Preakness Results 2015: Winners and Losers from Triple Crown's 2nd Leg
The torrential rain that poured down was the Curse of the Pharaoh that struck down all challengers in the 140th Preakness Stakes.
American Pharoah loves the slop and he took command to win Bob Baffert his sixth Preakness and his fourth shot at the ever-elusive Triple Crown. The son of Pioneerof the Nile won the race in a pedestrian 1:58.46 and was truly brilliant hustling out from the gate to lead this field all the way around the oval.
“He’s just an awesome horse,” Baffert, who is now 4-for-4 with Derby winners at the Preakness, told NBC after the race. “What he does is amazing. American Pharoah, from Day 1, people were expecting this. Great horses do great things.”
It was a jaw-dropping effort in the rain, the headlining winner in a race full of victors and losers.
"He's got Frosted (fourth in the Derby) and Materialty (sixth in the Derby) waiting for him [in the Belmont]," said NBC analyst Randy Moss. "He's got a shot. It'll be fun, won't it?"
Read on for a list of soaking wet winners and losers from the 140th Preakness Stakes.
Loser: Pimlico Race Course
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Pimlico Race Course exits Preakness Day a loser.
According to several people on Twitter, the bathrooms were out of order on this hot, muggy day in Maryland.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Preakness Stakes may not even be at Pimlico next year. It might move to nearby Laurel Park, which is situated between Baltimore and Washington D.C.
The race could also move on the calendar, going from Saturday to Sunday. That’s significant as it provides an extra day of rest after the Derby.
But it would do a number on any infield party festivities. Who wants a Monday hangover?
Winner: Tale of Verve
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It’s funny, trainer Dallas Stewart brought a long shot to the Preakness in 2008 named Macho Again. All he did was close behind the super talented Big Brown to finish second.
Seven years later, along comes Tale of Verve, a horse who had little business being in this race, shocked everyone by wobbling down the center of the track to take second away from Divining Rod.
During the undercard, NBC’s Randy Moss said if there was a prop bet for which horse would finish last, it would be Tale of Verve, a horse who just broke his maiden a few weeks ago after six tries.
“The horse ran great,” Stewart said during the NBC broadcast. “The horse has never run in the mud. We’ll match it up in the Belmont.”
If it’s a fast track in the Preakness, does Tale of Verve come close? Probably not, but that’s the nature of these things.
Stewart did it again and capitalized on a track that others hated, and earned a nice check in the process.
Loser: The Second Step
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Firing Line ended up being the second choice, and if the track had been fast, maybe he would have run like it. Instead, Firing Line finished a distant, loping seventh.
When jockey Gary Stevens knew he had lost his shot, he galloped Firing Line home, saving the horse for a later battle. It all went wrong from the word go.
Firing Line broke from Post 8 and stumbled badly. That little bobble was all it took.
“My horse got away great on the first step, but on the second step he went down,” Stevens said during the NBC broadcast. “His head climbed higher and higher. That stumble cost me all chances.”
“His second jump out he stumbled badly," trainer Simon Callaghan said in a Pimlico release. "That took his momentum and then he never really got hold of the track. Nothing went right, what with all that rain coming. I don't know about the Belmont.”
The stumble put him a step behind Divining Rod at the break, then he was hung out wide, didn’t care for the track and had nothing turning for home.
“He stumbles in behind Divining Rod and now he’s stacked up,” said Jerry Bailey during the broadcast. “He can’t clear these horses.”
Stevens also added, “I can humbly say that it would take a super horse to beat a super horse in American Pharoah today.”
Firing Line is a fine horse and, pardon the pun, the precipitating circumstances took him out of his game. He’ll be back, maybe in three weeks.
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Winner: Divining Rod
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No one would have guessed that Divining Rod would finish better than the acclaimed Dortmund.
But Divining Rod was the best of the new shooters and got the trip everyone expected from Post 7. He was able to sit off the speed in that second flight and save ground. Thanks to the stumbling Firing Line, Divining Rod had the best shot possible.
Javier Castellano, one of the hottest jockeys of the weekend, rode him perfectly, but got clipped at the wire for second.
For Divining Rod to come into this race off his win in the Grade 3 Lexington and perform like this makes him a promising little colt going forward. If he keeps developing, we could see him run in the Haskell Invitational or the Jim Dandy and Travers Stakes.
Loser: D. Wayne Lukas
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Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas was so desperate for a Preakness starter that he had his client, Ahmed Zayat, accept an offer he couldn’t refuse from Calumet Farm, so Lukas could saddle Mr. Z—a horse named after Zayat—in the Preakness.
“Hell, let’s roll with it,” Lukas said before the race on NBC.
Snake eyes.
It was clear Mr. Z was going for the lead. He went out with American Pharoah but couldn’t keep pace. Mr. Z has zip, but not the kind American Pharoah has. It almost looked like Mr. Z was going to run as hard as he could for as long as could, but thankfully jockey Corey Nakatani took him back enough.
Mr. Z finished fifth, not too bad, but that’s the kind of horse he is in these Grade 1s: middle of the pack.
Lukas wanted to run this horse too much and it cost him.
Winner: Belmont Park
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Belmont Park is a big winner thanks to American Pharoah. Unless you’re a die-hard horse racing fan, the Belmont Stakes matters little, unless a horse is going for the Triple Crown.
And for the third time in four years*, a horse is heading to Belmont Park with a shot at winning the Triple Crown for the first time since 1978.
Look at 2007, a year where there was no Triple Crown runner. The on-track betting handle was $75,587,892. A year later when Big Brown was alive for the Triple Crown, the handle was $100,192,405, an increase in $24,604,513 million or 33 percent from one year to the other.
And a good chunk of that is money that would have gone unclaimed (had Big Brown won) because people (including myself) bought $2-win tickets as souvenirs. After enough time, you can no longer cash the ticket. The New York Racing Association isn’t going to hand deliver your winnings, slim as they may be.
So the win for American Pharoah is a big boon for Belmont Park from a pure betting standpoint, saying nothing of concessions for the 100,000 people who will show up on June 6 (myself included) looking to drink beer and eat all kinds of salty snacks.
*In 2012, I’ll Have Another never ran in the Belmont. He was scratched the morning of the Belmont Stakes with tendonitis.
Loser: Dortmund
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Dortmund didn’t break as well as he did in the Kentucky Derby, a race where he was able to set the pace and get a perfect, ground-saving trip.
He was a little skittish in the gate right before the break and that hesitation cost him a chance at the lead. Mr. Z broke like a bullet from Post 3 and American Pharoah acted likewise from Post 1.
As a result, the son of Big Brown took back and got peppered with all kinds of mud. He pressed up on the pace with a half-mile to go, but had no gas in the tank.
“I was hoping he’d show a little more," Baffert said in a Pimlico release. "I was afraid about the mud with him and his big feet.”
In the end, it looked like maybe the Derby tired this horse out. He looks like he’ll be Baffert’s Haskell Invitational horse. Baffert wins Haskells the way he wins Preaknesses. Baffert has seven Haskells.
Dortmund needs time to regroup after this race.
It’s the American Pharoah show now.
Winner: The Curse of the Pharoah
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Clean face, clean race.
When the rain came down like something out of the Bible, it forced Victor Espinoza’s hand. Had he not considered going to the lead before the rain. Mother Nature informed him otherwise.
When the gate broke, Espinoza hustled American Pharoah like it was a quarter-horse race from Post 1. He easily cleared his stablemate Dortmund, but it was evident that Nakatani and Mr. Z wanted the lead too.
“I pushed him to go to the front,” Espinoza said during the NBC broadcast. “The minute it rained, I changed my mind. I got wet and I don’t want to behind horses.”
American Pharoah and Espinoza didn’t have a fleck of mud on them while other horses toward the back were filthy and miserable. Turns out that Post 1 proved favorable after all.
The first quarter mile was quick—22 and change—but Espinoza wisely slowed it down through two tepid internal fractions.
“Down the backstretch, it looked like the cavalry was coming, Mr. Z, even Dortmund and Divining Rod,” said Jerry Bailey after the race. “Victor gave American Pharoah a breather, letting him rest. He starts to let him out and when Victor says 'Go, big boy,' he starts to open up.”
All the way to Belmont Park, where Espinoza becomes the first jockey to have a third shot at winning the Triple Crown. His first came in 2002 with War Emblem and his most recent came a year ago with California Chrome.
“Seems like the third time is the lucky charm,” he said on the broadcast.
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