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Spectacular Bid wins the Preakness

You can go home again, especially if you go home a winner. Spectacular Bid and his entourage returned in style last week, winning the Preakness by 5 1/2 lengths before home-town fans at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course. It was a dazzling performance by the big gray son of Bold Bidder, the heaviest favorite for the Preakness since Man o' War went to the post in 1920. Carried wide by the field through the clubhouse turn, Spectacular Bid exploded on the backstretch, striding effortlessly past the early leaders to take command of the race. Though Jockey Ronnie Franklin eased him to the wire, Spectacular Bid finished the 1 3/16-mile Preakness circuit just 1 1/3 sec. off the track record.

The victory was a sweet ending to a long, troubled journey for Owner Harry Meyerhoff, Trainer Bud Delp and Jockey Franklin. They had left the friendly and familiar confines of Maryland tracks last winter to campaign Spectacular Bid at Triple Crown prep races in Florida and Kentucky. As newcomers to big-time racing, they quickly found themselves snubbed by the Thoroughbred establishment. Meyerhoff, a retired millionaire builder from Baltimore, and his wife were not even invited to the traditional ball before the Flamingo Stakes, despite the fact that their colt was heavily favored and indeed won the race the following day by twelve lengths.

When the Baltimore contingent moved to Kentucky, few other trainers offered Franklin mounts in races before the Kentucky Derby. To familiarize his inexperienced jockey with the tracks, Delp had to import a string of horses for Franklin to ride. Delp blasted Kentucky's horsy hierarchy for making such maneuvers necessary. "We're outsiders and these Kentucky hardboots aren't going to do a thing to help us. This is a cutthroat business, and there's always been a lot of jealousy because I came up through the ranks. But we don't need them. Ronnie will ride our horses, and when Derby Day comes, he'll know where the finish line is."

Franklin was first to find the finish line at Churchill Downs and, back home in Maryland, he basked last week in long overdue adulation. Neighbors decorated their houses with signs proclaiming WELCOME HOME, CHAMP! Later this week, his old high school will celebrate Ron Franklin Day, rare recognition for a truant who dropped out of school during his junior year.

For Delp, the homecoming meant a return to a track where his loud clothes and louder boasts are accepted as part of racing, rather than viewed as an affront to the sport's traditions. Pausing to insert a cigarette in a new golden holder, and watching to see that the photographers had a good angle, Delp held forth: "My horse is gonna win. I predict that now. My horse is gonna win unless he breaks his leg or his neck."

Wounds heal better at home, and so the snubs and criticisms of the spring mended under the affectionate attention of Maryland fans. Admirers came to watch Spectacular Bid sweep through the early morning fog in his pre-race workouts. Delp gloried in the attention of railbirds and backstretch buddies. The Meyerhoffs had the satisfaction of being invited to several Preakness parties. Franklin broke his isolation to sign autographs for fans at a local department store. And then Spectacular Bid, who won the first two starts of his racing career at Pimlico, provided the best moment of all: a convincing victory in the Preakness. Franklin summed up: "The horse knew it was his home and he ran like it."

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