Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem for May 19, 2025

A good Monday morning to you all! 

Holy moly what a Preakness (G1)! I was watching the race with a friend who doesn’t watch horse racing and even they looked at me afterwards and said “That was kind of crazy, right?” I went on to explain how you just don’t see horses win like that with that kind of trip and what we just saw was something very special. 

The race was obviously extremely exciting and provoked a ton of debate for the rest of that night and into Sunday about Journalism’s trip, Umberto Rispoli’s ride, and how Goal Oriented and Flavian Prat played into all the chaos of that home stretch run. I was out at a play that night but when I got home I sat and read about the Preakness for hours on social media. People blaming Prat, people blaming Rispoli, people blaming the stewards, all of it. What was so nice was it was all of horse racing actually having debates and discussions about horse racing. Not about the industry, or influencers, or marketing, but about the actual thing we all got into this for, horse racing and betting. Just thoroughly enjoyable debates to read. 

Normally I’m not a fan of the overhead shots during a race because it’s just hard to know who’s who, and I think it interrupts the flow of the normal pan shot we’re all so accustomed to watching day in and day out. But as they went towards the half-mile pole, that camera showed a real interesting decision that Rispoli had to make. He started to guide Journalism outside towards the clear, but as they got closer to the turn, I think he saw Goal Oriented come off the rail a little bit and he decided to move back down towards the rail to save ground. He looked like he was putting Journalism into a bit of a ride for a few moments and I thought maybe he wasn’t going to punch home. Obviously we know he did. 

As far as the bumping at the top of the stretch, I think one of the most dangerous places to be is stuck inside and behind horses while you have a lot of horse underneath you. So often that’s when clipping heels and spills happen, so my first reaction watching it live was hoping that nobody would go down. The other interesting note was that turning for home Journalism was maybe only a length and a half behind Gosger. By the time they bumping happened and they got to eighth pole, he was almost five lengths behind that rival. He was also a good half-length behind Sandman, who had a mostly unfettered stretch run and certainly got the jump while Journalism was playing bumper cars down to his inside. The fact that within a sixteenth of a mile Journalism was a length and a half in front of Sandman and reeling in Gosger was just incredible to watch. Just an amazing amount of talent, will, and aggression. It was like watching a full back hitting the open field after getting stopped at the line of scrimmage. 

Overall, just a very memorable edition of the Preakness and a fine send off to the old Pimlico that will be rebuilt soon. I’ve been to Pimlico probably three times over the years, and like most racetracks it has its charms. But I certainly think it’s beyond time to update it and make it a better experience for live racing. So it’ll be weird seeing the race at Laurel, just as it’s weird having the Belmont at Saratoga, but change happens and hopefully this changes is for the better. Hi Ho Pimlico! 

Have a good week everyone!