Michael Gorham has been running horses at Pimlico for more than 30 years. Saturday, he gets his first opportunity to run a horse in the race at Pimlico when he saddles Pay Billy in the $2 million Preakness Stakes.
While Pay Billy figures to be the longest shot on the board in the nine-horse field, he has won four of his last five starts, including a gritty 1 1/2-length victory in the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park, a Win and You’re In event for the Preakness.
“It’s great,” said Gorham, 60. “Everyone looks to get a big horse and run in these big races, and he fits the bill, so we’ll give it a try. I think I’ve been to 24 different Preaknesses as a fan or having one run on the undercard. It’s good to have one in it.”
Gorham picked Pay Billy out at the 2024 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s April 2-year-olds in training sale for a new venture, RKTN Racing, headed by managing partner Nate Nelson. Nelson also was in on Omaha Omaha, a 3-year-old who was on the Triple Crown trail earlier this year for Gorham but did not qualify for the Derby after finishing ninth in the Wood Memorial.
Pay Billy is by Improbable – sixth as the favorite in the 2019 Preakness – out of the Harlington mare Harlington’s Rose, a Grade 3 stakes winner who produced the two-time listed stakes winner Espionage.
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“I liked the pedigree, I liked the look of him, I liked his [pre-sales] work,” Gorham said. “We were looking for a two-turn horse, and a two-turn horse doesn’t have to breeze in 10 flat. He’s turned out to be the goods.”
Pay Billy won his maiden going six furlongs at Laurel in his fourth career start. After a five-length allowance win going a mile, Pay Billy was beaten a nose by Barbadian Runner in the Miracle Wood Stakes, also at a mile. Stretched out around two turns in the 1 1/16-mile Private Terms, Pay Billy rolled to a 3 1/2-length win.
In the 1 1/8-mile Tesio, Pay Billy was headed and passed by Just a Fair Shake, but battled back along the inside to win by 1 1/2 lengths.
“He’s always been game,” Gorham said. “The day he got beat by a nose, that horse got by him by three-quarters of a length and he came back on again. After that race, we opened his blinkers a little bit so he could see his company coming. He’s been game in his last couple of races for sure.”
While Kentucky Derby runner-up Journalism figures to be a heavy favorite in the Preakness, Gorham sees his horse fitting in with the rest of the competition.
“Our numbers are getting better all the time, he’s getting better all the time, a little more distance is not going to hurt him,” Gorham said. “If he gets a good trip, I think he’ll be competitive.”
Gorham, a native of Compton, Mass., just outside of Boston, has won 1,443 races over a career that began in 1985. His best horse was the filly Mandy’s Gold, who won seven stakes including the Grade 1 Ruffian at Belmont Park in 2002 and the Grade 2 Pimlico Breeders’ Cup Distaff (now Allaire duPont) on Preakness eve in 2003.
“She was a superstar,” Gorham said.
Gorham has trained several other stakes winners, including graded stakes winners Trickle of Gold and Adore the Gold and listed winners Flirt for Fame, Shut Out Time, and Lily’s Affair.
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“I think the better horses do stand out, they show class, the little things don’t bother them, they show up and run hard every time,” Gorham said. “That’s the textbook for all the good ones I’ve had.”
In Moon Cache, Gorham also will have a runner in Friday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Gorham claimed Moon Cache for $40,000 in February and sent her out to an apparent victory in the Beyond the Wire Stakes, only to get disqualified to second for a bumping incident. Moon Cache came back to run third, beaten three-quarters of a length, in the Weber City Miss Stakes.
“She stumbled leaving the gate from the outside hole, I thought she ran game,” Gorham said. “Coming down the stretch I thought the horse that finished second came out and bumped her, knocked her off stride for a step or two, and she got a beat three-quarters of a length. With a little luck she could have won that.”
With a little bit of luck – okay, a lot of luck – this could be a memorable weekend for Gorham.
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