Many people expected Seize the Grey to set the pace in the Preakness. Most people did not think he could hold onto the lead. But that’s exactly what he did, winning wire-to-wire and dashing the hopes for a Triple Crown winner this year. However, he did give his 2,570 owners the thrill of a lifetime. Yes, you read that right. Seize the Grey is one of the microshare horses syndicated by MyRaceHorse.com.
The three year old son of Arrowgate was bought by MyRaceHorse.com as a yearling for $300,000. They company then sold 5,000 microshares of the horse for $127 each. As the winner of the Preakness, the grey colt won $1.2 million (of the $2 million purse). Ten percent goes to the trainer, ten percent to the jockey and the remaining is distributed among the owners. But the payout was not the main draw — owning (even a small part) of a Preakness winner is a huge thrill.
Even Hall-of-Fame Trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who has won the Preakness seven times now, said the thrill never gets old — even though he is now the oldest trainer to win a Triple Crown race.
“The winning part never changes,” said the 88-year-old living legend whose first Triple Crown triumph came in the 1980 Preakness with Codex. “Maybe some things have changed in the 44 years I have been here, like we don’t get the television and media coverage we used to, but winning is still special. I love the competition.”
Track conditions were muddy for the race, with Lukas reporting it felt like peanut butter.
“The one thing that really surprised me, though, is when I walked across the track after the race, I was amazed at how deep and sticky it was. It damn near pulled my boots off. It was pretty deep. Watching him on the replay the way he skipped over it, how we got over was admirable. I mean, he owned it.”
While D. Wayne Lukas is no stranger to the winners circle at the Preakness, jockey Jaime Torres had never run in a Triple Crown race before. In fact, the 25-year old Puerto Rican native only rode his first race in August of 2022 and won his first race that September. Since then he’s racked up 148 wins from more than 1,200 starts. Imagine winning the Preakness the first time you rode in it!
Seize the Grey is headed toward the Belmont Stakes in three weeks, with second-place finisher Mystik Dan also a likely runner. With the Belmont track closed for rennovations, the race will be held in Saratoga and will be contested over 1 1/4 miles rather than the standard 1 1/2 miles. For a horse like Seize the Grey, this may be a big advantage as the typical Belmont distance could have been long for the horse.
There are times when I bet (real money never leaves my hands) on the jockey, or the trainer. For innstance, more years than I like to recall, I chose Ferdinand, a horse no one gave any thought to,, ridden by the Master, Willie Shoemaker. Shoe had fallen off the wagon..again, and was pretty much dismissed by the racing crowd as washed up. Not me. I KNEW The Shoe would win, when no one else even gave them a look.
It’s the same with D. Wayne Lukas. He’s had some bad years, when he couldn’t buy a win. That’s horseracing.
I, like probably every other horseman in the US, have a tremendous amount of respect for D. Wayne Lukas, and have mourned his low spots of the last few years. (I like Shug McGaughey, too, and am glad one of his horses won). I have a soft spot for greys, and Sieze the Grey caught my eye a few months ago. And he was a Lukas horse.
So when the Preakness rolled around, I thought, that’s my horse. Sure, Mystik Dan might win it and honestly, he probably will. Unlike Mage, last year’s Derby winner, who proved to me that he was a one shot wonder, I thought, Mystik Dan has it for real. I was able to watch the Preakness live on CBS, probably because the Evil NBC was showing women’s Basketball and considered horse racing low, low interest. Fine with me.
NBC has a guy who does the statistics. As from years past, it was all about the Beyer Index. That number, is contrived, somehow, but I never gave it much credit. The guy said ignore the numbers at your peril. But the inconvenient fact of Fierceness, with a number of 110, still getting beat, was given a pass. Welllllllll, there’s lies, damned lies, and statistics. Sieze the Grey (for here on, Grey) had a Beyer number of 88. Not to hot, what? With Mystik Dan holding a 101?
And yet, here comes that gritty Grey, taking charge at the start and never getting a bit of mud in his face.
I liked Grey from the git go, and thought, Lukas knows his stuff.
A few years ago, NBC also started including a pair of guys who I guess are handicappers, and the station include Artificial Intelligence. (they call him Artie this year). That year, Artie picked the winner at the Derby when no one else did. Yesterday’s Preakness, Artie chose two of the three winners of NBC’s televised races. It did not pick Grey. but it has been proving fairly good at picking the winners. I don’t know if this is ominous or not.I think the handicappers might tell NBC, you know what, kick AI to the curb.
It was a good race. McPeek is thinking of running Thorpedo Anna in the Belmont instead of Mystik Dan. That should be a really good race.