National Treasure wins the Preakness for embattled trainer Bob Baffert

BALTIMORE – The sport of horse racing and all its fans and stewards had a little more than five hours Saturday to travel between the poles of tragedy and triumph.

Between Havnameltdown’s on-track death at Pimlico Race Course in the afternoon haze and National Treasure’s dazzling victory in the Preakness Stakes under the long shadows of evening, the music kept blaring from the infield festival stage, six other races went off without a hitch, and Bob Baffert trended on Twitter – and not for any good reasons.

Because the Preakness is the second jewel in horse racing’s Triple Crown, the quick version of history from Saturday will first note National Treasure’s victory over runner-up Blazing Sevens and five other rivals in the smallest Preakness field in 37 years. The victory ruined the Triple Crown hopes of Kentucky Derby winner Mage, who finished third, and gave Baffert his record-breaking eighth Preakness title.

“It’s been a very emotional day,” Baffert said, choking back tears during NBC’s postrace interview.

But sometime long from now, if horse racing has been changed permanently for the better or deemed too corrupt and cruel to be allowed to continue, it could be Saturday’s sixth race, rather than the more hyped 13th, that carries the weight of history. That is when Havnameltdown, trained and saddled Saturday by Baffert, broke down, threw his jockey and was euthanized on the track.

It was a horrific scene that melded two of the most unsavory and controversial storylines in the sport – the spate of equine deaths at high-profile tracks and Baffert’s history of doping violations and suspensions – and shoved the smoldering mess into the face of the public on one of the most-watched days on the racing calendar.

While horse racing deaths are at their lowest rate since data was first tracked in 2009, scrutiny of the industry is an all-time high, particularly after seven horses died in the run-up to the Derby.

“Pimlico should have followed Churchill Downs’ example and barred Bob Baffert from the track,” Kathy Guillermo, senior vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a statement. “The tragic death of Havnameltdown is the latest in a long list of fatalities. The racing industry must kick out the bad guys or it will have blood on its hands as well as blood on its tracks.”

Baffert had been absent from the Triple Crown chase for two years – largely the result of a suspension stemming from his stewardship of Medina Spirit, who won the 2021 Kentucky Derby only to be disqualified for a positive drug test. Medina Spirit died later that year of an apparent heart attack, and Baffert was barred from the 2022 Triple Crown races, plus this year’s Derby.

Though he kept a lower profile than usual, showing up at Pimlico on the day before the race, Baffert nonetheless sucked in much of the oxygen from the prerace atmosphere.

But Saturday’s proceedings didn’t even make it all the way to the Preakness itself before Baffert was back in the national consciousness for all the wrong reasons – forced to answer for a tragedy that again scarred the sport. It left another beautiful animal dead and a jockey, Luis Saez, at a nearby hospital with a leg injury. After X-rays came back negative, Saez was released later in the day, and his agent told reporters that he hopes to ride at Pimlico on Sunday.

“We never had an issue with him,” Baffert said of Havnameltdown. “We are so careful with all these horses, and it still happens. It is something that is very disheartening. … We do grieve when these things happen. There’s nothing worse than coming back (to the stables) and the stall is empty. He is a nice horse. He could not have been doing any better. It’s sickening. I am in shock.”

Into this wounded sport Saturday evening galloped National Treasure, his mission to get to the finish line first unaffected by the carnage of the sixth race. At 5-2 odds, he broke well from the starting gate, led almost the entire way and – guided expertly by jockey John Velazquez, who snapped a 0-for-12 skid in this race – held off a monstrous charge down the stretch from Blazing Sevens to win in 1 minute, 55.12 seconds.

Afterward, at the end of a wrenching day, Baffert’s words came in fits and starts: “This business is all twists and turns, the ups and downs. … The emotions of this game … to win this … losing that horse today really hurt.”