PSA: I am NEVER going to be quiet about my wins in life big or small. I've been through too damn much to not celebrate myself and things that I get to experience. I've earned every damn thing in my life from working my ass off. Don't like it? You can kindly fuck off.
National Treasure won the 2023 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore Saturday evening.
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert picked up the win, just hours after another of his horses was euthanized following an earlier race. The win made Baffert the winningest trainer in Preakness Stakes history and the only trainer to have eight horses win the race.
Blazing Sevens placed second, and prerace favorite and Kentucky Derby winner Mage placed third in the seven-horse field. The win means no horse will take home the coveted Triple Crown this year, achieved when a horse wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes in one year.
National Treasure was ridden by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, who tallied his first win at the Preakness Stakes.
This weekend is the 2nd jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. Horse racing has come under fire recently because of deaths on the track, and I get it. The racing commission needs to better protect these amazing animals. But I digress. For the uninitiated, this is the 1973 Preakess, won by the greatest of all time(sorry Flightline fans), Secretariat. Not only did he win, but broke several records, all of which still stand even now, 50 years later. That feat is amazing in and of itself, however, that’s not the extraordinary part. Just watch him fly past the other horses in the first turn, as if they were all standing still. It gives me chills EVERY time I watch it, and almost always brings a tear to my eyes. This horse, doing exactly what he was bred and loved to do. Running for the sheer joy of it...and if you think I’m exaggerating, note at the very end of the race where the race caller says, “and Turcotte has his crop put away...”
A very preliminary look at the Preakness field. Mage, Two Phil’s, Disarm and Confidence Game from Ky Derby. Non-Derby starters possible include Forte, First Mission, National Treasure, Blazing Sevens, Red Route One, Chase the Chaos