A Filly Mugging Recalled : Lukas’ Codex Was the Culprit in 1980 Preakness

Angel Cordero and Wayne Lukas are returning to the scene of the crime. Eight years ago, in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, Cordero and the Lukas-trained Codex--a house of a horse--mugged a filly and got away with it, right in front of nodding stewards and 83,000 people.

The twist to this, the 113th Preakness, which will be run this afternoon before another crowd of 80,000 and on a track that may resemble freshly laid tar more than dirt, is that Lukas will be saddling a filly instead of trying to beat one.

Winning Colors, the first female to run in the middle round of the Triple Crown since Genuine Risk was manhandled here in 1980, is an even-money favorite, on the basis of advance betting, to add the Preakness victory to her Kentucky Derby win two weeks ago.

Cordero has a mount in today’s race--he’s aboard Brian’s Time, a 9-1 outsider--but the focal points are Lukas and Winning Colors, trying to become the first filly ever to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

The star of the show in 1980 was Genuine Risk, a much smaller filly than Winning Colors but one who had also won the Derby. Genuine Risk was a 13-1 surprise at Churchill Downs, then went off the 2-1 favorite here, where she met a field relatively different from the Derby’s, and headed by Codex, the winner of the Santa Anita Derby.

In the Santa Anita Derby winner’s circle, Lukas reacted in disbelief when he learned for the first time that Codex had inadvertently been left off the list of nominations for the Kentucky Derby.

So Lukas won the Hollywood Derby with Codex--that stake was being run in mid-April then--and brought the big chestnut to Baltimore.

That Preakness was a 2-horse race, actually. Codex took the lead entering the far turn and was a length in front of Genuine Risk at the top of the stretch. The filly, outside of Codex, appeared to be making the same sweeping late move that had won the Derby.

But Cordero, a master at circumventing the fine letter of the law, had other ideas. He began drifting Codex to the outside. They drifted and drifted and drifted, carrying Genuine Risk with them. By mid-stretch, both horses were in the middle of the race track. Cordero, according to several track-level observers, also whacked Genuine Risk across the nose with his crop.

Codex had only brushed Genuine Risk as far as contact was concerned, but the intimidation was severe, and the filly’s momentum was compromised.

The Daily Racing Form’s chart footnotes, which are seldom subjective, were especially pointed that day: “. . . Cordero looked back entering the stretch, angled extremely wide, intimidating and lightly brushing Genuine Risk in early stretch . . .”

Inexplicably, the stewards didn’t flash their inquiry sign, forcing Jacinto Vasquez, the rider of Genuine Risk, to lodge a foul claim. It was disallowed, and so was an appeal by Diana and Bert Firestone, the owners of Genuine Risk, after a 3-day hearing conducted by the Maryland Racing Commission.

The week after the nationally televised Preakness, a bag of letters and telegrams was delivered to Lukas’ barn office at Hollywood Park.

“They were mostly telegrams,” Lukas recalled this week. “From little girls and women. They were running about 50 to 1 against us, because we beat the filly in a controversial race. I quit reading them, because you could tell what most of them were going to say.”

Lukas said, though, that he had actually welcomed the Firestones’ appeal.

“Everybody had an opinion on the race,” he said. “But it was mostly based on what they saw the day of the race. The hearing was a chance to get everything out in the open, with replays from all the angles and blow-ups of what happened in the stretch.”

Generally, though, Lukas is opposed to racing decisions going past the stewards’ level.

“I think that racing does a real good job policing itself,” he said. “But when you go over the stewards’ heads to racing boards, anything’s liable to happen. Whether you win or lose might be in the hands of somebody who sells cars for a living.”

That analogy wasn’t fetched out of the air. Bob Banning, chairman of the Maryland Racing Commission in 1980, was the owner of an automobile dealership.

Codex, cast as the villain in the ’80 Preakness drama, didn’t live a long, happy life as a contented stallion. He died Aug. 20, 1984, only 7 years old, of causes believed to be stomach complications.

And even at stud in Florida, Codex and his handlers couldn’t escape the lingering wrath of those who believed that the filly was flummoxed in the Preakness.

“The letters kept coming,” Codex’s farm manager said a couple of years ago. “Little girls, writing with crayons, probably writing what their mothers had told them about the filly who had been cheated out of the Preakness.”

What might cheat Winning Colors out of this Preakness is Baltimore’s monsoon-like weather. It rained here for the third straight day Friday, and the forecast today is partly sunny, with a 40% chance of showers and a temperature in the high 60s.

Winning Colors, whose last important workout was Monday at Belmont Park, galloped a mile and a half over the muddy Pimlico track early Friday morning.

About four hours later, Lukas looked out at the track and said: “It looks worse now than it did earlier, I guess because the horses have been punching around on it. But maybe the water will sink in and the track crew will massage it by Saturday. It won’t be fast, but I just hope that it’s safe.”

Winning Colors has never run on an off track. The Preakness, with eight colts trying to gang up on the filly, is hardly an ideal time to be learning.

Horse Racing Notes

Louie Roussel, co-owner and trainer of Risen Star, said late Friday afternoon that the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby wouldn’t start in the Preakness if it rained anymore. Roussel, concerned about Risen Star’s safety running on an off track, figures that the 1 1/2-mile distance of the Belmont, the third race in the Triple Crown, is more suited to his horse. . . . Trainer Charlie Hadry’s stablemates both worked quickly Friday morning, Private Terms going 3 furlongs in 37 seconds and Finder’s Choice covering the same distance in 34 seconds.

In advance betting on the Preakness Friday, Winning Colors was made the even-money favorite. The odds on the rest of the field were the entry of Private Terms and Finder’s Choice, 5-2; Forty Niner, 3-1; Brian’s Time, 9-1; Risen Star, 11-1; Regal Classic, 25-1; Cefis, 50-1, and Sorry About That, 80-1. . . . One of the owners of Sorry About That is Carolyn Hine, trainer Sonny Hine’s wife. Said Sonny: “Things are tough when you have to sleep with the owner to train a horse.” Sorry About That is a well-named son of Guilty Conscience and Running Naked.

Gary Stevens will ride High Brite for trainer Wayne Lukas today in the $150,000, 6-furlong Maryland Budweiser Breeders’ Cup at Pimlico. Seven other sprinters are in the field.

THE PREAKNESS FIELD

PP Horse Jockey Odds 1 Cefis Eddie Maple 50-1 2 Regal Classic Jorge Velasquez 25-1 3 Risen Star Eddie Delahoussaye 11-1 4 Forty Niner Pat Day 3-1 5 Winning Colors Gary Stevens 1-1 6 Brian’s Time Angel Cordero 9-1 7 a-Private Terms Chris Antley 5-2 8 a-Finder’s Choice Kent Desormeaux 5-2 9 Sorry About That Randy Romero 80-1

a--Entry. Odds are after advance betting closed on Friday.

Trainers (by post position): 1. Woody Stephens; 2. Jim Day; 3. Louie Roussel; 4. Woody Stephens; 5. Wayne Lukas; 6. John Veitch; 7. Charlie Hadry; 8. Charlie Hadry; 9. Sonny Hine.

Owners (by post position): 1. James Ryan and Robert Kirkham; 2. Sam-Son and Windfields Farm; 3. Louie Roussel and Ron Lamarque; 4. Claiborne Farms; 5. Eugene V. Klein; 6. James W. Phillips; 7. Locust Hill Farm; 8. Locust Hill Farm; 9. Carolyn Hine.

Weights: Each 126 pounds, except Winning Colors (filly) at 121 pounds. Distance: 1 3/16 miles. Purse: $536,200 if 9 start. First place: $413,700. Second place: $70,000. Third place: $35,000. Fourth place: $17,500. Post time: Today, 2:31 p.m. PDT. Television: Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42 (coverage starts at 1:30 p.m. PDT).