JC / Railbird - Triple Crown

Triple Crown Archive

Maryland Stewards “Clueless”

Paul Moran is ferocious in his indictment of the Maryland stewards for ruling that jockey Ramon Dominguez was not at fault in the incident at the top of in the stretch in the Preakness, when Scrappy T reacted to being struck on the left by veering sharply to the right and running into Afleet Alex:

The beauty of being a steward in Maryland is that people are paying attention only one day a year. So, rather than concern themselves with suspensions, hearings and appeals, the Pimlico stewards decided Dominguez would be held blameless for the incident and that there would be no suspension for careless riding. Obviously, they determined that delineation exists between careless and incompetent and that incompetence is within the rules.

Had Afleet Alex fallen, had jockey Jeremy Rose been left face down in the dirt and carried off the racetrack, had Dominguez left a pile of fallen horses in his wake, would he have been held blameless? Is he exonerated by perhaps the most amazing recovery by horse and rider in Triple Crown history? Is Dominguez’s responsibility erased by the heroic efforts of the horse and rider he came one gush of adrenaline and one instinctive athletic reaction in the face of sheer terror away from putting on the ground in the path of a dozen large, hooved animals?

Dominguez should have been handed a suspension long enough to flirt with his eligibility for Social Security, and the failure of the Maryland stewards is a ludicrous abdication of responsibility. (Newsday)

Jay Hovdey takes a more measured tone: “There was nothing in the rules or guidelines used by Pimlico’s stewards that holds anyone accountable for what happened in the Preakness. But there should be.” (Daily Racing Form — sub. req.)

Posted in Triple Crown on May 26, 2005

Preakness Remainders

Afleet Alex earned a 112 Beyer speed figure in the Preakness. “The Preakness was as legitimate a race as the Derby was flukey.” (Daily Racing Form — sub. req.)
More bad luck for trainer Nick Zito: It was discovered Monday that Noble Causeway “entrapped his epiglottis” during the Preakness. The colt will have a myectomy. (Blood-Horse)
Wilko is also having surgery. Trainer Craig Dollase said the Breeders’ Cup juvenile winner came out of the Preakness with a chip in his right front ankle. He’ll have surgery on Thursday to remove it. (Daily Racing Form)
There’ll be no Triple Crown this year, which has NYRA officials plotting how to attract crowds to a race that suddenly seems a little irrelevant. They shouldn’t worry, writes Rick Bozich:

This time the Belmont Stakes will have to hustle for love, headlines and TV viewers. This time the Belmont will have to sell more than another faux Triple Crown contender.

Fine.

We all know how those Triple Crown buildups turned out. Lots of trips down memory lane for Steve Cauthen. No new members of the Triple Crown club. Six of the last eight years we’ve hit Belmont wondering whether racing would celebrate its first Triple Crown winner since Cauthen scored on Affirmed in 1978. Six times no champagne was popped.

This year the fairy tale ended three weeks earlier. Giacomo, the Kentucky Derby winner, finished third, nearly 10 lengths behind the unflappable Afleet Alex in the Preakness.

Fine.

Why do I keep saying everything will be all right? Easy. This time the plot lines will be enchanting without being predictable. (Courier Journal)

Posted in Triple Crown on May 24, 2005

Dominguez Not at Fault

After reviewing the race, Maryland stewards determined that jockey Ramon Dominguez wasn’t at fault for the incident at the top of the stretch in the Preakness, when he struck Scrappy T and the horse veered into Afleet Alex’s path. “He hit him one time,” said steward Bill Passmore. “How many horses do you hit left-handed and they don’t move?” (Washington Post)
Dominguez apologized immediately after the race, and Jeremy Rose graciously accepted. Trainer Tim Ritchey was noticeably more upset that day and the next, but even he won’t say much more than, “My father said a long time ago that if you don’t have anything good to say about anybody, don’t say anything.” It was a display of good sportsmanship all around. Peter Schmuck thinks an opportunity was missed:

Everybody acts like it’s business as usual, and an opportunity to turn the moment into a week of highlights on SportsCenter vanished faster than the bankrolls of all the people who put their trust in my handicapping ability at The Sun’s snazzy tent party earlier in the day.

There is a reason that NASCAR is the fastest-growing major sport in America and horse racing is struggling to hold on to its audience. If this were a stock car race, there would have been a rumble on pit road and everybody would be talking about it for days….

Don’t they realize that we live in a sports world that thrives on conflict and controversy? Didn’t they get the memo about the importance of being orneriest?

The same kind of move in the Daytona 500 would have caused a 20-car pileup — and created the kind of emotion that can turn a sporting event into a passion play.

Rose and Dominguez took the higher road — and maybe that’s what makes horse racing the great sport it is — but it sure doesn’t sell T-shirts. (Baltimore Sun)

Conflict and controversy — doesn’t Schmuck follow racing headlines? The sport has enough of both. We need more displays of good behavior from owners, trainers, and jockeys like the ones we’ve seen post-Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Posted in Triple Crown on May 23, 2005

Preakness Notes

Going into the Preakness, Afleet Alex was a suspect horse to a lot of people. He showed up for all his races, he was consistent, yet he didn’t seem quite good enough. “Afleet Alex, likeable as he is for his consistency and durability, had a relatively clean trip in the Derby and was simply outfinished by Giacomo and Closing Argument,” wrote Steven Crist. “You can say he moved a shade too soon, which is what most people said when he was outfinished by Proud Accolade in the Champagne and by Wilko in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. The excuse is wearing thin, and the fact is that he is 1 for 5 in races at a mile or longer. He can win, but he might be worth playing against as the favorite.” (Daily Racing Form — sub. req)

Afleet Alex’s dramatic Preakness win yesterday should silence all such critics. Recovering as quickly as he did from the incident at the top of the stretch, romping home by more than four lengths — it was an amazing performance by a tough, athletic, and courageous colt, who is unquestionably the best three-year-old in training right now.

So, what did happen at the top of the stretch? Afleet Alex clipped heels with Scrappy T after jockey Ramon Dominguez took the whip to Scrappy as he was changing leads and appeared to lose focus. Explained Dominguez:

“The horse took me completely off guard. I felt like he was easing back on me, looking around some, and I decided to hit him left-handed, and I think it completely caught him off guard because he made a right-hand turn.” (Baltimore Sun)

Said trainer Robbie Bailes, “[Scrappy T] has a tendency when he gets to the front to look around a little bit.”

Rider Jeremy Rose was sure he and Alex were down for good and was planning how he’d survive the fall:

What was your thought process?” a reporter asked Rose.

“My thought process was I was going to get run over,” the jockey said….

“That’s the closest I’ve ever been [to the ground] without falling,” Rose said. “I thought for sure we were going down. I was going to try to go down with him as close as I could because I figured that was my best shot [of surviving].” (Baltimore Sun)

Luckily, Afleet Alex bounced right up. Rose credited the colt with “90 percent” of the save, but as Andy Beyer writes today: “Even if his modest assessment is correct, [Rose’s] 10 percent contribution earned him a lasting place in Preakness history.” Beyer praises Rose’s ride and says he’s now a “major leaguer” (Washington Post). That’s an assessment that can’t be argued. Rose expertly maneuvered Afleet Alex to the rail at the start of the race, saving ground, sat cool through the middle, and then angled to the outside at the top of the stretch to take the lead.

Also fortunate is that Afleet Alex exited the race with only a minor scrape on his left front ankle. “He’s lucky. He just took the skin off. I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” said trainer Tim Ritchey, who speculated that the scrape occured as Alex regained his footing. (Daily Racing Form)

As for the rest of the field …

Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo finished third, almost 10 lengths behind Afleet Alex. Jockey Mike Smith said he got caught in traffic:

“I didn’t get loose until we got to the quarter pole. I was just stuck right behind them,” Smith said. “I could have went around, but that was an awful long way to go around. I was going to lose at least 10 lengths.”

His only option was to hope for an opening. By the time he found one, it was too late.

“I was waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting,” Smith said. “I was able to get out and make my run, but by then they were gone.”

Every time he looked for a hole, the gap was filled. That’s the difference between finishing first and third. (Blood-Horse)

If Alex had gone down, Scrappy T would have been disqualified and placed last. Giacomo would have won the Preakness and been on his way to the Belmont, a potential Triple Crown winner, Matt Graves points out. “It would have been a worse injustice than the Red Sox losing to the Mets on Buckner’s error.” (Times Union)

Going Wild finished abysmally, last by more than 42 lengths. “Those fractions were too much for my horse,” lamented trainer D. Wayne Lukas. “I don’t think he’s got the quality for these; he’s one-dimensional” (Blood-Horse). I think this race brings Going Wild’s margin of loss up to something like 120 lengths in his last four starts. Poor outclassed colt.

Closing Argument, who finished ninth, didn’t like the track, said trainer Kieran McLaughlin: “He fought the racetrack today.” Before this dismal performance though from the Kentucky Derby runner up (who also had never finished worse than third before yesterday), owners Philip and Marcia Cohen sold half the horse to Sequel Bloodstock and JMJ Stable. Cohen wouldn’t say what the final price was, only that it was “quite a bit” more than the $2 million that had been bandied about earlier this year. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Mike Brunker perfectly expresses why this race was so incredible:

In the blink of an eye on Saturday, Afleet Alex stated in the clearest terms possible why those who love the sport of horse racing revere its shooting stars — those tremendous athletes who surpass our expectations not in pursuit of money or glory, but because they are born to greatness.

The Triple Crown races have had their share of dramatic moments in their storied histories, but Afleet Alex’s victory in the Preakness Stakes after clipping heels with Scrappy T and nearly falling at the top of the stretch was an instant classic, simultaneously breathtaking and mind-boggling. (MSNBC)

Posted in Triple Crown on May 22, 2005

← Before After →

← Home