PREAKNESS : Race’s Casualties Nearly Overshadow Victory

Trainer Wayne Lukas remembers the morning at Santa Anita several years ago when one of Charlie Whittingham’s stakes winners broke down during a workout and had to be destroyed.

“Charlie went right out (to the track) with his next set (of horses),” Lukas said. “It seemed kind of callous to me at the time, but I asked him about it and he told me that you have to remove yourself from getting attached to these horses. Losing some of them is just part of the game.”

Lukas lost one of his best 3-year-olds Saturday when Union City broke down on the backstretch during the Preakness. Minutes later, in the horse ambulance that transported him off the track, the colt was given a lethal injection by a veterinarian. Union City had suffered a compound fracture of his right foreleg, and there was no chance to save him.

At his Pimlico barn Sunday morning, Lukas acted as though he still hadn’t acquired that detachment he had seen in Whittingham.

“Maybe it comes with longevity,” Lukas said.

The 118th Preakness might be remembered more for what befell the also-rans than Prairie Bayou’s half-length victory. Besides Union City’s death, Personal Hope, the fourth-place finisher who led at the top of the stretch, bled from the nostrils and the lungs. Too Wild, who finished last, also bled. And the chances of two horses might have been compromised before the starting gate opened: Sea Hero, the Kentucky Derby winner, ran with Lasix at Churchill Downs, but couldn’t be treated with the diuretic on Preakness day because of Maryland’s stricter medication rule; and Rockamundo underwent throat surgery a couple of days after his 17th-place finish in the Derby.

Sea Hero ran fifth Saturday and Rockamundo was seventh. Mack Miller, who trains Sea Hero, didn’t use the absence of Lasix as an excuse, and Ben Glass, who trains Rockamundo, said his horse simply tired.

“I asked the vet how badly Personal Hope bled,” trainer Mark Hennig said. “Using a scale of one to five, with five being the worst, they said it was a four-plus. . . . This horse has been gutty all year, but this showed just how gutty he is. Despite the bleeding, he was digging in at the end, trying to beat out El Bakan for third money.”

Racing’s worst hours on national television came when Ruffian broke down, and later died, during her match race against Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure at Belmont Park in 1975; and when Go For Wand and two other horses were destroyed as the result of injuries during the Breeders’ Cup races at Belmont in 1990.

There will be speculation about Union City’s death, some centered in the change in Pimlico’s running surface. The track was hard-fast for the early races on Saturday’s card, producing exceptional times, but on a windy, warm day, the surface was dry and cuppy for the Preakness, making it difficult for some horses to dig in. Prairie Bayou’s time of 1:56 3/5 for the 1 3/16 miles was the slowest for the race in 25 years.

Lukas found himself on the defensive from the moment word of Union City’s death spread around Pimlico about an hour after the race. He reacted angrily to some questions late Saturday, but by Sunday morning, while still on the defensive, reporters found him more approachable.

“Look,” Lukas said, “I have about 80 or 90 horses, and things are going to happen when you have that many. We have three divisions (New York, Churchill Downs and California) and a farm, and just this week I’ve gotten seven negative reports. Then they run the Preakness, and this is the final kick in the teeth.

“When I thought this horse would be tough in the Derby and he ran 15th, we had him examined top to bottom before he left Kentucky and they found nothing. It’s easy to second-guess somebody who’s only right (and wins) 18% of the time. Mark (Hennig) can say his horse bled, that’s the reason he didn’t win. But all I can say about my horse is that maybe he stepped in a hole. You can walk down the street and twist an ankle, and maybe you’ll break something.”

Like Lukas’ 1985 Preakness winner, Tank’s Prospect, Union City didn’t have any workouts at Pimlico.

“Everybody was asking that year about when I was going to do something with the horse,” Lukas said. “I didn’t think I had to do anything. So I won the race and everybody said I was a genius, coming in here with a fresh horse. But if he didn’t win, I would have been criticized about the way I brought him up to the race.”

Lukas also won the Preakness in 1980 with Codex, the first horse he started in the race.

“What’s that old racing saying?” Lukas said Sunday. “That if you run 10 horses in a day, there’s no way you’re going to have a good day? The good is never as good as the bad is bad.”

Horse Racing Notes

Of Wayne Lukas’ other 3-year-olds, Mountain Cat is four to six weeks away from making a start, and he believes that Fort Chaffee will also be a factor in the division later this year. . . . Brief Truce, the European colt who was in training with Lukas at Hollywood Park after running third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile for trainer Dermot Weld, suffered a broken ankle during a gallop at Hollywood Park last week and has been retired to stud. . . . The first three finishers in the Preakness--Prairie Bayou, Cherokee Run and El Bakan--are expected to run in the Belmont on June 5, along with Sea Hero. Other candidates include Wallenda, Arinthod, Colonial Affair, Kissin Kris, Miner’s Mark and Virginia Rapids. Arinthod is a French colt who has run third and fifth in two starts since being bought by Sidney and Jenny Craig. . . . Genuine Risk, the 1980 Kentucky Derby winner, delivered her first live foal late Saturday afternoon at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky. After labor was induced, the 16-year-old mare, who is one of three females to win the Derby, delivered the colt, whose sire is Rahy. “The delivery was quick, easy and uneventful,” said Three Chimneys general manager Dan Rosenberg.