BALTIMORE — No one can say Prince Ahmed bin Salman bought this 127th running of the Preakness Stakes. Nobody can tell Victor Espinoza he stole the second leg of the Triple Crown, as he was accused of doing in the Kentucky Derby because timid rivals did not believe War Emblem was game enough to lead every step of the way.
The prince's 11th-hour purchase is going to New York for the Belmont Stakes on June 8 with an opportunity to become only the 12th horse to sweep thoroughbred racing's holy grail. War Emblem earned the chance, fending off the attack of speed horses early and repelling the late-running Proud Citizen and an impossible long shot named Magic Weisner to win the Preakness by three-quarters of a length on Saturday at Pimlico.
War Emblem proved he did not need the lead early as Menacing Dennis led the field of 13 around the first turn and into the last turn of the mile-and-three-sixteenths race in rapid fractions of 22.87 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 46.10 for the half.
But when it was time for Espinoza to put some distance between War Emblem and his doubters, the horse kicked off in the homestretch, dueling briefly with Proud Citizen before crossing the finish line as the 45-1 shot Magic Weisner, ridden by Richard Migliore, rocketed past Proud Citizen at the wire. Despite the fast early pace, War Emblem won in a slow time of 1:56.36
Medaglia d'Oro, the second choice, who had run a troubled fourth in the Derby, stalked the pace-setters but tired to finish eighth. War Emblem paid $7.60 for a $2 bet to win as the favorite.
"He's the best of the field and always will be," said Espinoza, who followed his first Derby victory on his second mount with his first Preakness victory on his third attempt.
"He and I get along well, and that helps," Espinoza said after the race.
Straight Gin, trained by Nick Zito and ridden by Robby Albarado, was ninth and was taken from the track by ambulance with a non-life-threatening bowed tendon.
Overnight rains and howling winds failed to slow down the racing strip despite gray skies and the unseasonably low 55-degree temperature. Early in the card, the track conditions were listed as sloppy, but they improved to muddy and by midafternoon were listed as fast.
The trainers, riders and owners in the field of 13 brought a little more edge to the second leg of the Triple Crown. Stunned and a bit embarrassed by how War Emblem had bounced from the gate at Churchill Downs and then ambled under a comfortable pace to capture the Kentucky Derby in gate-to-wire fashion, one trainer after another had vowed to make sure Espinoza and the colt had an early skirmish as the field passed the grandstand for the first time.
John Ward, Booklet's trainer, used words like "ambush" and "attack" to describe how his colt was going to challenge War Emblem. D. Wayne Lukas entered another speed horse, Table Limit, in an effort to ensure a heated pace in the hopes of softening up War Emblem enough to help his Proud Citizen, who finished second in the Derby.
"With a little help from our friends, we're going to get first jump on War Emblem and I think we have the fit horse to get past him," Lukas said before the race.
Usually the finish of a horse race provides the heart-thumping tension and white-knuckle anticipation, but the riders and trainers backed up their pronouncements and War Emblem had a tussle in the first quarter-mile as Booklet, Menacing Dennis and Table Limit gunned out of the gate.
But the war of words also indicated how unpopular War Emblem's Derby victory was because it was engineered just three weeks before the race, when the trainer Bob Baffert spent $900,000 for 90 percent of the colt on behalf of bin Salman, a Saudi prince. The perception that a Derby winner was bought and the race stolen on the front end had admittedly grated on horsemen.
Choosing his words carefully, Ward, who won last year's Derby with Monarchos, had said that on Derby day "there didn't seem to be the emotional outburst postrace that there is sometimes."
Nine fresh horses showed up here even though only one horse in the last 18 years — Red Bullet in 2000 — had captured the Preakness after skipping the Derby. They were joined by three other Derby survivors whose trainers believed they had discovered the reason for their colts' poor performance when the Derby was run on the first Saturday in May.
Ken McPeek, who trained the Derby favorite, Harlan's Holiday, refused to believe his horse's seventh-place finish at Churchill Downs was indicative of a colt who had never finished worse than second in 10 previous starts. McPeek did not commit his colt, who won the Florida Derby and Blue Grass, to joining the early pace, but vowed that the jockey Edgar Prado would have Harlan's Holiday closer than 11th place as he was early in the Derby.
"We got to get him into the race earlier," McPeek said. "What worked before him was being aggressive. We will be."
Bobby Frankel, the trainer of Medaglia d'Oro, believed a troubled trip cost him in the Derby, when his colt stumbled out of the gate, was bumped, got stuck behind horses on the backstretch and was whacked again making a late run.
So he replaced the jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. with Jerry Bailey, a smooth-riding Hall of Famer who looked clairvoyant keeping Red Bullet out of trouble here for an upset victory over the highly regarded Fusaichi Pegasus two years ago.
Baffert and bin Salman knew the field was prepared to go after War Emblem. But they neither apologized for how they won the Derby nor shrank from the challenge.
"Anybody who says we bought the Derby is just jealous," Baffert said. "We bounced out of the gate at Churchill and no one went with us — that's their fault. We know War Emblem wants to run on the front. Now it's time to see if he can take the heat."
He not only took the heat, but now heads to New York for the Belmont Stakes with an opportunity to become only the 12th Triple Crown winner.