Ocelli, Corona de Oro enter Preakness mix as field widens

The Preakness field kept stretching on Tuesday as Ocelli and Corona de Oro moved into the conversation for the 151st running, turning the middle jewel into a race shaped as much by second chances as by the Derby itself. With post positions set for Monday, May 11, the picture at Laurel Park remained fluid, and the next two weeks looked like a test of who recovered best from Louisville and who still had enough upside to matter.

Ocelli is the more improbable name in the mix, and the one that changes the tone most. The bay colt, born Feb. 27, 2023, by Connect out of Zalia, ran third in the Kentucky Derby as a maiden in a field of 18 at 70-1, the kind of finish that forces trainers to reassess quickly. D. Whitworth Beckman said Ocelli came out of the Derby in good shape and kept training with energy, enough to move the colt from extremely unlikely to maybe. Rosedown Racing Stables owns him, and Joseph Ramos has been his regular rider. Beckman’s read was practical as much as hopeful: if the Preakness pace turns fast, Ocelli could be the sort of horse who keeps picking up pieces late.

Corona de Oro brings a different profile. The colt, born March 10, 2023, by Bolt d’Oro out of Lemon de Oro, was bred in Kentucky by Willow Oaks Stable and is trained by Dallas Stewart, with Brian Hernandez Jr. aboard most of the time. Unlike Ocelli, Corona de Oro missed the Derby because he was the lone also-eligible and never got into the gate at Churchill Downs. Stewart said he was still thinking about the Preakness and wanted to work the horse again before making a final call, which left Corona de Oro in the more familiar category of a lightly raced colt waiting for the right opening. He already showed enough on March 7 at Fair Grounds, when he won a maiden race by 4.5 lengths with a 91.0 speed rating, to suggest there is more in reserve.

Golden Tempo, the Derby winner, was back at Keeneland on a walk day and expected to return to light training before a final decision later in the week. That left the Preakness with a field still being sorted by condition, pace and timing, a reminder that this race often becomes a fast-moving reshuffle after Louisville. Sometimes that reshuffle exposes a real contender; sometimes it just fills the gate. In Ocelli and Corona de Oro, the Preakness found both possibilities at once.