Second Jewel for Charm

BALTIMORE —  The Sunday Silence-Easy Goer donnybrook was supposed to be the Preakness for the ages. But that 1989 running was tossed into the back seat Saturday at Pimlico, where Silver Charm, the gray horse with the all-gray trainer, outfought Free House and Captain Bodgit in a furious finish, leaving only the Belmont Stakes standing between him and the first Triple Crown championship in 19 years.

Preakness No. 122 was a bob for two Bobs. When Silver Charm’s nose came down on the wire, trainer Bob Baffert and co-owner Bob Lewis watched in awe from their box seat, one of them sure he had won, but the other, having been burned before, not so sure.

“We did it!” Bob Lewis yelled.

“I don’t know,” said Baffert, who lost last year’s Kentucky Derby when his Cavonnier was nosed out by Grindstone.

“I wish Bob would have told me if he knew,” Beverly Lewis said later, referring to her husband and partner in Silver Charm. “It was pretty tense out there.”

Gary Stevens, riding Silver Charm, reacted like Baffert as he crossed the wire, not waving his whip or shouting anything in victory.

Before a crowd of 88,594 on a rainy day that turned to sunshine, the three best horses from the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago took their act to another level. This time, it was Silver Charm by a head for the whole thing, and Free House by a head over Captain Bodgit for second place. At the Derby, Silver Charm beat Captain Bodgit by a head and Free House was third, another 3 1/2 lengths back.

Racing has had only 11 Triple Crown sweeps, and none since Affirmed in 1978. Silver Charm will try to add his name to the list at Belmont Park on June 8, when another win would add up to a $5-million payday, counting a bonus and the purses from the three races.

“We’re chasing history and money,” Baffert said. “But I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. If you build yourself up too much in this game, the letdown is too much. A mile and a half (the Belmont distance) is a long ways, but I know my horse can do it. Gary can put him in front at the top of the stretch, and he’ll take it from there. I didn’t train this horse real hard after the Derby, so he had to win this one on class. I’d like to get through this with no more photos, though.”

A 3-year-old hasn’t flirted with the Triple Crown since Sunday Silence won the 1989 Derby and the Preakness and finished second to Easy Goer in the Belmont. Not unusual for the 1 3/16-mile Preakness, the Derby favorite was snubbed in the parimutuels Saturday, Silver Charm going off the third choice at 3-1 behind Captain Bodgit at $2.10 on the dollar and Free House at $2.40. Silver Charm finished in 1:54 4/5, paid $8.20 to win and earned $488,150 of the $751,000 purse. The son of Silver Buck and Bonnie’s Poker, purchased privately by the Lewises for $85,000 before he ever ran, is consistent to a fault: In eight races, he has won five times and finished second three times.

The race was not without its problems for some. Touch Gold, who finished fourth, 1 1/4 lengths behind Captain Bodgit, took a nose dive leaving the gate, and miraculously neither he nor jockey Chris McCarron tumbled. But that untoward beginning was costly, as was Touch Gold’s move along the rail in the stretch, when Free House got in his way.

Captain Bodgit, next to last in the 10-horse field, more than eight lengths off the lead, was carried wide by a couple of paths inside the sixteenth pole as Free House, coming off the inside, floated Silver Charm toward the center of the track.

This was the closest three-horse Preakness finish since 1932, when Burgoo King, Tick On And Boatswain battled, separated by only a head and a nose at the wire. After the first four, Saturday’s order of finish was Frisk Me Now, Concerto, Hoxie, Wild Tempest, Cryp Too and Jack At The Bank.

Cryp Too, who was 54-1, angled over from the outside starting stall to lead for a half-mile, but Free House, reunited with Kent Desormeaux, his winning partner in the Santa Anita Derby, put him away quickly about halfway down the backside.

Stevens had Silver Charm right where he needed to be, in third place and running unencumbered on the outside.

“The track was like a beach,” Baffert said. “Before the race, I started to tell Gary that he had a lot of horse under him and then I thought, ‘What am I telling him?’ I finally just said to Gary: ‘Do what you want.’ ”

On the turn for home, Concerto loomed in contention, but his run was short-lived. With an eighth of a mile left, Free House had one length on Silver Charm and another half-length on Touch Gold, who was being hustled by McCarron on the inside. Captain Bodgit was now fourth, three lengths out of it, but in full gear.

In the final sixteenth, Desormeaux was whipping left-handed on Free House as he drifted out, and Stevens was pounding Silver Charm with the right hand.

There was no bumping, but the two colts took on the look of Siamese twins. In the last three or four strides, the rivals traded head bobs before the last one went to Silver Charm.

“Silver Charm was making up no ground at all, and I thought I had it in the last 70 yards,” Desormeaux said.

“But Silver Charm came on again. I think when he heard Captain Bodgit coming on the outside, he put on another gear.”

Silver Charm was reaching for his last surge of energy.

“He started to get tired,” said Stevens, who learned the week of the Derby that he had been voted into the Racing Hall of Fame. “I didn’t know whether I was going to get by Free House or not. It’s been a dream of mine to win the Triple Crown. It’s been a long time since that happened, and it can happen with this horse. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

POST POSITIONS FOR 122ND PREAKNESS

*--*

PP HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER ODDS 1 Jack At The Bank Herb McCauley Alfredo Callejas 68-1 2 Wild Tempest Joe Bravo Nick Zito 61-1 3 Hoxle Jose Santos Alfredo Callejas 68-1 4 Free House Kent Desormeaux Paco Gonzalez 5-2 5 Touch Gold Chris McCarron David Hofmans 9-2 6 Concerto Mike Smith John Tammaro III 9-1 7 Silver Charm Gary Stevens Bob Baffert 3-1 8 Frisk Me Now Eddie King Robert Durso 30-1 9 Captain Bodgit Alex Solis Gary Capuano 2-1 10 Cryp Too C.C. Lopez Allen Borosh 54-1

*--*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Triple Crown

THE TRIFECTA

Winners of Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont): *--*

Year Horse 1919 Sir Barton 1930 Gallant Fox 1935 Omaha 1937 War Admiral 1941 Whirlaway 1943 Count Fleet 1946 Assault 1948 Citation 1973 Secretariat 1977 Seattle Slew 1978 Affirmed

*--*

TWO OUT OF THREE

Horses that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but did not win the Belmont, the third leg of Triple Crown: *--*

Year Horse How Fared in Belmont and Winner of Race 1932 Burgoo King Did not run, Faireno won race 1936 Bold Venture Did not run, Granville won race 1944 Pensive Second, half of length behind Bounding Home 1958 Tim Tam Second, six lengths behind Cavan 1961 Carry Back Seventh, Sherluck won race 1964 Northern Dancer Third, Quadrangle won race 1966 Kauai King Fourth, Amberoid won race 1968 Forward Pass Second, 1 1/4 lengths behind Stage Door Johnny 1969 Majestic Prince Second, 5 1/2 lengths behind Arts And Letters 1971 Canonero II Fourth, Pass Catcher won race 1979 Spectacular Bid Third, Coastal won race 1981 Pleasant Colony Third, Summing won race 1987 Alysheba Fourth, Bet Twice race 1989 Sunday Silence Second by eight lengths to Easy Goer

*--*