BALTIMORE — Lookin At Lucky finally — yes, finally — lived up to his name and his billing.
The year’s unluckiest horse in America finally got clear sailing in a horse race, finally got the ride of his life and finally whistled to the line a winner, rallying in the Preakness Stakes to resuscitate his brilliant reputation — and dusted his archrival, Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver.
Now, everyone is lookin’ at Lucky.
The 3-year-old colt pulled into Pimlico with one last shot at redemption. He was the nation’s outstanding 2-year old last year and he launched his Triple Crown bid with soaring hopes.
First out, he won the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, but only after clipping heels and nearly falling. It was the start of a two-month nightmare, so jinxed by bad luck, bad rides and bad karma that it nearly drove his trainer Bob Baffert to distraction.
The horse got mashed in the Santa Anita Derby, then took two hard hits in the Kentucky Derby, which all but put him over the fence.
Baffert ended up with a horse so tired and beat up that he didn’t even breeze the horse between the Derby and the Preakness.
“I don’t know what to make of him,” Baffert said on the eve of the Preakness. Today, he knows what to make of him, and then some.
Lucky’s Mexican-born jockey, Martin Garcia, got him out of the gate cleanly, snuck him toward the rail, then on the turn eased him out to the two-path, sitting sixth a few lengths behind the swift pacesetter First Dude.
Then everything fell into place. First Dude, a 23-1 long shot, set the race afire, streaking through a half in 46.47 seconds and carving out a perfect scenario for a stretch runner like Lookin At Lucky.
Super Saver tracked the leader all the way, a perfect trip for his style. But on the turn, when the real running began, Super Saver, amazingly, slid backwards while Lucky pounced from the outside.
Lucky looked a certain winner at the furlong pole, but First Dude, running the mightiest race of his life under jockey Ramon Dominguez, came back and actually may have edged in front. But plucky Lucky, as gritty as they come, dug deep and came back to push three-quarters of a length in front.
A short head back in third was tiny little Jackson Bend, who ran the race of his life to mix it up with all of them all the way round, then fought back like Ali. His jockey, Mike Smith, said, “To be honest, I think I was on the best horse today.”
Lucky’s victory was a triumph for Baffert, who equaled D. Wayne Lukas’s record of five Preakness wins. But in the euphoria of winning, he seemed to give most of the credit to his jockey, crying, “Martin is a superstar. He rode a perfect race.”
Legging Garcia up on Lucky, the second favorite at nearly 5-2, was a huge gamble by Baffert. Top jock Garrett Gomez had been riding him, but with disastrous results. So Baffert made the decisive move — he fired Gomez and hired the young, relatively inexperienced Garcia, whose only exposure to a Triple Crown race was two weeks ago when he rode Baffert’s speed demon Conveyance.
The hard luck horse in the Preakness was Dublin, ridden by none other than Garrett Gomez. From his outside post position, Dublin broke out to the right, heading toward the track apron. It effectively eliminated him. When the field settled, Dublin was dead last. He made up some ground to finish fifth, but he never threatened.
From the start, Lucky, on the other hand, was sitting pretty.
“The post position was a big factor for us,” Baffert said. “The whole key in the Preakness is the first turn. It’s so treacherous. I told Martin he must not be any wider than three off the rail at the turn, but once he got on the backside, he was on his own.”
Todd Pletcher, Super Saver’s trainer, was philosophical in losing out on a Triple Crown shot as his horse finished eighth in the field of 12.
“I thought we were in a good spot, but at the far turn he just couldn’t go on with it. Now we’ve got to come back for a big summer. I wouldn’t trade the Derby for anything. We got the one we wanted most.”
So at the end of the day, another year goes by with no prospect of a Triple Crown winner. It’s 32 years since Affirmed did it in 1978. It’s a long time between crowns.