Time was, D. Wayne Lukas couldn’t possibly fly under the radar. The 88-year-old conditioner had six Preakness titles and four Kentucky Derby wins to his credit and even swept the Triple Crown series – albeit with two different horses – in 1995.

But Lukas was, for the most part, an afterthought at Preakness 149. His Kentucky Derby runner, Just Steel, had pressed the pace in Louisville before fading to 17th. Pat Day Mile winner Seize the Grey seemed a cut below the better horses of his generation.

So for most of Preakness week, Lukas could relax in his chair in the corner of the Pimlico stakes barn without causing too much commotion.

That ended in dramatic fashion Saturday evening as Seize the Grey, under Jaime Torres, sped to the lead, fended off all challengers and won the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes by 2 ¼ lengths. It was Lukas’ first Triple Crown race win since Oxbow’s Preakness score in 2013.

“The last one is always the sweetest,” Lukas said of his seventh Preakness win. “The last girl you dance with is the one you take home.”

Seize the Grey, a three-year-old son of Arrogate, is owned by the microshare provider MyRacehorse, and more than 2,500 people owns shares in Seize the Grey, who cost $300,000 as a yearling. MyRacehorse was among the owners of Authentic, winner of the 2020 Kentucky Derby who then lost an epic Preakness duel to the filly Swiss Skydiver.

Today’s result felt better.

“When Jaime was bringing him home, the way he was bringing him home, I couldn’t believe it,” said MyRacehorse founder Michael Behrens. “He just kept going and going. They weren’t catching him.”

The Preakness also struck a blow for old-school horsemanship. Two weeks ago, following the Kentucky Derby, all the chatter was about how perhaps no Derby horses would come to Baltimore, the Preakness unfortunately marooned on an island too close  to the Kentucky Derby.

Today, the top three finishers all ran on Derby day. Seize the Grey, of course, won on the Derby undercard, while Derby starters Mystik Dan (first) and Catching Freedom (fourth) ran second and third, respectively.

Lukas’ other runner, Just Steel, seventeenth in the Kentucky Derby, finished fifth today.

“Mike [Behrens] and I had to make a decision to skip the Derby, go to the Pat Day Mile, or we wouldn’t have run anywhere,” Lukas said. “We’d have had to sit the whole Saturday out. I firmly believe that the Pat Day Mile put us in the position to win this today.”

Imagination, the Bob Baffert trainee that the conditioner hoped would bring his ninth Preakness win, disappointed, beaten to the punch by Seize the Grey early and fading late to finish seventh of eight.

Seize the Grey took the early initiative, jumping to the lead with Imagination his nearest pursuer.

“I was going to do whatever Imagination was going to do,” Torres said. “I knew he was going to the lead. I think we looked at each other, and he said, ‘Well, you go,’ and I went. So I took the lead.”

That proved prescient because Imagination, with Frankie Dettori in the irons, provided only mild pressure. Seize the Grey led at every call, by a half-length after a quarter-mile and by at least two thereafter. After a 23.98 opener, Seize the Grey got the half in 47.33 and three quarters in 1:11.95.

Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan seemed to sit a perfect trip under jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr., just a couple of lengths off the leaders while alone in third. But his bid in upper stretch couldn’t make much progress, the winner too fresh after controlling the pace.

“As soon as I asked, I had a lot of horse,” Torres said. “That was like from the ¼ to the wire, he gave me everything.”

“What can you say? Stolen on the front,” said Mystik Dan’s trainer, Ken McPeek. “He said he was going to go. I think Brian made the right move. Obviously, speed held. That’s why they call it horse racing, right?”

Mystik Dan flatted out late but still was able to hold second over the late-running Catching Freedom, who was third, just a head from second. It was another six lengths back to the Chad Brown-trained Tuscan Gold in fourth. Running time for 1 3/16 miles was 1:56.82 over a muddy, sealed main track.

Seize the Grey returned $21.60 to win and topped an exacta, with tepid favorite Mystik Dan second, that paid $59.70 for a dollar.

Seize the Grey now has four wins from 10 starts, with career earnings of over $1.8 million.

Lukas said he wanted to “look at [Seize the Grey] a little bit” before making a decision about the Belmont, scheduled this year for June 8 at Saratoga. But he added, “If we go, we’ll be tough.”

The win, Lukas’ seventh in the Preakness, inched him closer to Bob Baffert, whose eight wins in the Middle Jewel are the most all time. The two trainers have combined to win more than 10% of the 149 editions of the Preakness.

“This place has become special,” Lukas said of Old Hilltop. “And I can speak, I think, for Bob Baffert – I’m only one behind him, I already warned him – this place has been a lot of fun for all of us.”

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