LARRY'S PICKS for the Kentucky Derby : Triple Crown Showdown
May 3, 2020 13:22:10 GMT -5
Post by shoes on May 3, 2020 13:22:10 GMT -5
Follow-up: Andy Beyer on the race:
By ANDREW BEYER
MAY 29, 198812 AM
THE WASHINGTON POST
BALTIMORE — Next to Baltimore’s infamous Block, Pimlico might be the roughest place in town -- a strip where ladies had better not venture unescorted.
It was here, of course, that the Preakness generated national controversy in 1980, when the filly Genuine Risk was -- in the words of many headline writers -- “mugged” by male rival Codex.
On Saturday, Winning Colors was the first filly since Genuine Risk to race in the Preakness, and she encountered similarly rude treatment. Forty Niner tried to push her and intimidate her during much of the race, bringing about the filly’s defeat and giving the victory to Risen Star.
But there were significant differences between the two incidents. The way Codex carried Genuine Risk wide on the turn would not have attracted special attention in a run-of-the-mill race. Jockey Angel Cordero Jr. was riding aggressively and riding to win -- which he would have done even without his tactics of intimidation.
What happened in Saturday’s Preakness, however, was utterly extraordinary. Jockey Pat Day employed tactics that would never be seen in an ordinary race. He was riding in a fashion designed to beat Winning Colors rather than to win with Forty Niner. If his specific intention was to help Risen Star win the Preakness, he couldn’t have done a more effective job. Day and trainer Woody Stephens knew that they could not permit Winning Colors to take an uncontested early lead as she did in the Kentucky Derby. Nobody else in the field figured to run head-and-head with the filly, so Forty Niner was going to have to do it. Moreover, Stephens felt that his colt was a proven, tough battler in head-and-head confrontations, while the filly was not, and that Forty Niner would win such a duel. “We may finish next-to-last,” he said, “but she’ll finish last.”
The trainer’s decision to have Forty Niner challenge Winning Colors was rational and proper. But the way Day executed the strategy was not.
Breaking from a post just inside Winning Colors, Forty Niner raced abreast of her to the first turn and there drifted wide, forcing her even wider. On the backstretch he kept jostling her and pushing her farther out. Midway down the backstretch jockey Gary Stevens voluntarily moved the filly wider “just so we could stop bumping and I could get her in stride.” But Day and Forty Niner kept coming after their rival.
Their actions served no positive purpose; Forty Niner wasn’t aiding his chances by racing in the middle of the track or getting into a bumping match. He wound up finishing seventh in a nine-horse field -- by far the worst performance of his career. The only aim of the tactics was to bring about the filly’s defeat.
Because such a huge hole had been cleared along the rail, Eddie Delahoussaye had no difficulty moving Risen Star past the leaders to take command of the Preakness. His task would not have been nearly so easy if the two leaders had been battling near the inside, forcing Risen Star to circle them on the turn.
Most people in racing would have trouble believing that the polite, soft-spoken, religious Day could harbor any malicious motives. When the notion was suggested to Risen Star’s trainer, Louie Roussel III, he replied, “A Christian man like Pat wouldn’t do that.”
Indeed, the performance was utterly out of character for Day, who almost never rides in an aggressive, intimidating fashion. The mastermind of the Preakness strategy appears to be Stephens, who has a hard time concealing his dislike for Winning Colors’ trainer Wayne Lukas.
Lukas himself refused to be drawn into a controversy after the race. He surely appreciates the irony of being forced to attack the mistreatment of a filly after going through the 1980 controversy as Codex’s trainer. Moreover, he knows he can only lose if he gets drawn into a mud-slinging match with a 74-year-old horseman who is almost a national institution. He has handled himself with class and forbearance. (Other people involved in the race didn’t feel the need to be so close-mouthed. Charlie Rose, the assistant trainer of runner-up Brian’s Time, said, “It was terrible -- the worst exhibition of sportsmanship I’ve ever seen in a Triple Crown race.”)
One participant emerged from the Preakness with an enhanced reputation, and that was Winning Colors. In her Kentucky Derby victory, everything had gone her way. She displayed speed but had no opportunity to demonstrate her class or competitiveness. Saturday, though, she took everything Forty Niner and Day could dish out and refused to give up. Even after Forty Niner -- himself a tenacious competitor -- had surrendered, she was still digging in through the stretch run, and she was only 2 1/2 lengths behind Risen Star at the wire. She ennobled herself in defeat, but that must be small consolation to Lukas, Stevens and anybody else who knows how unfairly she was victimized.
By ANDREW BEYER
MAY 29, 198812 AM
THE WASHINGTON POST
BALTIMORE — Next to Baltimore’s infamous Block, Pimlico might be the roughest place in town -- a strip where ladies had better not venture unescorted.
It was here, of course, that the Preakness generated national controversy in 1980, when the filly Genuine Risk was -- in the words of many headline writers -- “mugged” by male rival Codex.
On Saturday, Winning Colors was the first filly since Genuine Risk to race in the Preakness, and she encountered similarly rude treatment. Forty Niner tried to push her and intimidate her during much of the race, bringing about the filly’s defeat and giving the victory to Risen Star.
But there were significant differences between the two incidents. The way Codex carried Genuine Risk wide on the turn would not have attracted special attention in a run-of-the-mill race. Jockey Angel Cordero Jr. was riding aggressively and riding to win -- which he would have done even without his tactics of intimidation.
What happened in Saturday’s Preakness, however, was utterly extraordinary. Jockey Pat Day employed tactics that would never be seen in an ordinary race. He was riding in a fashion designed to beat Winning Colors rather than to win with Forty Niner. If his specific intention was to help Risen Star win the Preakness, he couldn’t have done a more effective job. Day and trainer Woody Stephens knew that they could not permit Winning Colors to take an uncontested early lead as she did in the Kentucky Derby. Nobody else in the field figured to run head-and-head with the filly, so Forty Niner was going to have to do it. Moreover, Stephens felt that his colt was a proven, tough battler in head-and-head confrontations, while the filly was not, and that Forty Niner would win such a duel. “We may finish next-to-last,” he said, “but she’ll finish last.”
The trainer’s decision to have Forty Niner challenge Winning Colors was rational and proper. But the way Day executed the strategy was not.
Breaking from a post just inside Winning Colors, Forty Niner raced abreast of her to the first turn and there drifted wide, forcing her even wider. On the backstretch he kept jostling her and pushing her farther out. Midway down the backstretch jockey Gary Stevens voluntarily moved the filly wider “just so we could stop bumping and I could get her in stride.” But Day and Forty Niner kept coming after their rival.
Their actions served no positive purpose; Forty Niner wasn’t aiding his chances by racing in the middle of the track or getting into a bumping match. He wound up finishing seventh in a nine-horse field -- by far the worst performance of his career. The only aim of the tactics was to bring about the filly’s defeat.
Because such a huge hole had been cleared along the rail, Eddie Delahoussaye had no difficulty moving Risen Star past the leaders to take command of the Preakness. His task would not have been nearly so easy if the two leaders had been battling near the inside, forcing Risen Star to circle them on the turn.
Most people in racing would have trouble believing that the polite, soft-spoken, religious Day could harbor any malicious motives. When the notion was suggested to Risen Star’s trainer, Louie Roussel III, he replied, “A Christian man like Pat wouldn’t do that.”
Indeed, the performance was utterly out of character for Day, who almost never rides in an aggressive, intimidating fashion. The mastermind of the Preakness strategy appears to be Stephens, who has a hard time concealing his dislike for Winning Colors’ trainer Wayne Lukas.
Lukas himself refused to be drawn into a controversy after the race. He surely appreciates the irony of being forced to attack the mistreatment of a filly after going through the 1980 controversy as Codex’s trainer. Moreover, he knows he can only lose if he gets drawn into a mud-slinging match with a 74-year-old horseman who is almost a national institution. He has handled himself with class and forbearance. (Other people involved in the race didn’t feel the need to be so close-mouthed. Charlie Rose, the assistant trainer of runner-up Brian’s Time, said, “It was terrible -- the worst exhibition of sportsmanship I’ve ever seen in a Triple Crown race.”)
One participant emerged from the Preakness with an enhanced reputation, and that was Winning Colors. In her Kentucky Derby victory, everything had gone her way. She displayed speed but had no opportunity to demonstrate her class or competitiveness. Saturday, though, she took everything Forty Niner and Day could dish out and refused to give up. Even after Forty Niner -- himself a tenacious competitor -- had surrendered, she was still digging in through the stretch run, and she was only 2 1/2 lengths behind Risen Star at the wire. She ennobled herself in defeat, but that must be small consolation to Lukas, Stevens and anybody else who knows how unfairly she was victimized.
