Preakness Notes and Quotes and Stuff

- Here’s more from the Baltimore Sun on the near spill:

Dominguez said he felt Scrappy T tiring, so he wound up with his left arm and cracked the gelding viciously with his whip. Scrappy T immediately veered to the outside into the path of Afleet Alex.
......
Rose said that Afleet Alex's left front foot collided with Scrappy T's right hind heel.

"I've kind of clipped heels where the horse stumbles a little bit," said Rose, who, like Ritchey, lives in Elkton. "But I mean, he was not eight inches from going down. That's the closest I've ever been without hitting the ground."

Rose said he grabbed onto Afleet Alex's and squeezed his legs together as tightly as he could.

"Mostly it was scary," Rose said. "The instinct is just to hang on and try to get my balance back. I had enough time to think about hitting the ground, and he popped back up.”

Dominguez really did wind up and crack that whip. Here’s what he had to say:

"My horse felt like he was looking around when we came into the stretch, but I wasn't expecting him to have any problems...When I hit him left-handed, he didn't like it and came out unexpectedly. It completely caught me off guard. I didn't feel a bump, but he did lose his rear action.."[NY Times]

Wayne Lukas had this to say for himself: "Those fractions were too much for my horse ....I don't think he's got the quality for these; he's one-dimensional.” [AP]

Mike Smith said he didn’t have a clear trip on Giacomo.

Every time he looked for a hole, the gap was filled. That's the difference between finishing first and third.

"A lot of them shut on me today. That happens in racing," Smith said. "I was so proud of him to run third. I'm looking forward to the Belmont." [AP]

Donna Barton said just before the race that Sun King looked great, and he delivered at least a credible performance after two awful ones. I can't possibly imagine why any of the horses that finished behind him would run in the Belmont; but I suppose we'll proabably get a couple.

Bob Costas questioned Governor Ehrlich on the possibility of the Preakness moving out of state, and he stated definitively (after prefacing his remarks by saying that “everybody needs to hear this around here”) that the Preakness is “never going to leave the state of Maryland” and that “we will get it done.”