Junior Alvarado to ride Crupper as Preakness plans take shape

Junior Alvarado is back on Crupper for the Preakness, and that tells you plenty about how seriously Donnie Von Hemel is taking this horse. With Bill Mott deciding Chief Wallabee would not ship to Laurel, Alvarado became available again, and Von Hemel moved quickly to keep the rider who was aboard for Crupper’s breakthrough in the Bathhouse Row Stakes.

That matters because Crupper is no longer just another prep winner trying to squeeze into a 14-horse field. He earned his place with a sharp win at Oaklawn Park on April 18, taking the $200,000 Bathhouse Row in 1:50.89 at 1 1/8 miles. It was his third victory in six starts, and the kind that suggests a horse still moving forward rather than peaking by accident. A return ride for Alvarado gives Crupper continuity, and in a race as tight and tactical as the Preakness, a jockey who already knows the horse’s rhythm can matter as much as a fresh set of eyes.

Von Hemel’s timing also says something. Late jockey commitments are not just paperwork in a Triple Crown race. They often tell you a barn is still sorting out its confidence level, its shipping plan, and how high it wants to climb. In Crupper’s case, the signals lean upward. The colt worked five furlongs in 59.80 at Trackside Training Center on May 1, came out of his latest race in good order, and has reportedly been showing the appetite, energy and workout pattern Von Hemel wants to see. The plan is for a light touch before he leaves Louisville for Maryland on May 12, not a heavy push.

Crupper’s profile fits the trip, too. He is Robert Zoellner’s homebred by Candy Ride out of She’s All In, a mare who was second to Royal Delta in the 2013 Delaware Handicap at 1 1/4 miles. That pedigree gives Von Hemel a legitimate reason to believe more distance can help, not hurt. The Bathhouse Row itself has become a useful Preakness pipeline, debuting in 2019 as the Oaklawn Invitational, running as the Oaklawn Stakes from 2020 through 2022, and sending three of its seven winners on to the Preakness, including Red Route One, who was fourth in 2023.

The broader Preakness picture is still coming into focus. Preakness 151 will be run Saturday, May 16, at Laurel Park because Pimlico Race Course is closed for redevelopment, and the Black-Eyed Susan is set for Friday, May 15, on the same relocated weekend. Cherie DeVaux said on TODAY that a decision on Golden Tempo’s Preakness start should come by the end of the week, after the Derby winner returned to Keeneland for light jogs and easy days. For now, Crupper has the look of a horse whose people are no longer just hoping he belongs in the race. They are acting like he does.