"If you stayed just a few feet off of the rail, you were fine," Miller said. "When it washed out, the track there was packed sand. It was like running on the beach when the waves come through."
Just before the race, Deputed Testamony was fitted with mud caulks - shoes with 1-inch cleats to keep him from slipping in the slop.
"A lot of trainers don't like changing shoes at the last minute," the elder Boniface said. "That day, DT was the only one who wore them, and it mattered."
Deputed Testamony crossed the wire 2 3/4 lengths ahead of Desert Wine.
"The blue-collar horse was a prince that day," Miller said. "Did he know he'd won? Absolutely. He carried his head a little higher, with his tail sticking up in pride. His eyes were big and bright, if you could see them through all of the mud."
The colt would never run better. He placed fifth in the Belmont Stakes, then won a couple of big stakes races. As a 4-year-old, on Preakness Day, Deputed Testamony returned to Pimlico and won the City of Baltimore Handicap. There, despite breaking a bone in his front foot during the race, he set a track record for 1 1/16 miles that still stands.
DT recovered but never ran again, finishing with 11 victories in 20 races and earnings of nearly $700,000.
Retired to stud, he proved an able sire: 64 percent of his 417 offspring won at least one race. That's nearly 20 percent higher than the national average. To date, Deputed Testamony's progeny have earned almost $18.4 million.
He left the breeding shed three years ago. The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.
"We didn't want him to have a heart attack," Boniface said.
When DT goes, he'll be buried alongside his parents, with headstone, near the farm's entrance. The plot is 50 feet from an old stone fence that marks the edge of the cemetery of Deer Creek Harmony Presbyterian Church. There, close by the Fergusons and Pfaffs and Woodburns, Deputed Testamony will rest in peace.
His epitaph? Boniface, who trained him, thought a moment.
"He was an honest horse who won `that race' for Maryland."
mike.klingaman@baltsun.com
AT A GLANCE
What: 133rd Preakness, second leg of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown
When: Tomorrow, 6:09 p.m. post time
Where: Pimlico Race Course
Distance: 1 3/16 miles
TV: Chs. 11, 4
2007 winner: Curlin
Purse: $1 million. First place: $650,000. Second place: $200,000. Third place: $100,000. Fourth place: $50,000.
