John C. Oxley’s Silent Tactic will not compete in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park, Daily Racing Form reports. With his defection, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. will ride multiple Grade 1-placed Talkin in the 1 3/16-mile race.
Post positions for the middle leg of the Triple Crown will be drawn on Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern.
Trainer Mark Casse told DRF that the son of Tacitus is still dealing with a foot bruise that took him out of Kentucky Derby contention two weeks ago.
“He gallops good, he’s not 100 percent jogging,” Casse told DRF on Monday. “We’re going to work on getting his foot better before we do anything.”
Based at Oaklawn Park this winter, Silent Tactic won the G3 Southwest Stakes in February and was the only horse to contest all four Kentucky Derby preps in Arkansas.
Casse told DRF the week before the Kentucky Derby that Silent Tactic was nursing a bruised foot between runner-up efforts in the G2 Rebel Stakes on March 1 and the G1 Arkansas Derby on March 28.
Silent Tactic’s absence means the Preakness field is down to 13. G1 Champagne winner Napoleon Solo and G3 Gotham winner Iron Honor are the only graded stakes winners in the field.
Read more at drf.com.
This story was originally published by Paulick Report on May 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
