It was a very muddy track and extremely foggy at post time with visibility down to a sixteenth of a mile. Out of the gate, Justify went to the early lead while Good Magic rushed up his inside to challenge. The two matched strides for the first mile before Good Magic tired somewhat down the stretch. Justify held off a fast closing Bravazo to win by half a length, keeping alive his hopes of winning the Triple Crown. The Maryland Jockey Club reported a track record total attendance of 134,487, the second highest attendance for American thoroughbred racing events in North America during 2018.
Field
Entries for the 2018 Preakness were taken on May 16. As is commonly the case with the Preakness, the field for the race featured the winner and other top horses from the Kentucky Derby, facing off with several "new shooters" – horses who either did not qualify for the Derby or whose connections chose to bypass that race to focus on the Preakness.[4][5]
The heavy favorite for the race was Justify, the 2018 Kentucky Derby winner,[4] even though he bruised his heel during the running of that race. His main rival was Good Magic, the champion two-year-colt of 2017 and runner-up in the Derby.[6] Six other horses completed the field: Quip, winner of the Tampa Bay Derby and second in the Arkansas Derby, bypassed the Kentucky Derby to focus on the Preakness; Bravazo (sixth in the Derby); Lone Sailor (eighth); Diamond King (winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes); Sporting Chance (fourth in the Blue Grass Stakes); and Tenfold (fifth in the Arkansas Derby).[7][8][9]
Race description
Justify leads Good Magic past the stands for the first time in the 2018 Preakness
The conditions for the race were so poor that the Washington Post jokingly said the track "should have been downgraded from 'sloppy' to 'biblical'".[10] After heavy downpours over several days,[11] the rain finally stopped shortly before the race but then a heavy fog descended, limiting visibility to about a sixteenth of a mile.[2] Despite the weather, a crowd of 134,487 watched at the track, the third-largest attendance in history. Total wagering on the race was a record $61.97 million, boosted by increases in wagering on exotics such as the trifecta and superfecta. The NBC broadcast received a 5.5 overnight rating and 12 share, a 12% increase over 2017. The ratings during the race itself peaked at 6.6 overnight with a 15 share.[12]
The start was critical, and Justify broke well to take the early lead. To his inside, Good Magic rushed up to challenge and the two matched strides around the first turn and down the backstretch while setting moderate fractions. They picked up the pace rounding the final turn and opened a gap on the rest of the field. However, in mid-stretch, Tenfold started closing ground rapidly to Justify's outside while Bravazo, who had trailed by five lengths in mid-stretch, was moving fastest of all in the center of the track. Justify dug in to win by half a length over Bravazo, with Tenfold just a neck further back in third, another neck in front of Good Magic.[2][1]
It was a record-tying seventh win of the Preakness for Justify's trainer, Bob Baffert.[2] Five of those wins came with horses who had just won the Kentucky Derby: Silver Charm, Real Quiet, War Emblem and American Pharoah. Of these, only American Pharoah went on to complete the Triple Crown by winning the Belmont Stakes.[11] Justify later duplicated this feat in the 2018 Belmont Stakes, making Baffert only the second person to train two Triple Crown winners.[13]
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