Journalism Wins, Gosger Places, Sandman Shows

Running back from the Kentucky Derby after a swift two weeks off, Journalism brightly and with dispatch showed his steel by running down the presumed winner, 15/1 longshot Gosger, in the last sixteenth of a mile of the $2-million 150th Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico. Going off at even money, Journalism overtook Gosger to win by a half-length, clocking in at 1:55.47 on a dry track. He paid an expected, low $4.00.

Arguably proving that he’s the toughest colt in the Triple Crown Class of 2025, Journalism did not come by the win lightly. Pimlico’s surface was a vast improvement on that of waterlogged Churchill two weeks ago, and the traffic was, on paper anyway, lighter by more than half, but the problems Journalism had to untangle at race speed were greater than those he managed to solve in his place showing at Churchill.

Journalism broke well enough from his post in the two-hole, and jockey Umberto Rispoli settled him inside and back in the peloton, floating in and out of sixth in the nine-horse field, at times as much as five lengths off the lead. That settling sort-of seesaw did manage to save ground out of the first turn, up the backside and into the far turn, a fact later cited and praised by trainer Michael McCarthy as contributing directly to the win. It didn’t initially look like the winning strategy in the doing.

Because: It was axiomatic — exiting onto the stretch out of the grandstand turn, just one horse from the rail — that Journalism would get boxed in. In front of him, Journalism found early speed Clever Again and Bob Baffert’s horse Goal Oriented, with Flavien Prat up, with precious little daylight between them. Ruspoli thought he spied a shard of an opening and tried to thread the needle, brushing Goal Oriented to the outside, causing him to have to turn his neck back in to save his balance. It was a dangerous moment, but all recovered their strides and it was over in a flash, which left Journalism down a few lengths but facing his real challenge, namely, running down the seemingly untouchable Gosger, blithely cruising to his win, five huge lengths ahead.

In the final eighth of a mile, it was Gosger’s Preakness, until it suddenly wasn’t. It’s hard to say how Journalism found his spectacularly explosive run within hims:s unleashing it, it was clear that he was bent on snatching the race from Gosger, or coming darn close. The simplicity of the run was grand and deep. Despite all he had faced in the previous minute-and-forty-five, he kept pouring it out, and when the wire arrived he had taken his prize.

For his part, the well-spoken trainer McCarthy was well aware that the mile-and-three-sixteenths Preakness, technically the little brother of the Triple Crown, had nevertheless been an odyssey for his athlete.

“This kind of horse is a gift from above,” the trainer said.