BALTIMORE - The morning after National Treasure gave him his record eighth Preakness victory, trainer Bob Baffert was still feeling torn between gratification and grief. In between National Treasure’s head victory over Blazing Sevens in Saturday’s 148th Preakness at Pimlico and Arabian Lion’s eye-catching four-length win in the Sir Barton Stakes earlier on the card, the Baffert-trained Havnameltdown suffered a catastrophic injury to his left front ankle during the running of the Grade 3 Chick Lang Stakes and had to be euthanized on track. “To me the memory of this race will be losing Havnameltdown,” Baffert said Sunday at Pimlico. “It was nice to win the [Preakness]. To me, it was a pretty sad day. It hurts, it really hurts to me. I’ll aways remember this [day] as I lost a good horse. When that happens, it’s crushing.” While Baffert and his staff deal with the loss of that horse, the trainer on Sunday was in the early stages of mapping out next starts for National Treasure and Arabian Lion. :: Bet the Belmont Stakes with confidence! Join DRF Bets and get a $250 deposit match bonus, $10 free bet, and FREE DRF Formulator! As of Sunday morning, Baffert’s tentative plan was to point National Treasure to the Belmont Stakes on June 10 and Arabian Lion potentially to the Woody Stephens on the same card. Baffert said in discussion with jockey John Velazquez, who rode both horses to victory, National Treasure would be better suited to get the 1 1/2 miles than Arabian Lion. “Johnny said of the two [National Treasure] looks like he could have gone around there twice,” Baffert said. “They went slow early, he just had so much horse. He couldn’t pull him up at the end.” Noting difficulties in shipping cross-country without the availability of a dedicated equine plane service such as Tex Sutton - which stopped operating three years ago - Baffert said he is likely to ship National Treasure and Arabian Lion by van from Baltimore to New York by week’s end rather than ship back to California. “I want that option,” Baffert said. “I don’t want to take them back to California, then there’s no option. A lot of things can change between now and then.” Baffert said National Treasure, who beat Blazing Sevens by a head, came out of the Preakness in good shape. ”He didn’t run hard, he only ran the last quarter, they were just galloping around there,” Baffert said. “It wasn’t a real taxing race. I could tell when he came back, he wasn’t blowing.” Baffert had been waiting for National Treasure to come around. He had won his debut at Del Mar last September, but ran spotty in his races since. A bruised foot forced him out of the San Felipe in March and he was a short horse in the Santa Anita Derby, in which he finished fourth. Tim Yakteen had the horse for those two races, owing to Baffert being banned from the Kentucky Derby, and the horse was trying to earn his way to that race. He was returned to Baffert after the Santa Anita Derby. Baffert put blinkers on National Treasure for the Preakness and they seemed to help him break better. “Every trip he’s had has always been stop and go,” Baffert said. “With the blinkers, he blew out of the gate and put himself in the race the right way.” Baffert mentioned Reincarnate, 13th in the Kentucky Derby, as a possibility for the Belmont. That horse, though, only recently resumed training after losing weight in the Derby. Baffert said a decision on the Belmont would be a last-minute one. Blazing Sevens, who ran a gutsy race in finishing second to National Treasure, returned to New York on Sunday morning. Trainer Chad Brown, via text, said he would point the horse to the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 29 with an eye toward the Travers on Aug. 26. Brown felt Blazing Sevens was compromised by having a wide trip all the way around under Irad Ortiz Jr. Mage, the Kentucky Derby winner who finished third in the Preakness, will not go on to the Belmont Stakes, trainer Gustavo Delgado said Sunday. Delgado said he would like the colt’s next start to be the Travers. “He had five races since January,” Delgado said. “I’d like to give him a month’s rest.” Mage will be sent to The Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, Ky., in the coming days for a break before likely stabling in Saratoga this summer. Mage was the only horse from the Kentucky Derby to have run in the Preakness. With him skipping the Belmont, it means War of Will, in 2019, is the last horse - excluding 2020 when the series was spaced out differently due to COVID - to run in all three legs of the Triple Crown. Trainer Steve Asmussen indicated immediately after the Preakness that Red Route One, fourth in the Preakness, would be pointed to the Belmont. Others under consideration for the Belmont Stakes include Angel of Empire, Arcangelo, Forte, Henry Q, Hit Show, Kingsbarns, Prove Worthy, Tapit Trice, and Raise Cain. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.