The final leg of this year’s horseracing Triple Crown came down to the wire with Swiss Skydiver winning in a photo finish over Kentucky Derby champ Authentic at Saturday’s Preakness Stakes in Baltimore. Swiss Skydiver upset Authentic, who entered Saturday as a 9-5 favorite, in thrilling fashion, clocking the fastest time (1:53.28) at Pimlico since 1973 when Secretariat spanned the 1 3/16-mile course in a record 1:53.0.
Swiss Skydiver, who did not appear in either of the first two Triple Crown races, became just the sixth filly to win the Preakness and the first since Rachel Alexandra in 2009. In fact, no filly had even ENTERED the Preakness since Ria Antonia finished last in 2014. Saturday marked the three-year-old’s sixth victory in 11 career starts. For Robby Albarado, Saturday was the veteran jockey’s second Preakness win following his earlier triumph aboard Curling in 2007. Remarkably, Saturday was Albarado’s first time riding Swiss Skydiver.
Despite a valiant effort, Authentic couldn’t quite finish the job for legendary trainer Bob Baffert, a seven-time Preakness winner. Belmont winner and Derby runner-up Tiz The Law sat out Saturday’s Preakness in preparation for next month’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland. A different horse won each leg of the Triple Crown for the second straight year. Prior to that, Justify, another Baffert alum, swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in 2018 to become the 13th Triple Crown winner in racing history and the second in four years (American Pharoah also did the deed in 2015).
The October 3rd Preakness was the latest in the event’s 147-year history and also the first without spectators due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Saturday was the first Preakness not staged in May since 1945.
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