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Preakness winner makes his point

Point Given lives up to earlier expectations with a powerful victory.

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 20, 2001

BALTIMORE -- All of the hype about Point Given wasn't wrong. It was just two weeks premature.

After being hailed as a superstar and flopping in the Kentucky Derby, the 3-year-old redeemed himself Saturday, making a powerful and authoritative move on the turn that carried him to victory in the 126th Preakness Stakes. Before a record crowd of 104,454 at Pimlico Race Course, he scored by 2 1/4 lengths over the fast-finishing A P Valentine, with his stablemate, Congaree, in third place.

Monarchos, who had looked so impressive rallying to win the Derby, was never a threat and finished sixth, 7 1/2 lengths behind the winner, meaning that no horse will sweep the Triple Crown for the 23rd straight year.

After finishing fifth as the favorite in the Derby, Point Given raced three and four wide throughout the Preakness.

"The real Point Given showed up today," jockey Gary Stevens said. "I feel like he vindicated himself."

The colt covered the 1 3/16 miles in 1:55.51 and gave trainer Bob Baffert his third Preakness win in five years.

"We never lost any confidence in the horse," said Baffert, who won with Silver Charm (1997) and Real Quiet (1998). "I loved the way we worked this week. He really wanted to work and it showed out there. ... I really wanted to win this one because it seemed like years since I won."

While Baffert was celebrating Point Given's triumph, trainer John Ward and jockey Jorge Chavez were puzzling over Monarchos. After making sharp moves in winning the Florida and Kentucky Derbys, the colt was flat.

The late-running Monarchos seemed compromised by ordinary fractions and a surface he never seemed to grasp.

"He and the racetrack just didn't get along," Ward said.

It was a surface, however, that Point Given seemed to devour with every stride. After being placed unusually close to a record pace in the Derby, Point Given was allowed to settle himself under Stevens behind the rest of the field and entered the first turn three wide in ninth, in front of the long-shot Bay Eagle and Monarchos.

"Today I just needed him to tow me along," Stevens said. "I knew going into the first turn the race was over with."

While Richly Blended was being pressed by Congaree past fractions of :23.84, :47.32 and 1:11.86, Stevens kept Point Given out of trouble on the outside and started picking off his opponents.

"I kept him out of everybody's way because I thought I was loaded for bear," Stevens said. "As he went down the backside I was sitting on a mountain."

Point Given galloped past Griffinite, Dollar Bill and A P Valentine. He was four wide entering the final turn and closing in on Congaree, who inherited the lead from Richly Blended leaving the five-sixteenths pole.

Baffert's horses were first and second entering the stretch -- Congaree on the inside, Point Given on the outside.

"I knew (Point Given) had it around the quarter pole," Baffert said. "He was running and looked around for Congaree and just left him. And Congaree is a very good horse."

Stevens, coming off the turn, looked to his right and then his left to see if anyone was coming. Then, after briefly lugging in an eighth of a mile from the finish, Point Given switched leads and drove to the finish line.

"He lost concentration in the stretch for three or four strides, but then he went on about his business," Stevens said.

Congaree, third in the Derby, again finished third, this time by a neck to A P Valentine, who closed well from seventh.

"He gave me nothing but confidence throughout the race," Stevens said. "When this horse is right ... he is the horse."

Come June 9, Point Given will attempt to prove that point again in New York when he meets Monarchos for the rubber match of the Triple Crown races, in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes.

Point Given, who went off as a slight favorite over Monarchos, paid $6.60, $5 and $4. A P Valentine returned $8.20 and $5.20 and Congaree $3.40.

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