Preakness 2013: Oxbow pulls off the 15-1 upset!
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The rain held off, the track was fast, and on this
relatively cool spring day in
Baltimore,
Oxbow pulled off the 15-1 Preakness
upset!
Oxbow got off well after briefly brushing
Will Take Charge,
wrangling the very early lead from
Goldencents as the horses passed the
grandstand for the first time.
Itsmyluckyday and
Titletown Five were behind the
early leaders as the horses rushed for the first turn. The Kentucky Derby
winner,
Orb, bobbled a bit at the start and was sixth early along the inside
and looked comfortable in the early stages. The early speed we expected from
Govenor Charlie was not present this day.
The horses basically held position throughout most of the
backstretch. The front-running Oxbow set very reasonable fractions of 23.4, 48.3,
and 1:13.1 and never let his foes get within a length and a half of his lead. Orb
showed more of a sense of urgency earlier on in the race than he did in the
Derby. He seemed to begin using his energy right before the far turn to get up
to third. He seemed to struggle trying to catch up to the leader Oxbow and
started to fade. The horses were much more bunched together entering the turn. Oxbow
lead the pack to a 1:38.0 mile. Winning jockey Gary Stevens, who recently came out of retirement to return to the jockey colony, remarked about his
ride, “We talked about strategy and I didn’t expect to be on the lead. In these
classic races you don’t give up anything you get for free. They gave me a free
three-quarters of a mile today. I was smiling pretty good midway down the
backside.”
Around the turn as Orb and Goldencents started to fade,
Itsmyluckyday and
Mylute made huge sweeping moves around the outside of a
fading Goldencents looking as if they were going to challenge the pace setter. As
they straightened out, Oxbow turned on another gear. Mylute and Itsmyluckyday
both were charging hard, but at the end of the day, Oxbow was the 2013
Preakness champion completing the race in 1:57.2 and paying $32.80 to win. Stevens
said of the stretch run, “let’s go now and just try and last. When we pulled up
he wasn’t a tired horse.”
By winning today, Stevens won his third Preakness as a
jockey and “the coach”
D. Wayne Lukas won his sixth, putting each into racing
immortality. After the race, Lukas remarked, “I’m happier for Gary. I’m happier
for Mr. Kelly. He’s trying to revitalize Calumet, and Calumet is back in a
classic race. It’s very gratifying.” In terms of his reaction to putting off a
triple crown for another year, Lukas stated, “I get paid to spoil dreams. You
can’t mail it in, it’s a different surface; a different time. You gotta line
them up and run them.”
It was a bit disappointing for many fans who thought Orb
would be the one to win the next Triple Crown. Jockey Joel Rosario stated of
the rode on Orb, “He was in a good spot early in the race. They were going slow
up front and he was fine. When I got to the half-mile pole, he had a hard time
keeping up. Today was not his day.” The fourth largest crowd in Preakness
history (117,203) tried to will Orb over the finish line first, but as Rosario
said, it wasn’t Orb’s day today.
For Oxbow and his connections, it was a fantastic day and
people want to know if the Belmont will be next. Lukas stated, “He was not even
blowing when he walked in the winner circle. He showed no signs of stress lines
whatsoever.” Lukas also stated that owner Frank Stronach believes he can get
the mile and a half at Belmont and clued us in that he will probably be going.
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