Derby winner Mystik Dan potentially skipping Preakness raises questions about race's future

The possibility of Mystik Dan becoming the second Kentucky Derby champion to skip the Preakness in the last three years would “rekindle fears that the second jewel in the Triple Crown is becoming an afterthought,” according to Childs Walker of the BALTIMORE SUN. Kentucky Derby champion Mystik Dan will “rest and recover over the next week” before his owners and trainer Kenny McPeek make a “last-minute decision” about whether to point him toward the May 18 Preakness Stakes, expected to feature a field “dominated by fresher horses.” Walker noted few trainers “even consider running their Derby horses two weeks later at Pimlico,” believing the quick turnaround “to be too great an ask for 3-year-olds no longer conditioned for such condensed rigor.” The last four Preakness winners did not run in the Derby. Justify was the last to win both races on his way to a Triple Crown in 2018. Neither Sierra Leone nor Forever Young, the two horses that nearly caught Mystik Dan in the Derby, will run in the Preakness (BALTIMORE SUN, 5/5). DAILY RACING FORM’s David Grening noted that as of yesterday, it “was uncertain” if any of the horses who ran in the Kentucky Derby would run back in the Preakness (DAILY RACING FORM, 5/5).

LOSING ITS LUSTER: In L.A., John Cherwa wrote if Mystik Dan does not go to Baltimore it “would heighten the conversation about the relevance of the Preakness Stakes at a time that most horses don’t come back on two weeks’ rest.” The Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita Park, just turned over Pimlico Race Course to the state of Maryland but still retains the intellectual properties of the Preakness Stakes. Cherwa noted Stronach Group Racing Division CEO Aidan Butler has been “floating ideas that the Triple Crown should be retooled with each race held a month apart” rather than two weeks from the Derby to the Preakness and three weeks from the Preakness to the Belmont (L.A. TIMES, 5/5). 

DERBY MAKES GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION: NBC's broadcast of the 150th Kentucky Derby on Saturday averaged a total audience of 16.7 million viewers -- marking the largest Kentucky Derby audience since 1989. Viewership peaked at 20.1 million viewers from 7-7:15pm ET, as Mystik Dan took the win in the Derby’s first three-horse photo finish since 1947. Saturday’s peak audience was the largest ever for an NBC Sports presentation of the Kentucky Derby. Led by Peacock, the Derby also posted NBC Sports' largest streaming audience for a horse racing event with an average minute audience of 714,000 viewers -- nearly doubling last year (371,000). The 2024 Derby marks a 13% increase from last year’s event (14.8 million) and will rank as NBC’s most-watched program since the NFL Divisional Playoffs in January (NBC).