Now He’s Doubly Charismatic

They laughed at the horse in Louisville, and he won the Kentucky Derby. They laughed at him again in Baltimore, and he won the Preakness. Those were people laughs. The last laugh is a horse laugh, and it belongs to Charismatic, who’s only 1 1/2 miles from the first Triple Crown sweep in 21 years.

At Saturday’s Preakness, which drew a record crowd of 100,311 to Pimlico, Charismatic’s Kentucky Derby win, at 31-1 two weeks ago, didn’t seem to count. The money poured in on the 13 starters, and Charismatic was treated like an afterthought. He was treated like a $62,500 claimer, which he once was and not that long ago.

At post time, Charismatic went off at 8-1, the fifth choice. This was the 124th Preakness, and one of the most unusual in that nine horses from the Derby were back for more. Their trainers thought Charismatic was a cheese champion at Churchill Downs.

The only Derby winner who has ever been more mistreated in the mutuels at Pimlico was Dark Star, who went off at 11-1 in 1953. The lack of confidence on Dark Star was justified; he ran fifth as the hard-luck horse of the Derby, Native Dancer, won the Preakness.

Charismatic, running for the fourth time in 43 days, improved on his Derby finish, which was victory by a neck over the late-running Menifee. The bettors made Menifee the 2-1 favorite Saturday, but the 1-2 finish was the same as it was in Kentucky, only this time Menifee was beaten by 1 1/2 lengths. Chris Antley, Charismatic’s jockey, sensed victory well before the end of Saturday’s 1 3/16 miles. “In many of these Triple Crown races,” Antley said, “the horses laying 1-2-3 at the three-sixteenths pole finish that way. Today, I considered the three-sixteenths pole to be my wire.”

Charismatic was 10th after a quick opening half-mile by Cat Thief. But on the far turn, Antley’s colt unleashed his sustained long run. Pat Day, riding Menifee, had seen this run before, in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland two weeks before the Derby. Day didn’t feel too good when he saw it again Saturday.

At the top of the stretch, at the eighth pole, Charismatic had made up a deficit of more than eight lengths and was now ahead by three.

“The Triple Crown is a graveyard for a lot of 3-year-olds,” Antley said. “But I was pretty confident.”

At the sixteenth pole, Day knew Menifee wasn’t going to get there. In fact, Menifee barely held off the 58-1 shot, Badge, by a head for the place. After Badge in third came Stephen Got Even, Patience Game, Adonis, Cat Thief, Kimberlite Pipe, Valhol, Vicar, Torrid Sand, Worldly Manner and the filly Excellent Meeting, who was pulled up by jockey Kent Desormeaux.

Trainer Bob Baffert suspected that Excellent Meeting suffered a displaced palate, which caused a breathing problem. Trainer Carl Nafzger spent three days last week saying he wouldn’t run Vicar, the Florida Derby winner, because of the outside post, but reversed himself Saturday.

Charismatic paid $18.80 to win, coming home in 1:55 1/5. He has won only five of 16 starts, hardly a spectacular ratio, but the last three wins--in the Lexington, the Derby and now the Preakness--have come in the last month, when it has meant the most.

Trainer Wayne Lukas, winning his 12th Triple Crown race and his fifth Preakness, repeated Saturday how he had misjudged Charismatic, running him on Feb. 11 when he could have been bought out of a Santa Anita claiming race for $62,500.

“I wasn’t pushing the right buttons on this horse,” Lukas said. “I had told [co-owner] Bob Lewis early in the year that I thought he could be our Belmont horse.”

Lukas said nothing then about Charismatic’s potential in the Kentucky Derby or Preakness. If the son of Summer Squall, the 1990 Preakness winner, really is a Belmont horse, and wins in New York on June 5, racing will have its first Triple Crown sweep since Affirmed in 1978. This sweep would be worth a $5-million Triple Crown bonus to Bob and Beverly Lewis, who bought Charismatic as a weanling for $200,000.

The Lewises flirted with Triple Crown history as recently as 1997, when their Silver Charm won the Derby and Preakness and then was caught in the final strides of the Belmont by Touch Gold.

“After Silver Charm,” Bob Lewis said, “it would have been absurd to even think about having a second chance at the Triple Crown. How could a couple of country bumpkins from Newport Beach be doing this?”

If there was a turning point in the Preakness, it was when Antley was looking for room to run with about half a mile to go. He looked over and saw Gary Stevens, riding a laboring Stephen Got Even.

“If you’re dead,” Antley shouted over to Stevens, “give me a shot to get out[side].”

Stevens obliged.

“Go on, little buddy,” he said to Antley.

Lukas said he will send Charismatic back to Churchill Downs, then wait until three days before the Belmont before he ships the colt to New York. Lukas once won three consecutive Belmonts, the last one with Editor’s Note in 1996. In 1995, he scored a Triple Crown sweep of sorts, winning the Derby and the Belmont with Thunder Gulch, and the Preakness with Timber Country.

“Think you’ll be favored in the Belmont?” someone asked the trainer Saturday.

“What difference does it make?” Lukas said.

HOW THEY FINISHED

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Win Place Show Charismatic $18.80 $7.60 $5.80 Menifee $3.60 $3.20 Badge $18.80

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INSIDE

DANGEROUS SITUATION: An 22-year-old man got past Pimlico security, ran on the track during an early race and tried to punch a horse. Somehow, no one was injured. Page 13

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BELMONT FACTS

* What: Belmont Stakes

* When: Saturday, June 5

* Where: Belmont Park, Elmont, N.Y.

* Post: 2:30 p.m. PDT

* TV: Channel 7

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Elusive Triple Crown

How horses that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness fared in the Belmont Stakes since horse racing’s Triple Crown was last won by Affirmed in 1978:

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Year Horse Finish 1979 Spectacular Bid 3rd to Coastal 1981 Pleasant Colony 3rd to Summing 1987 Alysheba 4th to Bet Twice 1989 Sunday Silence 2nd to Easy Goer 1997 Silver Charm 2nd to Touch Gold 1998 Real Quiet 2nd to Victory Gallop 1999 Charismatic Runs in Belmont June 5

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