The heartbreak of December was replaced by sweet success for D. Wayne Lukas when Tabasco Cat won the Preakness for someone the trainer considers special - his son, Jeff.
Tabasco Cat, given a perfect ride by jockey Pat Day, outdueled Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin in the stretch and won by three-quarters of a length.The victory came five months and five days after Tabasco Cat got loose in the Santa Anita stable area and ran over 36-year-old Jeff Lukas, his father's assistant, causing serious brain injuries.
Lukas is recovering, and watched the race from his home in Glendora, Calif.
"I know he was watching and he's a special guy," Wayne Lukas said. "My thoughts were with him as the colt went around."
Lukas' third Preakness victory came one year after his Union City broke down in the Preakness and was humanely destroyed.
Tabasco Cat, who finished sixth in the roughly run Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, had no problems at all in negotiating the 1 3-16 miles of the Preakness, which he did in 1:56 2-5.
"We got a picture trip today," said the 40-year-old Day, also winning his third Preakness. "We had Go for Gin, it seemed, like anytime we wanted him."
"This colt (Go for Gin) really ran hard," jockey Chris McCarron said. "Tabasco Cat got the jump on me at the eighth pole and he wouldn't give it up."
Day kept Tabasco Cat on the rail and in fourth place for much of the race, moved him outside turning for home, and guided him to victory.
Go for Gin's victory in the Kentucky Derby came on a sloppy track, his third win in five races in sloppy or muddy going, and some observers thought he needed a wet surface to do his best. Go for Gin wasn't beaten by a fast track on this brilliantly sunny day; he was beaten by Tabasco Cat.
"He ran super," McCarron said of Go for Gin. "He ran his race. . . . The only disappointment was the end."
The loss kept him from being the fifth Derby-Preakness winner since Affirmed became the last Triple Crown champion in 1978.
Go for Gin and Tabasco Cat probably will meet again in the 11/2-mile Belmont Stakes on June 11 at Belmont Park.
Go for Gin finished six lengths ahead of stretch-ruinning Concern.
Kandaly, the Louisiana Derby winner scratched out of the Kentucky Derby because of the sloppy track, finished fourth, another half-length back. He was followed by Numerous, Blumin Affair, Looming, Silver Goblin, Powis Castle and Polar Expedition.