Super Saver finishes 8th BALTIMORE – Lookin At Lucky returned to form after a disappointing Kentucky Derby to win the $1 million Preakness Stakes Saturday and decisively pull the plug on Super Saver's bid for the elusive Triple Crown. Bob Baffert-trained Lookin At Lucky, ridden masterfully by Martin Garcia, outduelled First Dude in the stretch to win by three quarters of a length as the second favorite in the field of 12. “He's a cool horse,” Baffert said after his fifth Preakness win. “He's just a really great athlete. I mean, he's one of the best horses I've ever had. It's amazing. He's still a baby.” Derby winner Super Saver, hot favorite ridden by Calvin Borel, trailed only First Dude at the far turn but tired badly and finished eighth. Jackson Bend finished third in the mile-and-three-sixteenths race, a head behind First Dude, while New York-bred Yawanna Twist placed fourth on a sun-drenched day at Pimlico Race Course. Lookin At Lucky stalked the leaders for much of the race, sitting in fifth place along the far turn, before making his move at the top of the stretch. The Kentucky-bred winner of the Grade II Rebel Stakes battled stride-for-stride with an unflinching First Dude before finding another gear at the sixteenth pole. Lookin At Lucky had a rough trip over a sloppy Churchill Downs track in the Derby and finished sixth, prompting Baffert to replace veteran Garrett Gomez with the 25-year-old Garcia. The winning time of 1:55.47 on a fast track was well off the Preakness record of 1:53 held by Curlin (2007), Louis Quatorze (1996) and Tank's Prospect (1985). The final leg of US thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes, will be run June 5 at Belmont Park in New York. The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978. Five years ago, Garcia was working in a deli making sandwiches and couldn't name even one of the Triple Crown races. But the 25-year-old jockey captured one of them Saturday in only his second race at the level. Garcia came to the United States in 2003, working at a deli in the San Francisco Bay area. The owner introduced him to a former jockey, who got him a job as an exercise rider even though he had no experience. Two years later he was a jockey, but continued cooking two days a week at the deli in a show of gratitude. He moved to Southern California a year later and found success on the ultra competitive circuit. His most important new connection was Baffert. “He came out here today and he was so cool and calm,” the trainer said. “He rode a perfect race. Martin can get a horse to settle really well, and I could see he had the horse in a nice rhythm.”
