Swiss Skydiver's Preakness win silences the critics

BALTIMORE – Skeptics may have thought Robby Albarado had something to prove when he threw a leg over Swiss Skydiver before the Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico. But the 47-year-old jockey harbored an inner confidence that couldn’t be shaken.

“I never questioned myself,” Albarado said Sunday afternoon before leaving Baltimore.

As the dust settles on the 2020 Triple Crown, Albarado is being hailed as one of the heroes of the series as the winning rider in the 145th Preakness. It’s an improbable role, given how badly his career had nosedived over the last couple of years.

Owing to a stark lack of business and widespread perception among horsemen that he has somehow “lost it,” Albarado suddenly is an elite rider again. His decision to quickly maneuver Swiss Skydiver past Thousand Words leaving the backstretch, thereby securing the rail position for what turned out to be an epic battle with Kentucky Derby winner Authentic and John Velazquez, already is being lauded as one of the more masterful moves in Triple Crown history.

“It was a genius move by Robby coming up the fence,” said Ken McPeek, the trainer of Swiss Skydiver.

Swiss Skydiver gave both McPeek and Albarado arguably the most meaningful victory in their hugely successful careers, and their unbridled joy that had erupted in the evening shadows of the ancient and mostly empty Pimlico grandstand was still burning brightly in the days that followed. Deeply involved in the game for decades – McPeek, 58, has been training since 1985, and Albarado, 47, has been riding since 1990 – both had previously won a Triple Crown race, McPeek with Sarava in the 2002 Belmont Stakes and Albarado with Curlin in the 2007 Preakness.

This triumph, however, differed than the previous ones. McPeek had been questioned, as he often is, for outside-the-box thinking, not only for running Swiss Skydiver versus males but also for going out of his way to handpick Albarado, whose statistics the last couple of years were mere fractions of the big numbers he had compiled at his peak.

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Swiss Skydiver silenced the critics by defeating Authentic in a race for the ages. In this year of the coronavirus Triple Crown, when only essential personnel and participants and their guests were allowed to attend any of the three classics, it was of a particularly somber note that so few were on hand at Pimlico to witness a true classic. Whereas upward of 5,000 or more were at Churchill Downs for the Sept. 5 Derby, fewer than 1,000 were on hand Saturday, with Maryland health officials taking the pandemic very seriously.

Swiss Skydiver is something of a throwback, just like her trainer and jockey. Owned by Peter Callahan, who chose to stay home because of coronavirus concerns, the Daredevil filly has had nine starts this year at nine different tracks and has now accounted for five graded stakes, along with runner-up finishes in the Blue Grass versus males and the Kentucky Oaks.

“She cleaned up everything again last night,” McPeek said Sunday morning through a Twitter video. “She’s just so consistent. She’s brought a lot of joy to my life.”

By early Sunday morning, McPeek had received more than 600 text messages, “so if I haven’t gotten back to you, that’s why.”

McPeek has been on quite a roll. His 2-year-old fillies, Simply Ravishing and Crazy Beautiful, ran one-two Friday in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland, keeping their trainer on pace for what should be one of his best years ever.

Conversely, Albarado had been enduring one of the worst years in a career dating to 1990. He has no firm answer as to why horsemen have forsaken him lately, despite having amassed a body of work that has earned him nominations, but not yet election, into the Racing Hall of Fame. He has ridden more than 5,200 winners and his mounts have earned more than $220 million.

“I’ve been around racing my whole life,” said Albarado. “It’s not that I forgot how to ride, it’s that people didn’t want me to ride. I can’t tell you exactly why.”

His arrests in 2011 and 2012 on domestic-violence charges resurface whenever he returns to the spotlight, as happened this week.

“Does it define me today?” he asked. “I’d sure hope not. People closest to me, they know who I am. I don’t look back anymore, I look forward.”

His 2019 and 2020 totals are his lowest since 1993, when he was still riding smaller tracks in his native Louisiana – so obviously Albarado was extremely grateful to McPeek, for whom he has ridden frequently through the years, for affording him this golden opportunity to shine on an international stage.

“I owe it all to Kenny,” Albarado said during the post-race press conference Saturday evening. “He believed in me still. People started thinking I can’t do it anymore and Kenny was there when I needed someone. He said I’ve been under a rock, so he pulled me out from under the rock.”

Albarado galloped Swiss Skydiver over the Pimlico surface before dawn for three straight mornings, starting Wednesday.

“It’s been a fun, interesting week,” he said. “I think the key was me getting on her every day. She gave me more and more confidence.”

The duel with Authentic and Velazquez juxtaposed the result of the 2007 Belmont, when the filly Rags to Riches, ridden by Velazquez, edged Curlin and Albarado in another dramatic finish. Albarado said he has the greatest respect for Velazquez and was cognizant of what was unfolding as they turned into the stretch Saturday.

“Obviously [Authentic] was a Derby champ, so you’ve got to give him his respect,” said Albarado. “But I felt, on the filly, it was really late in the stretch before I even uncocked my stick and I maybe hit her once lightly on her left side. All indications were that she was determined to stay in front.”

Albarado replaced Tyler Gaffalione, who chose to ride the three-day weekend at Keeneland instead of traveling to Maryland. Surely Albarado will get to keep the mount, regardless of the filly’s next start. The Preakness was a Win and You’re In toward the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland, but McPeek said he was unsure how that would affect his decision on whether Swiss Skydiver will run next in the Classic or the BC Distaff the same day. The BC Distaff is the more likely target, he said.

Swiss Skydiver, the 11-1 sixth choice in a field of 11, earned a 105 Beyer Speed Figure for her clocking of 1:53.28 for the 1 3/16-mile distance. Clearly the track was very quick, given that the time was second-fastest in Preakness history, behind only the adjusted 1:53 for the great Secretariat in 1973. Curlin now has the third-fastest time, 1:53.46.

Swiss Skydiver was the first filly to run in the Preakness since Ria Antonia was 10th in 2014 and the first to win since Rachel Alexandra in 2009. The other four fillies to win the Preakness did so long ago: Flocarline (1903), Whimsical (1906), Rhine Maiden (1915), and Nellie Morse (1924).

Meanwhile, Authentic and his Bob Baffert stablemate Thousand Words (eighth) both came out of the race in good order, according to Mark Toothaker, spokesman for Spendthrift Farm, the majority owner of Authentic in a multi-tiered partnership. Authentic likely goes next in the Classic, a 1 1/4-mile race for which Baffert already has two of the top older horses in training, Improbable and Maximum Security.

The narrow defeat for Authentic, the 3-2 favorite off his 1 1/4-length triumph over Tiz the Law in the Derby, denied Baffert a record eighth Preakness victory, so he remains tied with R.W. Walden with seven. Remarkably, Baffert had won the Preakness all five times he previously brought the Derby winner here from Louisville, including with his last two, American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018), both eventual Triple Crown winners. Baffert is the all-time leader in Triple Crown wins with 16.

Jesus’ Team, who was defeated 10 lengths while finishing a surprise third at 40-1 as one of two $25,000 supplementary entries into the Preakness, along with last-place finisher Liveyourbeastlife, could either run in a Breeders’ Cup race or return to Florida to be pointed to the 2021 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park in January, trainer Jose D’Angelo said Saturday evening.

“I’m very, very proud of him,” said D’Angelo.

Art Collector, fourth as the 2-1 favorite, also was in good shape Sunday morning, said trainer Tommy Drury. A next start will be determined in due course “after we get him home” to the Skylight training center just outside of Louisville, said Drury.