A Preakness Counter-Point

Gary Stevens kept looking back. He was looking back in the stretch to find Monarchos and A P Valentine, two horses that might have kept him and Point Given from winning Saturday’s Preakness at Pimlico.

Stevens almost needed binoculars to eyeball Monarchos, the Kentucky Derby winner, because he was far back and not duplicating that brilliant late move that had broken the bank at Churchill Downs.

“When I saw Monarchos, he didn’t look comfortable,” Stevens said.

The first time he looked back, at the three-sixteenths pole, Stevens had taken his eye off Point Given’s stablemate, Congaree, who had reluctantly given up the lead at the top of the stretch. Point Given drifted over, and his rump brushed briefly with Congaree’s rear end before Stevens pulled him away.

“I had snapped his head, and not given him enough room to change [lead feet],” Stevens said. “He lost his concentration for three or four strides.”

A P Valentine, ridden by Victor Espinoza after trainer Bob Baffert had taken him off Congaree following a third-place finish in the Derby, was coming, but he had too much ground to gobble up and not enough time before the wire. Point Given won by 2 1/4 lengths, with Stevens hitting him only twice with his stick. The Derby enigma became the darling of the Preakness, giving Baffert his third Preakness win in the last five years.

Just two weeks ago, Point Given, favored off his strong win in the Santa Anita Derby, had finished fifth, 11 1/2 lengths behind Monarchos, in the Kentucky Derby.

“We were scratching our heads,” Baffert said Saturday. “We checked him out and there was nothing physically wrong. Maybe I didn’t train him hard enough after the Santa Anita Derby. Maybe I should have run him in the [Wood Memorial] instead of at Santa Anita. But we never lost confidence in him, and I knew at the quarter pole that he was going to win. I knew that T. Rex was back.”

The brutally fast pace scenario that had worked in Monarchos’ favor in the Derby was not there Saturday. Before a record crowd of 104,454, the Derby winner was last in the 11-horse field after the first half-mile, more than 12 lengths from the lead. Unlike Louisville, the horses up front at Pimlico were not panting from break-neck fractions. And Jorge Chavez, Monarchos’ jockey, sensed from the start that his gray colt was not handling the racing strip. Monarchos finished sixth, 8 1/4 lengths behind Point Given, and for the 23rd consecutive year, since Affirmed swept the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes in 1978, there will be no Triple Crown champion. All that’s left now is the rubber match between Point Given and Monarchos in the Belmont on June 9.

Point Given was also near the back at the start, running wide and in sixth place after a half-mile that the pace-setter, Richly Blended, ran in 47 1/5. It was the slowest opening four furlongs for a Preakness since 1995.

“We had a good trip,” Chavez said. “I tried to follow Point Given. But every time I asked my horse, he was fighting the track. He tried to give me a response, but I said, ‘Oh, oh,’ because he was going nowhere. It wasn’t his day today. It was a different track and a different pace, and that didn’t help me today.”

For the second consecutive race, Point Given broke from the outside post--No. 17 in the Derby, No. 11 Saturday--and was sent off the favorite. In reducing Monarchos to the 23-10 second choice, slightly behind Point Given, bettors extended a Preakness tradition. The Derby winner has been the non-favorite here four times in the last five years.

“I had a terrible feeling in the first turn,” said John Ward, who trains Monarchos. “He didn’t seem to be taking to the track. He had trouble with his left [lead foot] then and he wouldn’t switch to his right [lead foot] in the stretch. He was just uncomfortable.”

Horses usually change lead feet several times around the track, the better to shift their weight from one side to the other.

For the second consecutive race, Congaree narrowly missed second place, this time finishing a neck behind A P Valentine. Dollar Bill, caught in traffic again, just as he had been in the Derby and two races before that, was fourth, beaten by almost four lengths. The rest of the order of finish was Griffinite, Monarchos, Marciano, Bay Eagle, Percy Hope, Richly Blended and Mr. John.

Point Given’s win price was $6.60. His time for 1 3/16 miles, over a Pimlico strip that was playing slow all day, was 1:55 2/5.

Nearing the quarter pole, Richly Blended was tiring and both of Baffert’s horses were swallowing him up, Congaree along the rail and Point Given on the inside. Congaree held the lead until Point Given took over with three-sixteenths of a mile to go.

“My horse was fighting back, and Point Given was looking over at the grandstand a little bit,” said Jerry Bailey, who rode Congaree. “Point Given was just too tough. We stumbled a little bit at the start, but he recovered well and kept going. My horse might be more effective at a mile and an eighth, and should bear that out later in his career.”

At 10-1, A P Valentine gave Espinoza a lethal closing punch. Espinoza couldn’t contain his glee at finishing ahead of Congaree.

“That feels great,” he said, “better than even winning the race.”

Earning $650,000 of the $1-million purse, Point Given raised his earnings total to $1.8 million. The son of Thunder Gulch--a Derby winner who was third in the 1995 Preakness--seems to do his best when his owner and breeder, Prince Ahmed Salman of Saudi Arabia, is away. Salman was overseas on business Saturday, watching the race via satellite at some ungodly hour, and he also missed Point Given’s Santa Anita Derby, the race coming just days after his son was born.

“I feel bad for the prince, that his horse didn’t run better in Kentucky,” Stevens said. “I’m sure he feels vindication, and I don’t know that vindication is the word. Point Given showed up today. He won this one easy. Now all of America knows what a great racehorse he is.”

Bob Baffert’s other Preakness winners were Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in 1998. . . . Hap, owned by the estate of Allen Paulson, ridden by Jerry Bailey and trained by Bill Mott, won the $200,000 Citgo Dixie Stakes on the Preakness undercard. Other stakes winners at Pimlico were Disco Rico in the $200,000 Maryland Breeders’ Cup; Perfect Cat--also ridden by Bailey--in the $100,000 William D. Schaefer Handicap; Serra Lake, by a neck over Jostle, in the $100,000 Pimlico Distaff; and Burning Roma in the $100,000 Sir Barton.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE FINISH

*--*

Horse Win Place Show Point Given $6.60 $5.00 $4.00 A P Valentine $8.20 $5.20 Congaree $3.40

*--*