Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Cloud Computing wins Preakness, upsetting Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming.
Panthers owner Viola’s Triple Crown hopes ended by Cloud Computing
Seth Klarman’s romance with thoroughbred racing blossomed in the heart of Baltimore, where he grew up three blocks from Pimlico Race Course and made annual pilgrimages to watch the Preakness.
Klarman saw the mighty Secretariat win it in 1973, two years before he graduated from and moved away from home.
But even on his most blissful day at the neighborhood track, he never fathomed he’d own racehorses, much less one gifted enough to win a leg of the Triple Crown. So reality exceeded fantasy on Saturday, when Klarman watched his horse, Cloud Computing, win the 142nd Preakness with a thrilling charge to the wire before a record crowd of 140,327.
To pull the upset, Cloud Computing had to run down 2-1 second choice Classic EmPoly
pire and 6-5 favorite Always Dreaming.
Owned by a group that includes Florida Panthers owner Vinnie Viola and his childhood friend Anthony Bonomo, Always Dreaming won the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago after his stellar performance in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park in April.
The Preakness began how many expected and hoped it would, with Always Dreaming breaking to the lead and Classic Empire stalking him from just off his flank. They ran that way past the 3⁄4-mile pole, but the much-hyped match race fizzled from there as Always Dreaming essentially quit running.
Classic Empire appeared to have the race in hand at the top of the stretch. Ahead lay the moment of glory trainer Mark Casse had imagined after his horse endured a brutal trip in the Derby.
But handicappers had warned all week that if Classic Empire and Always Dreaming wore each other out, another horse might swoop in to steal the Preakness. Cloud Computing did just that.
Always Dreaming’s trainer, Todd Pletcher, said he was already worried when he watched his horse pass the finish line for the first time in the 1 3⁄16-mile race. He was in the right position but without the aggressive spirit he’d shown at Churchill Downs two weeks earlier.
“We didn’t have an excuse,” Pletcher said. “I think we were in the position we expected to be, but maybe the turnaround was a little too quick. He ran so hard in the Derby and today just wasn’t his day.”
Jockey John Velazquez told Pletcher he didn’t feel much energy from Always Dreaming as the Derby champ turned up the backside. And when Classic Empire passed him, he had no answer.
“He just got beat,” Velazquez said. “I didn’t have it. That’s it.”
With Always Dreaming going down after two seemingly perfect weeks of preparation, Pletcher is now 0 for 9 in the Preakness, the only Triple Crown race he hasn’t won. And for a second consecutive year, the Belmont Stakes will be run without a Triple Crown on the line.
Cloud Computing went off as a 13-1 choice, but veteran rider Javier Castellano kept him in the exact position he and trainer Chad Brown had discussed, two or three lengths behind Classic Empire. He didn’t make his move until the stretch, when Classic Empire had spent significant energy putting away Always Dreaming.
The Preakness win, in 1 minute, 55.98 seconds, was the second for Castellano, who had the strange experience of riding Bernardini to victory in 2006 after Barbaro broke down earlier in the race.
Cloud Computing paid $28.80 on a $2 bet to win, $8.60 on a $2 bet to place and $6 on a $2 bet to show. Classic Empire paid $4.40 and $4. Third-place finisher Senior Investment paid $10.20.
Cloud Computing came in with just three career starts and did not run at all as a 2 year old. Castellano, who’d ridden Gunnevera in the Derby, was aboard him for the first time.
It was hardly the profile of a typical Preakness champion. Only seven horses since 1980 have won the Preakness after skipping the Derby. The great filly Rachel Alexandra was the last in 2009.
“It’s incredibly special,” Klarman, a the soft-spoken hedge fund manager, said. “He’s a great horse. I have the best trainer and the best jockey going for me. I never imagined it, but I’m thrilled.”
It was the first win in a Triple Crown race for 38-year-old Brown, the 2016 Eclipse Award winner for Top Trainer and the fastest rising successor to established titans Pletcher and Bob Baffert.