Super Saver, holding onto second midway through the race, ran out of gas and finished eighth.
"This was more of a redemption win," said Bob Baffert, trainer of Lookin At Lucky, who notched his fifth Preakness triumph.
"This horse is such a warrior. He wants to win. He tries so hard. So I wanted to win it for the horse. . . . The [Kentucky] Derby, he had a rough trip. Santa Anita Derby, rough trip. . . . But every time he had those rough trips, he came back."
In the Derby, Lookin At Lucky, who won't have his actual third birthday until May 27, was severely handicapped by his No. 1 post position and a sloppy track. At Santa Anita, he was bottled up on the rail.
After the Derby, Baffert replaced highly successful Garrett Gomez, who had been Lookin At Lucky's jockey, with Martin Garcia, a rising star but a rider with far less experience in major races than many others.
Garcia, who was working in a California deli just five years ago while he was getting started in racing, said he couldn't sleep after getting the call from Baffert that he was getting the ride in the second jewel of the Triple Crown on arguably the best three-year-old in the game.
"He told me, 'You will be riding my horse,' " Garcia recalled. "And then this time, he's [more] ready than ever. . . . This time, we're not going to just ride, we got to go to win."
Lookin At Lucky's victory means that horse racing is denied a Triple Crown winner again. No horse has swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes since Affirmed in 1978.
At Churchill Downs two weeks ago, after winning the Derby on Super Saver, jockey Calvin Borel predicted a Triple Crown sweep. But it appears that the short two-week break between races may have not been enough for the Derby victor.
"He had the perfect trip," Borel said of his colt. "He just came up empty. He ran so hard in the Derby. He's not a big horse, like [trainer] Todd Pletcher said. He's a good horse. We'll have fun with him in the future."
After the Preakness, Baffert was noncommittal about running Lookin At Lucky in the Belmont Stakes on June 5, saying that the arduous 1½-mile race in New York might take too much out of the colt for the rest of the year.
Going off at about 2-1 in the Preakness, Lookin At Lucky paid $6.80, $4.60, and $3.80. Super Saver's post-time potential payoff was just slightly lower.
In the end, Baffert said, fortune finally smiled on his horse.
"The draw was so important. . . . I think maybe [Garcia] brought us some luck with the draw," Baffert said of the No. 7 post position. "I kept seeing seven all day today."
Contact staff writer Bill Ordineat 215-854-2939
or wordine@phillynews.com.
