Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993 TAG: 9305160164
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: BALTIMORE LENGTH: Medium
Smith rode the gelding flawlessly. Lady Luck was there when she was needed.
In the run down the backstretch Saturday, Union City, slightly in front and to the right of Prairie Bayou, fractured his right front ankle and was pulled up quickly by jockey Pat Valenzuela.
"Union City broke down right in front of me and I was lucky enough to just miss him," Smith said.
"A lot of times when horses break down they go left or right. I got lucky. He stayed straight, and I was lucky enough to get around him.
"Then Prairie Bayou took me everywhere I needed to go."
He took Smith to the end of the 1 3-16 mile track a half-length ahead of Cherokee Run and gave Loblolly Stable and trainer Tom Bohannan their second straight Preakness victory.
Union City left the track in a horse ambulance and later was destroyed.
"There was no decision to be made as far as trying to save him," trainer D. Wayne Lukas said.
Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero finished fifth, 8 1/2 lengths behind the winner, meaning for the 15th straight year there will be no triple crown champion.
Prairie Bayou became the sixth gelding to win the Preakness and the first since Holiday in 1914.
Prairie Bayou was eighth after three-quarters of a mile and then charged up to second, a head behind Cherokee Run, with an eighth of a mile to run. The winner was on the rail until the field reached the quarter pole. Then Smith took him four horses wide for the winning charge.
Smith, whose ride in the 118th Preakness was as flawless as Jerry Bailey's on Sea Hero in the Derby, said that Prairie Bayou ran much better on this sunny Saturday than when he ran in the Derby.
"In terms of handling him, he was a different horse," Smith said.
In the Derby, one of Prairie Bayou's problems was that he didn't change leads.
"Time will tell, but I think today he proved he'll be the most honest 3-year-old of all of them," Bohannan said after Prairie Bayou finished in a slow 1:56 3-5.
He paid $6.40, $3.60 and $3.40 while Cherokee Run, making his triple crown debut under Pat Day, returned $7.20 and $5.20 after finishing seven lengths ahead of surprising El Bakan, who had finished 18th in the 1\ -mile Derby.
El Bakan paid $14.60 to show.
Personal Hope, who finished fourth in the Derby, finished fourth again, a neck behind El Bakan and three-quarters of a length ahead of Sea Hero.
Of Sea Hero, Bailey said: "He just didn't grab hold of the bridle like he did in Kentucky. It just wasn't there today."
"It feels great," Bohannan said. "I thought he was going to run good. I was happy where we were at the head of the stretch with 12 horses."
Asked the difference between the Derby and the Preakness, Bohannan replied, "About 2 1/2 lengths," Sea Hero's margin over Prairie Bayou in Kentucky.
Bohannan and Loblolly owner John Ed Anthony gelded Prairie Bayou early in his 2-year-old year before he got to the races because he was a big, growthy colt and they feared he might get too big.
After Saturday's victory, Bohannan said, "I wish he was a colt."
The order of finish after Sea Hero was Woods of Windsor, Rockamundo, Wild Gale, Hegar, Koluctoo Jimmy Al and Too Wild. Union City did not finish.
Union City, 15th in the Derby, was owned by W.T. Young.
"He shattered both sesamoids," Young said. "Unfortunately, there's a lot of sadness but it's part of the game."
Prairie Bayou, the beaten favorite in the Derby, won his fifth stakes in his past six races and earned $471,835 to boost his career bankroll to $1,450,621.
His victory, coupled with Pine Bluff's win in the Preakness last year, made Loblolly the first stable to win the second jewel of the triple crown in successive years since Calumet Farm did it with Faultless in 1947 and Citation in 1948. Pine Bluff finished fifth in the 1992 Derby.
"To win the Preakness is the goal of every owner in the world," Anthony said. "To win two in a row is fantastic, especially when you think of the years we struggled just to get here."
The second-place finish by Cherokee Run duplicated the feat of Alydeed last year, when he made his triple crown debut with a second-place finish to Pine Bluff.
Sea Hero's race probably will be a topic of discussion for some time between advocates of racing on medication and those opposed.
Trainer Mack Miller said Sea Hero raced in the Blue Grass and the Derby on Lasix simply because any horse is allowed to race on the diuretic in Kentucky. The colt couldn't race with it on Saturday because he wasn't classified as a bleeder, a requirement for using it in Maryland.
Prairie Bayou will go into the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes on June 9 at Belmont Park with 15 points in the race for the $1 million bonus that goes to the 3-year-old with the most points in the three races on a 10-5-3-1 basis for the first four finishers. Sea Hero failed to get a point Saturday and will have 10 points going into the Belmont.
Keywords:
HORSE RACING
by CNB