Kentucky Derby winner Orb prepares for Preakness

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Now that Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey III has won the Kentucky Derby, it's time for the 62-year-old trainer to go after another race missing from his Hall of Fame resumé. Orb will follow up his win at Churchill Downs by running in the Preakness on May 18, giving the colt a shot at the Triple Crown.

Orb arrived back at his home base in New York on Sunday, as did McGaughey and jockey Joel Rosario. The trainer was still absorbing what had happened a day earlier. The colt extended his winning streak to five races, splashing through the slop to win the Derby by 21/4 lengths, giving McGaughey and Rosario their first Derby wins. Orb rallied from 17th and made a sweeping move on the turn for home to win.

"It did not matter if it was wet or dry, the best horse won," rival trainer D. Wayne Lukas said.

McGaughey has never won the Preakness in two previous attempts. He hasn't had a horse in the race since 1989, when Easy Goer finished second to Sunday Silence, duplicating their Derby finish that year.

For a trainer who always has shown patience with his horses, McGaughey is eagerly anticipating the grueling Triple Crown campaign that compresses three races into a five-week span.

"I can't wait to get to the Preakness and do it again," he said.

It's fitting that Orb is set to run in Baltimore, the hometown of Stuart Janney III. He and co-owner Ogden Mills "Dinny" Phipps, who also bred Orb, have never won the Preakness.

"The Preakness is important to me. I grew up around it, went there all the time," Janney said.

McGaughey has worked exclusively for Janney and Phipps for years, training the horses they breed. In a sport known for rampant jealousy, there was an outpouring of goodwill for all three men after the Derby.

Trainers Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown stopped by to wish McGaughey well, while Lukas and Bob Baffert, who didn't have a horse in the race, spoke warmly of him, too.

"It was a wonderful victory for Stuart Janney and Dinny Phipps. There was a lot of karma there that rewards people that have been great to the sport," Lukas said. "I saw Dinny before the race and told him that I thought it was going to be his turn and I was a little worried."

McGaughey was more impressed with Orb.

"The maturity he showed yesterday . . . was kind of amazing to me," he said.

Orb will see some familiar challengers in the Preakness. Mylute and Oxbow, who finished fifth and sixth in the Derby, along with Will Take Charge (eighth), Itsmyluckyday (15th), and Goldencents (17th) are likely to face off against him again.