Here are the five longest shots to come in at the Preakness:

  1. Master Derby, 1975, 23-1, paid $48.80

  2. Coventry, 1925, 21-1, paid $45.60

  3. Display, 1926, 19-1, paid $40.70

  4. Bee Bee Bee, 1972, 18-1, paid $39.40

  5. Oxbow, 2013, 15-1, paid $32.80

Last winners by post position

(First nine posts)

  1. 1 - War of Will, 2019

  2. 2 - Cloud Computing, 2017

  3. 3 - California Chrome, 2014

  4. 4 - Swiss Skydiver, 2020

  5. 5 - Exaggerator, 2016

  6. 6 - Rombauer, 2021

  7. 7 - Justify, 2018

  8. 8 - Bernardini, 2006

  9. 9 - I’ll Have Another, 2012

The field

1 - Simplification (6-1)

Trainer: Antonio Sano

Jockey: John Velazquez

Career earnings: $665,350

2022 starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 5-2-1-1

Career starts-1st-2nd-3rd-4th: 8-3-1-2

Last three: Kentucky Derby (4th), Florida Derby (3rd), Fountain of Youth Stakes (1st).

Notable: Fourth-place finish at the Kentucky Derby ended a six-race streak where he finished top-3. It also was his first race outside of Gulfstream Park.

2 - Creative Minister (10-1)

Trainer: Kenny McPeek

Jockey: Brian Hernandez Jr.

Career earnings: $140,595

2022 starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 3-2-1-0

Career starts-1st-2nd-3rd-4th: 3-2-1-0

Last three: Allowance/Churchill Downs (1st), Maiden/Keeneland (1st), Maiden/Gulfstream Park (2nd).

Notable: Running his fourth career race, all at different tracks. Won the fourth race on Churchill Downs card on Kentucky Derby day, which was enough for his handlers to enter him here at a cost of $160,000.

3 - Fenwick (50-1)

Trainer: Kevin McKathan

Jockey: Florent Geroux

Career earnings: $53,840

2022 starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 4-1-0-0

Career starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 6-1-1-0

Last three: Blue Grass Stakes (11th), Maiden/Tampa Bay (1st), Maiden/Fair Grounds (6th).

Notable: Hasn’t raced since finishing 11th at Keeneland on April 9. He was running fourth after a half-mile but tired at the final turn.

4 - Secret Oath (9-2)

Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas

Jockey: Luis Saez

Career earnings: $1,295,417

2022 starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 4-3-0-1

Career starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 8-5-0-2

Last three: Kentucky Oaks (1st), Arkansas Derby (3rd), Honeybee Stakes (1st).

Notable: Hoping to become the seventh filly to win here. Finished third in her only other career race against colts behind Cyberknife and Barber Road at the Arkansas Derby.

5 - Early Voting (7-2)

Trainer: Chad Brown

Jockey: Jose Ortiz

Career earnings: $321,500

2022 starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 2-1-1-0

Career starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 3-2-1-0

Last three: Wood Memorial (2nd), Withers Stakes (1st), Maiden/Aqueduct (1st).

Notable: Just his fourth career start, and first outside of Aqueduct.

6 - Happy Jack (30-1)

Trainer: Doug O’Neill

Jockey: Tyler Gaffalione

Career earnings: $182,200

2022 starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 5-1-0-2

Career starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 5-1-0-2

Last three: Kentucky Derby (14th), Santa Anita Derby (3rd), San Felipe Stakes (3rd).

Notable: Sire is Oxbow, winner of the 2013 Preakness, who also produced Hot Rod Charlie, who placed second in last year’s Derby and Belmont Stakes.

7 - Armagnac (12-1)

Trainer: Tim Yakteen

Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr.

Career earnings: $135,140

2022 starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 4-2-0-0

Career starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 5-2-0-1

Last three: Allowance/Santa Anita (1st), Santa Anita Derby (4th), San Felipe Stakes (6th).

Notable: Had been trained by Bob Baffert before his doping suspension. Yakteen had Taiba and Messier and finished 12th and 15th, respectively.

8 - Epicenter (6-5)

Trainer: Steve Asmussen

Jockey: Joel Rosario

Career earnings: $1,610,639

2022 starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 4-2-2-0

Career starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 7-4-2-0

Last three: Kentucky Derby (2nd), Louisiana Derby (1st), Risen Star Stakes (1st).

Notable: Finished sixth in his first career race on Sept. 18, but has been either first or second in each of his next six. Would have won the first jewel if not for a late surge by one of the longest shots (Rich Strike) in Kentucky Derby history.

9 - Skippylongstocking (20-1)

Trainer: Saffie Joseph

Jockey: Junior Alvarado

Career earnings: $165,100

2022 starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 4-1-0-1

Career starts-1st-2nd-3rd: 9-2-1-2

Last three: Wood Memorial (3rd), Allowance/Gulfstream (1st), Allowance/Gulfstream (4th).

Notable: The most experience horse in the field with nine races, though just one was a graded stakes. Handlers think the distance won’t spook him.

What’s a Black-Eyed Susan?

The black-eyed Susan is Maryland’s official state flower and a most prominent beverage served at Pimlico during Preakness day. Combine the following in a shaker and enjoy (in moderation):

1.5 oz. Vodka (use good stuff)

0.5 oz. St. Germain liqueur

2 oz. pineapple juice

0.25 oz lime juice

0.75 oz. orange juice

Compiled by Ed Barkowitz. Designed by Luke Reasoner. Sources: Equibase, Inquirer research.