Saturday, May 21, 2005

THE PREAKNESS TURNED OUT TO BE A pretty exciting race. Afleet Alex won going away, but not before a near disaster coming out of the final turn.

Afleet Alex was just behind and to the right of Scrappy T coming out of final turn, when Scrappy T got a little squirrely. The jockey, in an effort to get his horse back on track, switched hands and hit Scrappy T on the left side. The hit took the horse by surprise and caused him to send his rear end out to the right, directly in the path of Afleet Alex, who was making an outside move.
It looked as though tragedy was imminent as Afleet Alex's front end started to drop out and his jockey began to pitch forward.

Somehow, Afleet Alex managed to stay off his knees, how I will never know, and the jockey aboard. A brilliant recovery to say the least, made even more incredible by the fact that both jockey and horse were able to focus and win the race going away.

There will be no Triple Crown winner this year as Giacomo finished in third place, but Afleet Alex made the Preakness a race to remember.

No comments: