Can a Preakness Stakes long shot give trainer D. Wayne Lukas a historic win?
In more ways than one, this year’s edition of the Grade 1, $2 million Preakness Stakes will be a historic running of the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown.
Yes, even the potential for a Triple Crown winner in 2025 is already off the table. Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty is not running in the Preakness this year, with trainer Bill Mott instead pointing him toward next month’s Belmont Stakes.
But nonetheless, this year’s Preakness will be the 150th edition of the event. It’s also shaping up to be the last running of the Preakness at the current configuration of Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The track is set to be rebuilt shortly after this year’s race.
Furthermore, one of the most interesting storylines surrounding the 2025 Preakness Stakes is dripping with historical context.
One of the nine runners in this year’s race will be saddled by D. Wayne Lukas, the 89-year-old training legend who has seven Preakness Stakes victories to his name.
Lukas — who will have American Promise in Saturday night’s Preakness (post time 7:01 p.m. EDT) — is also the defending champion trainer of the race. Last year, Lukas scored his seventh Preakness win (and his 15th Triple Crown race victory) when Seize the Grey hit the wire in first. That triumph made Lukas, then 88, the oldest trainer to condition a Triple Crown winner.
Now, Lukas has the chance to make more horse racing history as he competes in his 33rd all-time Preakness Stakes.
Jockey Nik Juarez has a homecoming with American Promise in Preakness
American Promise — who will start the Preakness Stakes from post position No. 3 and was 15-1 in the morning line odds — offers plenty of potential for Lukas, who is one Preakness win behind fellow trainer Bob Baffert (eight) for the most in history.
“If there’s a common thread between Bob and I, it’s probably that we have horses that get into the race and take the race to the crowd and it might suit the Preakness,” Lukas said. “… That style of horse may suit the Preakness better than a horse that needs to have a pace up front, and come from fifth, sixth, seventh (or) eighth.”
A Kentucky-bred son (at Candy Meadows Farm in Lexington) of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify, American Promise owns two career wins from 10 starts. It took him six races to break his maiden, and he was last seen as a long shot who finished 16th in the Kentucky Derby on May 3 after being bumped upon leaving the starting gate.
“I think it all went to hell in a handbasket right out of the gate,” Lukas said, reflecting on that Derby trip.
Now, American Promise is looking to bounce back on just two weeks of rest.
Once again, the horse will be ridden by 31-year-old jockey Nik Juarez, who has been aboard the horse for his last two starts, the Kentucky Derby and a win in the Virginia Derby in March. Juarez’s mount on American Promise earlier this month represented his Kentucky Derby debut.
Saturday’s Preakness Stakes will represent a sentimental homecoming for Juarez, who grew up just 30 miles away from Pimlico in Westminster, Maryland.
“I love to give these young riders a chance,” Lukas said. “If there aren’t any young ones, there won’t be any older ones.”
Juarez — whose agent, former jockey Gary Stevens, won the Preakness Stakes three times — will be making his Preakness Stakes debut with American Promise. Stevens’ last Preakness win (aboard Oxbow in 2013) came with Lukas as the trainer.
“The thing about Nik is that Nik is a really good rider,” Lukas added. “He’s a talented rider. He’s the right size. I like the small guys. He doesn’t have a weight problem and he’s strong. And I like his attitude in general. He’s a very positive person and he listens to what I want to do.”
Is American Promise good enough to compete in the Preakness Stakes?
Expect American Promise to be near the pace as the 1 3/16-mile Preakness gets going.
That’s where he was in the Kentucky Derby, despite suffering an early bump with Final Gambit out of the starting gate. American Promise overcame that rough start to be positioned in the lead pack of four horses on the Derby backstretch, before being denied while trying to move into the lead and then fading badly.
The question of whether or not American Promise has the talent to handle top competition in graded stakes races is still very much up for discussion.
His win in the Virginia Derby in March came in what was an ungraded Kentucky Derby prep race. Against top competition, American Promise has flat out faltered. He was seventh in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes in January and fifth in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes in February, before his poor run in the Kentucky Derby.
“He doesn’t lose touch with the race when he’s running his best. … He’s got good tactical speed and I think he’s going to like the Pimlico track,” Lukas said of American Promise. “I think he’s going to like the shorter race than the Derby, also.”
American Promise’s pedigree, despite including one of the most accomplished thoroughbreds in history, also hasn’t translated to Triple Crown success just yet.
American Promise is a son of Justify, who is the only Triple Crown winner to retire without being beaten. Justify’s sons haven’t followed suit though, especially in Triple Crown events. Verifying ran 16th in the 2023 Derby. Just a Touch was last in the 2024 Derby. Just Steel, who was also trained by Lukas, was 17th in the 2024 Derby and fifth in last year’s Preakness.
There’s rain in the forecast this week in Baltimore, and American Promise worked at Pimlico in wet conditions on Wednesday morning.
At first glance, this could be a benefit for American Promise, who broke his maiden on a muddy track at Oaklawn Park in December. But there’s the chance that win in the slop was just an anomaly. American Promise also ran eighth on a sloppy Churchill Downs track last September, and of course there’s the 16th-place Derby run in the slop on his ledger.
Regardless of the circumstances, Lukas will saddle American Promise in the Preakness with winning on his mind. American Promise will be the 49th horse that Lukas runs in the Preakness.
And the legendary trainer remains optimistic that American Promise will follow in the footsteps of his previous race winners Codex (1980), Tank’s Prospect (1985), Tabasco Cat (1994), Timber Country (1995), Charismatic (1999), Oxbow (2013) and Seize the Grey (2024).
“Well, they all are special,” Lukas said when asked to reflect on his history with the Preakness. “When you’ve been to the Derby and you’ve been knocked around, like is the case this year, and you get to the Preakness, you think, ‘Gee, maybe we can regroup.’”
This story was originally published May 15, 2025 at 6:15 AM.
