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BALTIMORE – For all the controversy that surrounded the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, when his colt War of Will became entangled with Maximum Security 550 yards from the wire, trainer Mark Casse had maintained a zen-like equanimity. He was disappointed that War of Will hadn’t gotten a fair shot at competing, but more than that, Casse was relieved he had a horse who could continue to compete.

“I was just happy I had my horse,” Casse said. “It would have been the biggest black eye in the history of the sport if he falls.”

There was nothing that could trip up War of Will on Saturday in the 144th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. Again breaking from the inside, as he did in the Derby, he got a terrific, ground-saving ride from Tyler Gaffalione, slipped through inside pacesetter Warrior’s Charge in upper stretch, and went on to win the second leg of the Triple Crown, giving Casse, Gaffalione, and owner Gary Barber their first win in a Triple Crown race.

“I didn’t think he got a fair shot,” Casse said of the Derby. “I wanted a fair shot. He got that today. I wanted him to show how good he is. He didn’t get that chance in the Derby.”

War of Will ($14.20) won the Preakness by 1 1/4 lengths over the 29-1 shot Everfast, who closed to be second and nosed out Owendale. Both the winner and the runner-up took advantage of a main track that appeared to favor inside lanes.

Warrior’s Charge faded to fourth, then came, in order, Laughing Fox, Improbable, Win Win Win, Bourbon War, Signalman, Anothertwistafate, Alwaysmining, and Market King.

Bodexpress reared up as the gate opened and unseated jockey John Velazquez, but he fortunately ran around the track without interfering with the other 12 runners before being caught by an outrider. Velazquez was fine afterward.

War of Will completed 1 3/16 miles on the fast main track in 1:54.34.

This was an unusual Preakness in that neither Country House, winner by disqualification of the Derby two weeks ago, nor Maximum Security, who was disqualified from a Derby victory, were in the race. This was the first time the Derby winner had not raced in the Preakness since 1996. In addition, the first four finishers across the line in the Derby were absent from the Preakness, the first time that had happened since 1951.

Also missing were some seats and basic plumbing. Maintenance has not been a priority at Pimlico in recent years, as it only races a couple of weeks a year, with the rest of the major dates in Maryland assigned to sister track Laurel, where the Maryland Jockey Club would like to relocate the Preakness. Parts of the old grandstand at Pimlico were closed on Saturday, and then the plumbing went out, resulting in toilets that could not be flushed.

The Preakness drew an announced crowd of 131,256. The day’s overall handle was a record $99,852,653, breaking the record of $97,168,658 set in 2017.

The field of 13 marked the largest Preakness field since 14 competed in 2011. Improbable, who had crossed the wire fifth in the Derby before being promoted to fourth, was the lukewarm favorite at 5-2. He was seeking his first win of the year, and became the first horse to go off favored in a Triple Crown race without a calendar-year win since Timber Country in the 1995 Preakness.

Warrior’s Charge, starting from post 3, went straight to the front under Javier Castellano and set fractions of 22.50 seconds for the opening quarter and 46.16 seconds for a half-mile with the longshot Market King in closest attendance, with Anothertwistafate farther out in third.

War of Will, meanwhile, drafted right behind those three while remaining inside. Unlike the Derby, when he was pulling Gaffalione, this time War of Will was more comfortable, which Casse and Gaffalione ascribed to a more serene pre-race warmup.

“I thought maybe he was too fired up in the Derby,” Casse said. “I told Tyler just to jog him, let him relax.”

As the field came around the final bend and into the lane, Warrior’s Charge left a hole along the inside plenty wide for War of Will to get through, and Gaffalione was more than willing to accept the gracious invitation.

“The horse didn’t hesitate,” Gaffalione said.

Owendale loomed a threat a furlong out, but was racing in the middle of the track and couldn’t make enough of an impact late while Everfast, 11th entering the lane, knifed his way inside and got up for the place.

War of Will was one of only four horses who ran in the Derby and then wheeled back in two weeks for the Preakness.

“We’re not afraid to take chances,” said Casse, who brought Shamrock Rose back in two weeks for her upset victory last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. “Too many times trainers are worried about their win percentage. We’re not afraid to run them.”

War of Will, a son of War Front, has been highly regarded by Casse since last summer, before he ever raced. He began his career on turf, and raced three times in graded stakes while still a maiden, then earned his first win against maidens in his first dirt race last November at Churchill Downs.

He spent the winter at Fair Grounds, where he won the significant Derby preps the Lecomte and Risen Star. Then in the Louisiana Derby, in which he was favored, War of Will took awkward steps in his hind end leaving the gate and finished ninth of 11.

After getting a thorough evaluation by Casse, War of Will went back into training and worked brilliantly prior to the Derby. He was in position to make a move on the far turn when he went between rivals just as Maximum Security ducked out. For two strides, his front legs were dangerously close to the rear legs of Maximum Security. A false move from War of Will or Gaffalione and he could have gone down.

“He had a great trip until what I call ‘the incident’,” Casse said. “If not for the incident I think it would have been an interesting race down the lane.”

War of Will crossed the wire eighth, then was promoted to seventh when Maximum Security was disqualified.

Casse said he “felt joy and relief” that War of Will had emerged from the Derby unscathed, “and that we didn’t have the biggest disaster in horse-racing history.”

Casse has horses in many jurisdictions. War of Will is with his main string, his day-to-day care overseen by assistant David Carroll. “He deserves much of this credit,” Casse said.

War of Will is scheduled to return on Monday to Kentucky, and Carroll’s supervision, with a decision pending on whether to run in the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown, in three weeks. Casse will make that decision after talking with Barber, the successful movie executive who missed the Preakness because he’s at the Cannes Film Festival.

“If all goes well – you know us, we like to run – we’ll probably be at the Belmont,” Casse said.

Why not? He’s got his horse, right here, and he can do.

This story originally appeared on DRF.com.

Mark Casse said all winter that people would be talking about the colt he trains, War of Will, after the Kentucky Derby.

Casse was right, but not in way he meant and hoped.

War of Will has become the most famous eighth-place Derby finisher during the two weeks between Derby and Preakness.

Casse, owner Gary Barber, and jockey Tyler Gaffalione dreamed of War of Will draped with a blanket of Derby roses. Instead, the Derby first-place finisher Maximum Security was draped all over War of Will at the five-sixteenths pole.

War of Will might’ve been qualified to win the Derby but wound up central to the most infamous disqualification in Derby history, the only time a winner was taken down for committing an in-running foul.

Maximum Security and jockey Luis Saez came off their line and out into War of Will’s path while leading as the front group of Derby horses bent out of the far turn. For two strides – replayed endlessly, Zapruder-like, in days to come – Maximum Security’s body came literally up underneath War of Will’s left-front leg, which pushed into Maximum Security’s rump, perhaps, even, helping propel him to victory. Harness-racing drivers sometimes will butt a leg into a horse’s hindquarters to urge them along as fatigue sets in.

War of Will would gather himself again, take a run at Maximum Security, fade late, and finish eighth, beaten 4 1/2 lengths. Gaffalione conferred with Casse after returning his mount to be unsaddled, and the two decided not to lodge an objection. In any case, Jon Court on 17th-place finisher Long Range Toddy, who was involved in the far-turn scrum, and Flavien Prat, who finished second on Country House, already had formally objected. Country House was racing outside War of Will, Long Range Toddy, and Bodexpress when Maximum Security came out, and he appeared to suffer no interference. But Churchill stewards – as everyone now knows – decided a foul had been committed and disqualified Maximum Security to 17th.

That pushed War of Will into seventh – and his trainer and jockey straight into the limelight.

Gaffalione (who declined through his agent to be interviewed for this story) especially became a target for those who felt Maximum Security had been wronged. On social and traditional media, they claimed Gaffalione had put War of Will in the wrong spot by bulling his way off the inside past the three-furlong pole. And here is where Casse called bull.

“I heard it said that Tyler should have went inside,” Casse said. “That’s where I got upset. Nobody took a bigger beating than we did . . . I didn’t start until some people started taking shots at my horse and my jockey.”

Casse at one point compared the path Maximum Security was taking around the turn to a drunk driver unable to stay in his lane. In the social-media swamp, that got twisted to suggest Casse claimed Saez was riding as though he were drunk, or even actually drunk. And since the stewards never lit the inquiry sign, Casse also had to answer for the decision not to lodge an objection. What was the point, Casse said afterward, when even a disqualification would only elevate his horse to seventh?

“Even our Triple Crown winners, I don’t know if they got this much attention,” Casse said. “I have friends that know nothing about racing, that watch one day a year, and they’re already waiting to watch the next race.”

The next race – the Preakness. That comes Saturday, and War of Will is one of just four Derby runners along with Improbable, fifth across the line; Win Win Win, 10th; and Bodexpress, 14th. War of Will runs despite having a sore right-front hoof three days after the Derby.

“Tuesday morning, he had a fair amount of heat in his foot, and his foot had a pulse,” Casse said on a May 10 conference call. “We pulled his shoe, soaked his foot, put his shoe back on, and he hasn’t missed a beat. That’s not an issue.”

If so, War of Will is not just a horse steeped in Derby controversy but a Preakness horse with a real chance.

In fact, the Derby foul was only the last in a series of unfortunate events that befell the colt this spring. War of Will was purchased at a 2-year-old auction in France, of all places, and made a mark during 2018 as a talented turf horse, but it wasn’t until Casse switched him to dirt for a Churchill maiden race late last November that War of Will won. Casse sent him to Fair Grounds to winter with the string he keeps there headed by assistant David Carroll, and War of Will scored dominant wins in the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 19 and in the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 14, where he comfortably beat runner-up Country House.

The odds-on favorite in the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 23, War of Will lost his action a few strides into the race, bobbling noticeably as his hind end gave way while he attempted to push into a stride. War of Will never got involved, finishing ninth, and came back to the barn lame, Casse said, with a pulled muscle.

That condition quickly resolved, however, and by the time War of Will came north to Keeneland he already was edging back onto the Triple Crown trail. Keeneland workouts on April 6, 13, and 19 convinced Casse and Barber to continue to the Derby, and War of Will’s awesome breeze April 27 at Churchill moved him up the Derby pecking order.

“Most people hadn’t got to see him train, but Derby week, everyone got to see what I’ve seen,” Casse said. “He’s a beautiful horse, such a great mover.”

Indeed, War of Will is a locomotive, a massive dark bay colt radiating power, a horse with a strong, fast, rhythmic gallop who got moved to dirt because he wasn’t quite showing the turn of foot required of a top-class grass horse. All of which made the Derby draw in dreaded post 1 so disappointing. And his trip, even before Maximum Security got involved, went about as one might’ve guessed.

Gaffalione sent War of Will to try and make the front, but failing to make the lead found himself bottled up inside and behind horses trying to hold a powder keg.

Gaffalione “had to send him away from there like a guy sends a Quarter Horse, and then he wouldn’t shut off,” Casse said. “He was not comfortable there. I wasn’t happy going down the backside, he was pulling so hard.”

That, as much as the trouble on the far turn, might have sapped War of Will’s Derby finish, and given what happened in the Louisiana Derby, War of Will hadn’t turned in a proper race for about 10 weeks. On the other hand, his Beyer Speed Figures in the Lecome and Risen Star, a 94 and a 90, called into question the real strength of those performances.

Two weeks after the Churchill stewards returned their momentous verdict, the jury is still out on just where War of Will fits in this crop.

His trainer is just happy his horse came back from the Derby with a chance to let us find out.

This story originally appeared on DRF.com.

Luis Saez has filed an appeal of a 15-day suspension handed down by the stewards at Churchill Downs for his ride on Maximum Security during the May 4 Kentucky Derby, according to his attorney. Saez also filed a request for a stay of the suspension until his appeal can be heard.

The appeal, which was provided by attorney Ann Oldfather, states that the stewards did not determine that Saez failed to control Maximum Security “due to intent, carelessness, and/or incompetence,” and it asks for the suspension to be vacated. The appeal also calls the 15-day suspension “unduly harsh, and not supportable by facts and law, nor by customary practice.”

Saez was suspended by the stewards in an order released on Monday. Maximum Security became the first winner of the Kentucky Derby to be disqualified when stewards ruled that he impeded three other horses when veering out near the top of the stretch.

The appeal also contends that the Churchill stewards did not conduct a thorough examination of the incident and violated Saez’s due-process rights. It took 22 minutes for the stewards to render a decision on the incident.

Riders are typically granted stays when they file appeals of suspensions. Saez’s suspension includes racing dates from May 23-27, May 30, June 1-2, June 6-9, and June 13-14, all live racing days at Churchill Downs. Because racing jurisdictions honor suspensions handed down in other states, the suspension would keep Saez from riding in the Belmont Stakes on June 8 if a stay is not granted.

“Without a stay, Luis Saez will suffer the penalty imposed by the stewards regardless of whether the commission or the courts later determine that the stewards’ ruling should be reversed or vacated,” the request for the stay says.

This story originally appeared on DRF.com.