Won The Preakness

The horses were coming off the trucks near the Pimlico stakes barn yesterday morning, and Robert and Beverly Lewis were lined up among a crowd waiting to see their horse, Charismatic, the Kentucky Derby winner.A beautiful chestnut was led by, and Robert Lewis leaned forward, looking at him."Is that Charismatic?" he was asked.Silence. And then, "I don't know. I don't think he's big enough."The Lewises do have 90 racehorses spread around the country, and until his surprising Derby victory two weeks go, Charismatic wasn't one they necessarily would recognize.

The entrance of Coronado's Quest into the Preakness meant the exit of Victory Gallop, second in the Kentucky Derby.Elliott Walden, trainer of Victory Gallop, said yesterday that his colt will wait for the Belmont Stakes."

In a pleasant departure from a year ago, the Preakness has an actual, detectable pulse this year.The stakes barn at Pimlico isn't a still-life painting, as it was a year ago during much of the week leading up to the Saturday race.Yesterday, the Kentucky Derby winner, Silver Charm, worked out in the morning, and two other Preakness horses arrived in the afternoon, raising to six the number of Preakness horses on the grounds.That's a lot livelier than a year ago, when the only Preakness horse hanging around the barn for most of the week was poor Louis Quatorze, a colt who ran 16th in the Kentucky Derby.

Bob Lewis is 72 years old, but his eyes are sharp. Officials needed a photo-finish replay to determine the winner of the 122nd Preakness, but Lewis knew instantly that his horse, Silver Charm, had won."I did see it," he insisted over and over to his wife, Beverly, more than an hour after the race. "I just knew it! I've seen a lot of photo-finish pictures and I had no doubt."Beverly looked at her husband, with whom she will celebrate 50 years of marriage this summer, and laughed. "Well," she said, "why didn't you tell me?"

Besides the horses themselves, few things change at Pimlico from each third Saturday in May to the next, and that sense of tradition is precisely what ABC intends to present in bulk for the ++ 120th running of the Preakness tomorrow (4:30 p.m., Channel 2).From the opening montage -- a look back at the history of the race, backed by a stirring musical score -- to the telecast's second opening sequence, airing just before the 5:31 p.m. post time, featuring the weather vanes that carry the colors of Preakness winners, ABC's telecast will be awash in the traditions that naturally flow from the racetrack.

What's the Preakness Stakes without Nick Zito?The New York-based trainer announced yesterday that he will have a runner in the race for the fifth consecutive year.Zito is skipping the Preakness with Suave Prospect, who was 11th in the Kentucky Derby, but is entering Star Standard, a speedy son of 1988 Preakness winner Risen Star.Zito said he decided to go in the Preakness after Star Standard, winner of the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland in his last start, worked five furlongs in 59 1/5 seconds over the weekend at Belmont Park.

From Virginia Kelley to Jack Kent Cooke, Lenny Hale to John "Pappy" Poole, a lot of new names popped onto the Maryland racing scene in 1993.The president's mother made not one, but two trips to Laurel Race Course, when she visited her son at the White House during his first year in office.Cooke shocked a lot of people when, all of a sudden, Joe De Francis became his new best friend and he announced plans to build a $160 million stadium for his Washington Redskins football team on track property.

1. Tabasco Cat* Horse: Was sixth in the Kentucky Derby. Finished second in the Santa Anita Derby on April 9. Won the San Rafael Stakes by one length over Powis Castle on March 6. Also won the El Camino Real by one length on Jan. 22. Jockey Pat Day has won three of six starts. Likes to race on the lead.* Owner: W.T. Young. Young, 77, is a former Army officer and peanut butter manufacturer. His best Preakness entry, Corporate Report, finished second to Hansel two years ago.* Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas.

When trainer D. Wayne Lukas comes to the Preakness, he stays in the same hotel each year.But he never makes his reservations early."You can point for the Kentucky Derby, but you can't plan beyond it," he said. "You never know if you're going to make it to Step 2."But Lukas usually does.Since he ran his first horse in the Preakness in 1980 -- and won the race with Codex -- he has had at least one runner 11 of the previous 13 years in the second leg of the Triple Crown and has hit the board 50 percent of the time.

Prairie Bayou escaped a near brush with disaster yesterday and won the first Preakness Stakes in modern times in which a horse suffered a fatal injury.The death of Union City, who had to be humanely destroyed after fracturing sesamoid bones in his right front ankle, shrouded the achievement of Loblolly Stable, which seems jinxed in the Kentucky Derby, but won the Preakness for the second time in two years. The race also marked the defeat of Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero, who finished fifth and squelched any chance of a 1993 Triple Crown winner.

History waits for Preakness favorite Rachel Alexandra on Saturday, and it's not good history. The 3-year-old filly drew the 13th and outside post Wednesday for the Preakness Stakes, drawing a groan from the crowd of invited onlookers inside an air-conditioned tent at Pimlico Race Course. Scott Blasi, assistant trainer for the super filly under Steve Asmussen, did not share the sentiment, believing the outside post will allow the horse to dictate the pace. "They groaned and I smiled," Blasi said.

It was a typical workout for Papa Clem on Pimlico Race Course's main track Tuesday - underwhelming if not slightly disappointing. The Kentucky Derby's fourth-place finisher ran a leisurely five furlongs in 1 minute, 5 seconds, a time his trainer said he wished were faster. But the result didn't come as a surprise for Gary Stute, who said his horse doesn't prepare for races well, yet has a way of turning it on when needed. "All of his workouts before the Derby were bad except the last one," said Stute, whose father, Mel, won the Preakness 23 years ago with Snow Chief.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -Mine That Bird trainer Chip Woolley and co-owners Mark Allen and Leonard Blach have been so stunned by the horse's victory in the Kentucky Derby that they'll need a few days to consider whether to run him in the Preakness. Woolley told reporters Sunday that it's no sure thing that Mine That Bird will be headed to Baltimore. He, Allen and Blach will have to talk it over, see how the horse recovers from his historic upset Saturday at Churchill Downs and hopefully make a decision by midweek.

When trainer Rick Dutrow arrived at his Pimlico Race Course barn yesterday morning to see Preakness winner Big Brown, he was wearing a smile and a Triple Crown hat. "The hat?" he said. "It doesn't mean anything. It was just around." It was the smile that never seemed to leave his face that told the story. His 3-year-old colt had easily won the Preakness on Saturday, setting the stage for an assault on the Triple Crown at Belmont Park. If Dutrow and jockey Kent Desormeaux, who began their careers in Maryland, and Big Brown can get the job done June 7, they will become the first Triple Crown winners since Affirmed in 1978.

Preakness Stakes winner Bernardini will not run in the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown, on June 10. Darley Stable, which owns the bay colt who won the Preakness by 5 1/4 lengths, made the announcement in Lexington, Ky., yesterday, saying Bernardini deserves a rest. Before capturing the Preakness on Saturday, Bernardini won the Withers Stakes three weeks earlier on April 29. His other two races were March 4 and Jan. 7. Already missing from the Belmont is Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, who was seriously injured after the start of the Preakness and is convalescing after leg surgery at an animal medical facility in Kennett Square, Pa. With Bernardini and Barbaro out, it will be just the third time in 36 years that the Belmont will be run without the Kentucky Derby or Preakness winner.

Elation was tempered with concern among the winning team of Bernardini after its relatively inexperienced dark bay colt easily won the 131st Preakness Stakes yesterday by 5 1/4 lengths. While jockey Javier Castellano, trainer Thomas Albertrani and blood stock manager for Darley Stable, John Ferguson, were obviously excited about winning the second jewel of the Triple Crown, much of the talk was about injured favorite Barbaro. Barbaro, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the favorite yesterday, broke his right hind leg in two places just after leaving the gate and was immediately pulled up by jockey Edgar Prado.

Nick Zito had experienced every stroke of bad luck that can beset a horse in a race - stumbles, poor positioning, traffic problems, bumps, inclement weather. Until the Kentucky Derby. That's when The Cliff's Edge, the Derby's morning-line favorite, lost his front shoes and came home fifth after running next-to-last in the 18-horse field early in the race. "I've never had that happen," Zito said of the shoe incident after his two Preakness horses, The Cliff's Edge and Sir Shackleton, galloped over the Pimlico track yesterday morning.

The horses were coming off the trucks near the Pimlico stakes barn yesterday morning, and Robert and Beverly Lewis were lined up among a crowd waiting to see their horse, Charismatic, the Kentucky Derby winner.A beautiful chestnut was led by, and Robert Lewis leaned forward, looking at him."Is that Charismatic?" he was asked.Silence. And then, "I don't know. I don't think he's big enough."The Lewises do have 90 racehorses spread around the country, and until his surprising Derby victory two weeks go, Charismatic wasn't one they necessarily would recognize.

The entrance of Coronado's Quest into the Preakness meant the exit of Victory Gallop, second in the Kentucky Derby.Elliott Walden, trainer of Victory Gallop, said yesterday that his colt will wait for the Belmont Stakes."

Bob Lewis is 72 years old, but his eyes are sharp. Officials needed a photo-finish replay to determine the winner of the 122nd Preakness, but Lewis knew instantly that his horse, Silver Charm, had won."I did see it," he insisted over and over to his wife, Beverly, more than an hour after the race. "I just knew it! I've seen a lot of photo-finish pictures and I had no doubt."Beverly looked at her husband, with whom she will celebrate 50 years of marriage this summer, and laughed. "Well," she said, "why didn't you tell me?"