ELMONT, N.Y., June 7 -- On the lead halfway through the turn in the Flash Stakes, jockey Ramon Dominguez suffered a horrifying fall as his mount Renegade Warrior broke both sesamoids in his left front leg and crumpled to the track.
Windsor Lodge, running behind Renegade Warrior, flipped over the fallen leader, throwing jockey John Velazquez to the ground.
| __Crowning Achievement?__
• Sally Jenkins: Even traditionalists will concede that buying War Emblem made good horse sense.
• War Emblem held off a number of challenges and won the Preakness Stakes to give trainer Bob Baffert his third shot at a Triple Crown in the past six years.
• Thomas Boswell: If War Emblem wins the Triple Crown, he will be the most unlikely horse in history to capture racing's highest prize.
• Preakness Gallery
• War Emblem, a 20-to-1 longshot, goes wire-to-wire to win the 128th Kentucky Derby on May 4.
__Triple Crown Winners__
• 1919: Sir Barton
• 1930: Gallant Fox
• 1935: Omaha
• 1937: War Admiral
• 1941: Whirlaway
• 1943: Count Fleet
• 1946: Assault
• 1948: Citation
• 1973: Secretariat
• 1977: Seattle Slew
• 1978: Affirmed
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Renegade Warrior, shipped to Belmont Park by Maryland-based trainer Timothy Tullock, was euthanized on the track. Velazquez was taken to North Shore Hospital for X-rays on his right knee. Dominguez, however, miraculously got up and rode in the very next race, guiding long shot Willa On The Move to a second-place finish in the Grade I $250,000 Acorn Stakes.
"I landed on my head, but luckily I didn't get hurt," Dominguez said after Willa On The Move, trained by Laurel Park-based Rodney Jenkins and running for Baltimore Orioles majority owner Peter Angelos, finished behind Acorn winner You. "I was feeling pretty good."
Focus on O'Callaghan
Niall O'Callaghan has put himself in the eye of the hurricane before and seems to feel right at home there.
The trainer's Lone Star Derby winner Wiseman's Ferry is everybody's nominee to take the fight right to War Emblem and butter him up so the closers can spoil the possibility for a Triple Crown.
Two years ago at Churchill Downs, O'Callaghan, a 39-year-old native of County Cork, Ireland, kept the racing world guessing up to the last minute whether he would enter his fleet Keats in the Kentucky Derby, ensuring that an already fast field would be even faster. O'Callaghan couldn't resist the excitement, especially since he is based at the track, and Keats blazed with the leaders for a half-mile before flaming out spectacularly and finishing 16th behind Monarchos.
Wiseman's Ferry looks a little more stout than Keats and based on his wire-to-wire win May 11 in the Lone Star Derby, might be the only colt who can give War Emblem a tussle early.
The Races Continue
Unlike Churchill Downs and Pimlico, which shut down the day after their signature races for massive cleanups, Belmont Park opens its doors Sunday and offers a top-class race card highlighted by the $150,000 Vagrancy Stakes.
Laurel Park-based Xtra Heat, the fastest female sprinter in the country, will lug a high-weight 127 pounds in the race, her second back since running in the $2 million Golden Shaheen in March on the undercard of the Dubai World Cup. Trained by John Salzman Sr., Xtra Heat has not lost a race against females since the Grade I Test Stakes last July at Saratoga.
