BALTIMORE – Another Triple Crown dream ended yesterday at Pimlico under tragic circumstances as Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, after breaking through the gate before the start, was eased in the first quarter-mile of the Preakness by jockey Edgar Prado after breaking down in his right rear leg.
Bernardini, making only his fourth lifetime start, won the $1 million Preakness, coming from just off the pace under Javier Castellano to win by daylight, with Sweetnorthernsaint, the beaten favorite in the Derby, second and Hemingway’s Key third. Bernardini paid $27.80.
A temporary cast was placed on Barbaro’s leg, and he was loaded into a horse ambulance and vanned off. The injury appeared to be “significant,” according to veterinarian Larry Bramlage, who said X-rays must be taken to assess how bad the damage is.
One word describes the Triple Crown since that fateful June day in 1978 when Affirmed held off Alydar by a nose to complete the sweep for the last time – heartbreak. And that heartbreak began just a year later, on June 9, 1979.
Spectacular Bid was “the best horse ever to look through a bridle,” according to his trainer, Bud Delp, and he wasn’t far wrong. The 2-year-old champion of 1978 romped through his Derby preps, won the Run for the Roses with ease, and was an even easier winner of the Preakness.
By the time the Bid got to the Belmont Stakes, however, he was a tired horse. To compound the hurdle he had to overcome, he stepped on a safety pin the morning of the race, then was given a less-than-stellar ride by young jockey Ron Franklin, chasing the pace set by a hopeless longshot, 85-1 Gallant Best.
Turning for home, Spectacular Bid led by two lengths. But Coastal, a supplemental entry, blew by him down the stretch to win by 31/4 lengths, then Golden Act was up late to beat him a neck for second. The Bid thus joined Native Dancer and Damascus (who both lost the Derby, then came back to win the Preakness and Belmont) as the three greatest horses to win two-thirds of the Triple Crown while suffering a heart-breaking defeat in their other start.
Two years later, Pleasant Colony, a powerful stretch-runner trained by the colorful New Yorker Johnny Campo and ridden by Hall-of-Famer Jorge Velazquez, won the Derby and Preakness. Those efforts left him a spent bullet when he ran in the Belmont, finishing third behind Summing and Highland Blade.
From 1982 through 1986, no horse won the first two jewels. That just happened to coincide with the incredible run of legendary trainer Woody Stephens in the third jewel. In a feat that rivals Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Stephens won the Belmont five straight years, with Conquistador Cielo, Caveat, Swale (who won the Derby but was seventh in the Preakness), Creme Fraiche and Danzig Connection.
The end of Stephens’ reign signaled another Triple Crown try. Alysheba, still eligible for a non-winners of one allowance race going into the Derby, survived a near-tragic stumble at the top of the stretch and went on to beat Bet Twice, then beat him again in the Preakness. But Bet Twice got his revenge in the Belmont, winning by 14 lengths with Alysheba fourth.
In 1988, Risen Star was a near-Triple Crown winner. Third in the Derby after a wide trip that cost him all chance, he took the Preakness by 11/4 lengths, the Belmont by 143/4.
Easy Goer, the reigning 2-year-old champ, began his 3-year-old campaign in 1989 as the de facto favorite to sweep the Crown. But as the heavy favorite over a muddy track at Churchill Downs, he finished second in the Run for the Roses to Santa Anita Derby winner Sunday Silence. Two weeks later at Pimlico, in what is regarded as the greatest Preakness of all time, those two waged an epic battle from the far turn home, locked head to head, with Sunday Silence winning by a nose.