Preakness 151 at Laurel Park on May 16 is a home game for one horse, jockey and trainer.
Laurel Park is the home track for Taj Mahal, jockey Sheldon Russell and trainer Brittany Russell. The trio has already won three races at Laurel Park this year — the Maiden Special Weight, the Miracle Wood Stakes and most recently the Federico Tesio Stakes.
Taj Mahal drew the No. 1 post position in a field of 14 at this year’s Preakness Stakes and opened with 5-1 odds to win the race. To say it would be special for Sheldon Russell to win the Preakness at his home park alongside his wife would be an understatement.
“For it to be at our home track would be extra special,” Russell said on Glenn Clark Radio May 13. “For it to be on one of my wife’s horses, it would be something we’ve dreamed of. It would be a dream come true if this were to happen. It’s something you don’t really see very often, a husband-wife combo riding and training the same horse. If he were to win, it would be something.”
This year’s Preakness is taking place at Laurel Park while Pimlico Race Course in Northwest Baltimore is rebuilt. Most horses and their connections have had to travel to Maryland and temporarily set up shop at Laurel Park, but not Taj Mahal and his team.
What kind of advantage is that come race day?
“I just think the fact that the horse gets to run a big race at his home track,” Russell said. “The horse hasn’t had to jump on a van or ship to another race track, so his schedule hasn’t really changed a whole lot. It’s the same for me and Brittany. We train at Laurel, what, six days a week? We get to sleep at our own house, do the 25-minute drive to the race track. The only thing that will be different is come Saturday, we will have a few more extra fans than we are used to seeing at a regular Saturday at Laurel.”
One of the big storylines leading up to the Preakness is whether changes will have to come to the Triple Crown setup. The Preakness has in the past several decades been held two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, with the Belmont Stakes coming three weeks after the Preakness.
However, more and more connections in recent years are skipping the Preakness after running the Derby because they don’t want to run their horse on two weeks rest. Golden Tempo, this year’s Derby winner, did not make the trip to Laurel Park, meaning there’s no chance of a Triple Crown winner in 2026.
The Triple Crown was always designed to be a stiff test for the top 3-year-old thoroughbreds, but with very few connections willing to ask their horse to run three races in five weeks, does it make sense to push back the Preakness and Belmont?
“I think some horses can handle it and obviously some can’t,” Russell said. “Look, if that’s the direction they’re going to go, then we’ll support it. It’s always sort of been like that. I don’t really know. It’s hard because there have been Triple Crown winners in the past, but if it’s going to help the horses then I’m all for it. You hear more and more about it, so it might be closer than we think.”
For more from Sheldon Russell, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sheldon Russell