No Triple Crown for another year:
It was only a few minutes after Triple Crown hopes had evaporated, barely, for the 33rd straight year, and Graham Motion was leaning on the rail leading up to the jockeys' room at Pimlico Race Course, an otherwise indistinct spot he knows all so well from two decades of running horses on the Maryland circuit.
Disappointment, fresh, was "a bitter pill," said Motion, who had just watched Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby winner he trains for Team Valor International, come within a half-length of running down Shackleford in a dramatic 136th running of the Preakness.
With John Velazquez aboard, Animal Kingdom, the 2-1 Preakness favorite off his 2¾-length Derby upset at 20-1, launched a searing rally down the center of the Pimlico track after having only one horse beaten for much of the 1 3/16-mile journey. By any account, it was a courageous effort from the runner-up, and Motion, whose career had been perpetually praised and profiled for the last two weeks in the spectacular Derby wake, was somewhat shaken, but quite composed nonetheless.
No comments:
Post a Comment