Danny Gargan targets Laurel Park Preakness with Talkin after Belmont win

Danny Gargan is back in the classic lane with the same kind of question that made his 2024 Belmont Stakes triumph so compelling: was Dornoch the start of a repeatable program, or just a perfect one-off? This time, the test belongs to Talkin, a Grade 1-placed son of Good Magic pointed to the $2 million Preakness Stakes on May 16 at Laurel Park.

Gargan already proved he could navigate an unusual Triple Crown setting. The 2024 Belmont Stakes was the first ever run at Saratoga Race Course, and Dornoch handled the change with authority, winning by a half-length over Mindframe while Sierra Leone finished third. For a Saratoga-based trainer, it was more than a marquee score. It showed Gargan could ship, place and peak a horse for a classic when the map looked different from the norm.

Laurel Park creates another such examination. The 151st Preakness will be run there because Pimlico Race Course is closed for redevelopment, and the weekend schedule also moves the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes to Friday, May 15. Laurel Park’s address is 198 Laurel Race Track Road, Laurel, Maryland 20725, and for one year it becomes the center of the American classic scene.

Talkin now carries the weight of being the horse that could extend Gargan’s classic résumé. He is not arriving as a mystery horse, but as a graded performer with enough background to merit attention in a race that has lost the top two finishers from the Kentucky Derby. That absence has only sharpened the sense that the 2026 Preakness may be unusually open, and open classics often reward the trainer who has already shown he can land in the right spot at the right time.

Gargan has made clear that he is in the game to win classic races, and Talkin is the latest chance to prove that the Belmont was the beginning of a pattern, not the peak of it. If Talkin is ready to run to his best at Laurel, Gargan will have a second classic victory and a stronger case that his first was not a flash of timing, but the foundation of something bigger.