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Afleet Alex takes Preakness; Giacomo third

Jeremy Rose is a former high school wrestler, and with only four years in the irons he is considered green by jockey standards. But on Saturday, as Afleet Alex turned for home in the 130th running of the Preakness Stakes, his boyhood endeavor came into play and he grew up as a rider in a hurry.

Rose had just gunned Afleet Alex past six horses around the hairpin turn at Pimlico Race Course and had his sights set on running down the leader, Scrappy T, in the stretch. He and his colt were rocketing past the quarter pole when Ramon Dominguez, Scrappy T's rider, slapped his colt's hip left-handed with his whip.

Suddenly, Scrappy T bolted right. His feet got tangled with Afleet Alex's, and in an instant the colt was scraping his knees in the dirt. Rose was staring between his ears at the ground. The air was sucked out of the record crowd of 115,318; in a clubhouse box the trainer of Afleet Alex, Tim Ritchey, let loose with a frightened expletive.

But neither Rose nor his colt was going to be denied. Rose grabbed his colt's mane, clamped his legs and pulled; Afleet Alex reached out with his front feet, lifted and immediately reclaimed his stride.

"We're going to win anyway," Ritchey roared from his box.

Yes, they did: Rose and the colt squirted down the stretch four and three-quarters lengths ahead of Scrappy T and nine and three-quarters lengths ahead of Giacomo, who upset the Kentucky Derby field two weeks ago at 50-1 odds.

There will be no Triple Crown bid in the Belmont Stakes three weeks from now when this crop of 3-year-olds pulls into Belmont Park as there has been in six of the last eight years. But in a terrifying and ultimately heroic moment, a much-maligned rider and a suspect colt not only survived disaster, but also demonstrated that they could ride and run as well as any other jockey or 3-year-old out there.

Horse sense

"He was just that athletic, and I was just that scared," Rose said of the stumble and recovery, which was reminiscent of another near disaster, when Alysheba overcame a mishap with Bet Twice to win the 1987 Kentucky Derby. "He's just an amazing horse that I think put all doubters to shame there."

While Afleet Alex, a son of Northern Afleet, took advantage of a much slower pace than he encountered in his third-place finish in the Derby to cover the mile and three-sixteenths in 1:55.04, Giacomo got stopped in a pack of horses heading into the final turn and lost all momentum. When Afleet Alex and Scrappy T were skirmishing at the quarter pole, Giacomo, the 6-1 third choice, was in fifth place.

"I had to idle a very long way, and that really hurts you in this type of race," Giacomo's rider, Mike Smith, said.

Scrappy T's jockey, Dominguez, was shaken by the incident. He turned in his saddle as his colt slid wide to see if Rose and Afleet Alex were still on their feet. Dominguez apologized immediately after the race.

"My horse felt like he was looking around when we came into the stretch, but I wasn't expecting him to have any problems," he said. "When I hit him left-handed, he didn't like it and came out unexpectedly.

"It completely caught me off guard. I didn't feel a bump, but he did lose his rear action.

"I'm just happy me and Jeremy didn't come off. He clipped my heels. Once he went by, we got it straightened out. He was running so straight up to that point. It's still hard for me to believe he did something like that."

Stewards' review

Afleet Alex, the 3-1 favorite, returned US$8.60 for a US$2 bet to win. Scrappy T survived a stewards' review for second place and made for a US$152 exacta for correctly selecting the top two finishers in the exact order.

Sun King was fourth at 21-1, followed by a parade of long shots: High Limit, Noble Causeway, Greeley's Galaxy and Malibu Moonshine. High Fly, the 5-1 second choice, finished a disappointing 10th.

But this Preakness will be remembered for the athleticism of a rider and a horse. The former wrestler is now a rider; the colt who was passed easily in the stretch at Churchill Downs is now a fighter.

"I thought he was on the ground," Ritchey said. "I thought that was it."
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