Even though he said Rachel Alexandra was not as comfortable at Pimlico as she was at Churchill Downs, Borel had no doubts during the race.
"Turning for home I knew I was home free," he said.
The filly's new trainer, Steve Asmussen, allowed that he was under serious pressure. If she lost, he was going to be a convenient target.
So what was the trainer's contribution?
"We got the saddle to stay on her and got out of the way," he said.
So, how good is this filly? And what would happen if the Derby winner and Preakness winner met in the Belmont Stakes?
Borel, the only man to have ridden them both, is convinced he knows the answer to both questions.
"Mile-and-a-16th, mile-and-a-half, 2 miles, whatever, she is the best horse in the country," the hottest jockey in the country said.
The Preakness infield started to become a happening in 1973 when Secretariat came to Pimlico during his Triple Crown run. Due to the giant infield crowds, Preakness attendance had grown to more than 100,000 in recent years.
The infield was a ghost town Saturday. No longer could all those college students truck alcohol into the infield. They had to buy Pimlico's beer. They responded with a massive boycott. The total crowd went from 112,222 last year to 77,850.
The students were not missed at the betting windows. The handle on the Preakness card was $86.6 million, up 18 percent over last year's $73.5 million. A total of $61 million was bet on the Preakness as opposed to $47 million last year. *
