COOLING HIS HOOVES

Shock Winner of Kentucky Derby Will Sit Out Preakness Stakes

The surprise announcement about Rich Strike’s schedule ends racing fans’ hopes of having a Triple Crown winner this year.

Underdog Kentucky Derby champion Rich Strike will skip this month’s Preakness Stakes, his owner said Thursday, killing racing fans’ hopes for a Triple Crown winner this year. In a statement, Rich Dawson said the plan had always been to rest the chestnut colt after his improbable run in the Derby earlier this month, which he only entered the Friday before the race after another horse scratched. “Obviously, with our tremendous effort and win in the Derby, it’s very, very tempting to alter our course and run in the Preakness at Pimlico,” he said. But his team decided to stick to “our plan of what’s best for Ritchie… and point towards the Belmont in approximately 5 weeks.” Drawing 80-1 odds in the May 7 race, Rich Strike sent the Churchill Downs crowd into a frenzy, surging in the final seconds past favorite Epicenter and Zandon in the second-largest long-shot victory in the Derby’s history. Only 13 horses have ever clinched the Crown—the Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes—with the last in 2018.