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WOW! The 132nd running of the Preakness at Pimlico on Saturday was a race for the ages. It came down to the wire and Curlin beat Street Sense by less than half a head. Some are saying that it was inexperience that allowed Street Sense to win the Derby and Curlin getting only third place.
Curlin, the number two horse, stumbled coming out of the blocks, but came from behind to beat Street Sense by a little less than a head. Everyone who watched the race was sure that once again Street Sense was coming from the inside and going to take the second gem of the Triple Crown, but Curlin kept to his task and over took the first place lead in the last 20 feet.
Hard Spun, the Derby runner up finished third and four lengths back. CP West was fourth and followed by Circular Quay, King of the Roxy, Mint Slewlep, Xchanger, and Flying First Class.
“It feels awesome,” Robby Albarado, Curlin’s jockey said. Compared to the Derby, Curlin “felt like a different horse the first quarter-mile, he felt like different horse the last quarter-mile.”
“The first part of the race he felt like a 2-year-old, the last part of the race he felt like a 5-year-old,” he said. “He pulled up a little bit the last 40 yards,” Carl Borel, Street Sense’s jockey said, “but I can’t take anything away from the winner. I went by the winner. I thought I was home free.”
What most people don’t know is that two races earlier at Pimlico, during the Dixie Stakes, Albarado, riding the horse Einstein, fell hard to the turf course. Unlike other occasions when he had to be taken off the course in an ambulance, this time he bounded to his feet determined not to miss the Preakness.
This years race is reminiscent of the 1989 duel between Easy Goer and Sunday Silence and the three-way fight between 1997’s Silver Charm, Captain Bodgit, and Free House. This was a clean race with no breakdowns and no controversies. Just a fight to the finish!
This I think is going to lead to another great race coming up in three weeks. The rubber match if you will. Will it be Street Sense? Or will it be Curlin? Or will it be someone entirely new? Stay tuned.
