Triple Crown

Pletcher savors Derby win, looks ahead
By David Grening
Barbara D. Livingston
Todd Pletcher holds the Derby trophy for the first time after Super Saver's victory.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - On Sunday morning, trainer Todd Pletcher made the same walk from his barn to the Churchill Downs Backside Media Center that he had made exactly one week earlier. Only this time, the feeling was completely different

On April 25, a dejected Pletcher held a morning press conference to announce that the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby, Eskendereya, would have to miss the race due to an injury to his left foreleg.

Seven days later, a delighted Pletcher was back in the media center discussing what it was like to win his first Kentucky Derby with Super Saver and looking ahead to the Preakness Stakes on May 15 at Pimlico.

"I was thinking about that walking over here," Pletcher said. "A lot better feeling than last Sunday."

After nine years of disappointment in the Derby - with 24 starters - Pletcher finally got his first Kentucky Derby victory Saturday when Super Saver slid up the rail under Calvin Borel...

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'Lucky' gets perfect Preakness trip
By Jay Privman
Maggie Kimmitt
Lookin At Lucky wins the 135th Preakness Stakes under jockey Martin Garcia.

BALTIMORE - Five years ago, Martin Garcia, recently arrived from his native Mexico, was working in a deli in Northern California near Pleasanton racetrack when a patron walked in and asked him, based on his size, if he had ever thought of being a jockey.

Thus began the most unlikely of ascensions. Like a budding actor discovered by an agent while sitting at a bus stop, Garcia, 25, has become a riding star. His profile has risen under the direction of trainer Bob Baffert, who in recent months has entrusted him with his best mounts. On Saturday, that partnership scored its biggest victory yet, when Lookin At Lucky, the beaten favorite two weeks earlier in the Kentucky Derby, captured the 135th running of the Preakness Stakes on a gorgeous, spring day at Pimlico Race Course.

For Baffert, it was his fifth victory in the Preakness. For Garcia, who only rode in his first Triple Crown race two weeks ago aboard Conveyance in the Derby, it was his first Triple Crown race win...

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Super Saver comes up empty
By Marty McGee
Barbara D. Livingston
Calvin Borel was all smiles after the Derby, but things didn't go as well in the Preakness.

BALTIMORE - The drought continues. For the 32nd straight year - tacking on yet one more year in the ongoing record of Triple Crown futility - there will be no sweep of racing's most coveted prize.

The only horse who could have headed to the June 5 Belmont Stakes with a chance at the Triple Crown was Super Saver, the Kentucky Derby winner who was a 19-10 favorite when a field of 12 3-year-olds went postward Saturday in the 135th Preakness at Pimlico. But it became painfully apparent as the field neared the quarter pole that this was not to be his day.

Super Saver broke alertly and appeared comfortable when giving closest chase to front-running First Dude down the stretch the first time and into the far turn of the 1 3/16-mile race. But unlike in the May 1 Derby, when Super Saver used a steady closing kick on his way to victory under Calvin Borel, he was flat, and a swarm of rivals engulfed him once the real running began. He wound up eighth, beaten 11 1/2 lengths by...

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Drosselmeyer rallies to Belmont victory
By Jay Privman
Tom Keyser
Jockey Mike Smith (right) celebrates Drosselmeyer's victory in Saturday's Belmont Stakes.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The WinStar Farm of Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt got another bookend for this year's Triple Crown on Saturday when 13-1 shot Drosselmeyer won the 142nd Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, five weeks after WinStar won the Kentucky Derby with Super Saver.

In both cases, veteran jockeys with previous classic victories brought successful trainers noteworthy Triple Crown race wins. On Saturday, it was jockey Mike Smith who came home with Drosselmeyer, giving Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott his first victory in a Triple Crown race. In the Derby, it was Calvin Borel who landed the first Derby victory for trainer Todd Pletcher.

For Smith, it was his first victory in the Belmont following previous victories in the Derby and Preakness. He dedicated the win to jockey Richard Migliore, who announced his retirement on Wednesday. Both men were mainstays in the New York jockey colony for years.

At the beginning of this year, Drosselmeyer was...

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Zito hoping for better
By David Grening

ELMONT, N.Y. - For Nick Zito, great expectations brought great disappointment in Saturday's 142nd Belmont Stakes, as the Hall of Fame trainer had to settle for a second and an eighth-place finish with Fly Down and Ice Box.

Though Fly Down ran well to be second, three-quarters of a length behind Drosselmeyer, Zito was excruciatingly disappointed in Ice Box, the Kentucky Derby runner-up who finished ninth - but was moved to eighth via disqualification - in the Belmont as the 9-5 favorite.

It was the seventh time Zito had finished second in the Belmont Stakes, a race he also had won twice previously with longshots Birdstone and Da' Tara. In Ice Box, who finished second in the Kentucky Derby, Zito was running his first Belmont favorite since Strike the Gold ran second in 1991.

"Just more disappointed in Ice Box," Zito said. "I know it's not him, especially the way he's been training. That's the way it goes. We'll just regroup,...

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