Seize the Grey tops Preakness

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Seize the Grey led all the way to win the 149th Preakness Stakes on Saturday, making 88-year-old D. Wayne Lukas the oldest trainer to saddle a Triple Crown race winner.

The gray colt, ridden by Puerto Rico’s Jaime Torres, handled the muddy track at Pimlico in Baltimore perfectly to hold off Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan, denying the Kenny McPeek-trained colt the chance of becoming just the 14th horse to complete US flat racing’s coveted Triple Crown.

Justify, in 2018, remains the last horse to complete the treble.

“It’s like the first one, it really is,” said Lukas, who was showered with congratulations from longtime rivals and peers as he made his way toward the winner’s circle with the help of a cane.

“It never gets old at this level,” added Lukas, who saddled his first Preakness winner, Codex, 44 years ago. “I love the competition.”

Lukas claimed a seventh Preakness victory — tied for second-most for a trainer behind Bob Baffert’s eight. It was Lukas’s 15th Triple Crown race win overall.

It was an emotional win for Seize the Grey jockey Torres, riding in his first Triple crown race two years after realizing a dream by attending jockey school.

“Very thankful to all the people that have been beside me, helping me,” he said. “My family. I want to thank them. Like a lot of people, a lot of jockeys, we came from the bottom. To afford flights and all those things to support me I know is hard.”

“And they still do it because they love me. And I appreciate that a lot.”

Seize the Grey broke smartly and headed straight to the front of the eight-horse field.

The Baffert-trained Imagination, ridden by Italian great Frankie Dettori, settled into second, and Mystik Dan, ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr. made a move between the two as they rounded for home in the 1 3/16th-mile race.