Imagination to Wear Co-Owner’s Silks in Saturday’s Middle Jewel

BALTIMORE – Though his two visits to the winner’s circle after the Preakness Stakes (G1) were exciting and mighty satisfying, Jack Wolf said there will be an extra bonus if Imagination is able to get to the wire first on Saturday.

It’s personal. Something that most people might miss: an immediate artwork update of the winner’s silks on the infield cupola weathervane, a Preakness tradition since 1909.

Wolf and his wife Laurie are the managing partners of Starlight Racing, one of the co-owners of Imagination, trained by Hall of Famer Baffert, the most successful trainer in Preakness history. The Santa Anita Derby (G1) runner-up is second choice on the morning line at 3-1.

The 149th Preakness, Middle Jewel of the Crown, headlines a blockbuster 14-race program featuring nine stakes, five graded, worth $3.3 million in purses. First race post time is 10:30 a.m. EST. Post time for the Preakness is 7:01 p.m. EST.

In 2018, Starlight Racing was a partner in Triple Crown winner Justify, who carried the silks of majority owner WinStar Farm in the Preakness. Starlight Racing is a partner in the group that owns National Treasure, who prevailed in last year’s Preakness with John Velazquez wearing the silks of Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stable. This year, Imagination’s jockey Juan Hernandez will have on Starlight’s blue and yellow silks.

“Maybe we can paint the Starlight colors on top of the deal this year,” Wolf said.

There are a total of nine individuals and groups listed as owners of Imagination. The Preakness turned out to be the race that the Starlight silks would be used.

“We just alternate,” Wolf said. “It's all in the luck of the draw.”

The Wolfs started Starlight Racing in 2000 and found success right away with Harlan’s Holiday, who was purchased for $97,000 and earned $3.6 million in purse money. In 2002, the Wolfs changed their business model and offered partnerships in Starlight Racing. That September, Starlight Racing bought a yearling filly it named Ashado, who won $3.9 million on the track, sold for $9 million as a broodmare prospect, and in 2014 inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.

The Wolfs and their stable have been competing at the top levels of the sport for two decades. Imagination will be their ninth Preakness starter. Two seasons after Justify’s Triple Crown, Starlight was a partner in Horse of the Year Authentic, who during the Covid-scrambled 2020 season won the Haskell (G1) on July 18, the Kentucky Derby (G1) on September 5, finished second in the Preakness October 3 to the filly Swiss Skydiver and then won the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).

In recent years Starlight has joined with the group that includes SF Racing and Madaket to acquire some of the more expensive young bloodstock at auction and send them to Baffert. They went to $1,050,000 to buy Imagination as a yearling. He has two wins, including the San Vicente (G2), and four seconds in six starts.

“Donato Lanni, Bob Baffert and Tom Ryan basically head up the short list and the purchasing,” Wolf said. “Our criteria is to be by the right stallion and hopefully have a pedigree that would suggest two turns on dirt. He obviously checks all those boxes. This is hopefully what we end up with when we buy one of these horses.”

Imagination is a son of top sire Into Mischief, who Wolf noted with a chuckle was sired by Harlan’s Holiday. The dam, Magical Feeling by Empire Maker, promptly dropped two graded-stakes winners from covers by Into Mischief.

“I’m a Harlan’s Holiday fan and therefore an Into Mischief fan,” he said. “Anything you match up to Into Mischief seems to be good.”

Imagination did not run in the Kentucky Derby because Churchill Downs did not allow the Hall of Fame trainer to enter horses again this year. The Preakness will be Imagination’s first start since he finished a neck behind Stronghold in the Santa Anita Derby six weeks ago on April 6. Stronghold finished seventh in the Kentucky Derby.

“It will be interesting,” Wolf said. “I always try to look at the positive on these things. When Authentic ended up winning the Derby, he had a good bit of time off before he went into the Haskell. I think that time off really, really helped him and then having time between that and the September Derby. So, it may be a blessing in disguise with this horse getting another two weeks after his Santa Anita Derby. The horse that beat him in the Santa Anita Derby I thought ran pretty credible in the Kentucky Derby.”

Starlight and its partners in Imagination are in the same situation as they were last year with National Treasure: bringing a well-regarded new shooter into Baltimore.

“It's always fun to go to the Preakness,” Wolf said. “Hopefully, we can go up there and come out with the second part of the Triple Crown.”

Wolf got his first taste of the Preakness experience in 2002 when Harlan’s Holiday finished fourth. He said he appreciates how the Maryland Jockey Club embraces the participants.

“The way you're treated there with the people there at Pimlico, it's very fun and refreshing to be welcomed with open arms,” he said. “They do a great job up there. It's really fun to go.”

Story: Mike Kane
Photo: Coglianese Photos