Journalism, with Umberto Rispoli up, wins the 150th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Baltimore. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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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 16th 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. In the doing, it didn’t initially look like the winning strategy.
Because: As he slotted furiously behind traffic onto the stretch out of the grandstand turn, just one horse from the rail, Journalism quite naturally got boxed in. Before 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 between those two, brushing Goal Oriented to the outside, causing him to have to turn his neck back left to save his balance. It was a dangerous moment, but all recovered their strides and it was over in a flash. This left Journalism open, and still back, but facing his real challenge, namely, running down the seemingly untouchable Gosger who was 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 not hard to say when but it is hard to say how Journalism found his spectacularly explosive run within himself, but as he unleashed 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-forty-five, he just kept pouring his heart 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 some kind of an odyssey for his athlete. And, until that final stretch burst of power, the trainer, too, was resigned.
The trainer noted to the assembled press, “This looked a bit ugly there for a couple of jumps—just glad horses and humans are okay—but my initial thought was proud of the horse, great effort, just going to come up a little bit short.”
The 150th Preakness was McCarthy’s second victory in the race. “This kind of horse is a gift from above,” the trainer said.
