Taj Mahal, The Hell We Did Work Saturday for Preakness 151

Both Contenders Sharp in 5F Breezes Over Laurel Park Main Track

LAUREL, MD – Under the watchful eye of trainer Brittany Russell, just in town after saddling Dazzling Dame in the Kentucky Oaks (G1), undefeated multiple stakes winner Taj Mahal blazed through a five-furlong work Saturday morning at Laurel Park ahead of his next scheduled start in the 151st Preakness Stakes (G1) May 16.

With regular exercise rider Alex Beatia up, Taj Mahal was credited by Laurel clockers with a five-furlong move in 1:00.40 over the main track, fastest of 12 horses at the distance. He posted splits of :11 3/5, :23 4/5, :35 4/5 and :47 2/5 in his first work since improving to 3-0 in the April 18 Federico Tesio, the victory coming with an automatic spot in the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

“He kind of just has that natural speed [and] Alex kind of just let him do this thing. He said he loved it, he had fun [and] he felt great,” Russell said. “That’s just what I wanted to see. I just told him to let him do his thing.”

Video Taj Mahal: https://youtu.be/Gnp1TkqIVZo

SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Bashor Racing, Determined Stables, Golconda Stable, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan’s Taj Mahal went unraced at 2 before debuting with a 4 ¼-length maiden triumph sprinting six furlongs Feb. 6. He returned just 15 days later with a determined neck decision over favored Let’s Go Lando in the one-mile Miracle Wood.

“I don’t work him solo very often but we’ve had a hard time matching him up here lately because he’s become quite a good work horse in the morning,” Russell said. “That’s why I opted to let him go solo and Alex said he worked good, but that last part he might have been waiting around for somebody just a little bit. So, he said he kind of just had to help him through the wire and then he kept going on the gallop out.”

Russell had originally scheduled to breeze Taj Mahal Sunday but with a 5:30 a.m. flight out of Louisville Saturday decided to adjust the plan.

“I just thought about everything. The [Preakness] is on a Saturday and one day can give you wiggle room. I wanted to see him work and I said if I can get back let’s knock it out Saturday. That was really it,” she said. “He’ll work again next week and I’ll probably put him next to something, just to keep him honest.”

Taj Mahal will be the first Triple Crown race starter for Russell, who had multiple stakes winner Dazzling Dame run eighth of 13, beaten 9 ¼ lengths, in the trainer’s Oaks debut. Russell spent the first three days of the week in Kentucky, flew back to Maryland to chaperone a Thursday field trip for daughter Edy, her oldest of two children with jockey Sheldon Russell, and was a flight back to Kentucky Friday morning.

“It was incredible. You want to get back there. That’s what we’re doing this for. You think about how hard it is to get to those races, looking at the 2-year-olds kind of going, ‘OK, who’s going to step up here?’” she said. “It was a whole lot of fun. It was an unbelievable experience. Disappointed a little bit the way she finished but I think we learned something, too. She probably just doesn’t want to go that far.”

Also on Saturday’s Laurel work tab was Peacock Family Racing Stable homebred The Hell We Did, who went five furlongs in 1:00.40 to rank third of a dozen horses at the distance. It was his second work since a runner-up finish in the April 11 Lexington (G3) at Keeneland and first following his arrival in Maryland Tuesday.

Video The Hell We Did: https://youtu.be/zpAvGRwLfBY

Clockers got The Hell We Did in splits of :12 3/5, :24 2/5, :36 2/5 and 48 with a six-furlong gallop out in 1:12 3/5. The Authentic colt got some unintended company when he hooked up on the outside of another horse approaching the stretch and came through the lane together.

“There was another horse in front of him, and that’s not a problem with me. He’s a great mover,” trainer Todd Fincher said by phone. “The video that I got was from the three-eighths [pole] to a little past the quarter pole, and it just looked like he was really going easy, which is fine.”

Fincher will be in town for The Hell We Did’s next work, scheduled for next Saturday at Laurel.

“I just wanted an easy work the first time because we just moved him and he’s on a new surface he looked like he was doing it plenty easy,” he said. “You change surfaces and it takes them a time or two, so you don’t want to do too much the first time.”

Taj Mahal and The Hell We Did are among a dozen horses being pointed to the Preakness including Chip Honcho (trainer Steve Asmussen), Iron Honor and Ottinho (Chad Brown), Talkin (Danny Gargan), Crude Velocity and Cherokee Nation (Bob Baffert), Talk to Me Jimmy (Rudy Rodriguez), Crupper (Donnie Von Hemel), Silent Tactic (Mark Casse) and Pretty Boy Miah (Jeremiah Englehart).

Crupper earned automatic entry into the Preakness for his victory in the 1 1/8-mile Bathhouse Row April 18 at Oaklawn Park. In his first subsequent work he went five furlongs in 59.80 seconds Friday at Churchill Downs, fastest of seven horses.