Longshot Rombauer wins 146th Preakness Stakes

BALTIMORE — Rombauer won the 146th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course.

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Rombauer, an 11-1 longshot, defeated the 10-horse field on a sunny day in Baltimore, outlasting co-favorites Medina Spirit and Midnight Bourbon down the stretch.

Midnight Bourbon finished second, while Kentucky Derby champion Medina Spirit faded in the stretch to place third.

It was the first Preakness victory for jockey Flavien Prat and trainer Mike McCarthy. McCarthy called the victory “an out-of-body experience.”

Rombauer’s victory also means there will not be a Triple Crown winner this year. The final race in the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, will be held on June 5 in Elmont, New York.

Midnight Bourbon and Medina Spirit dueled for the lead during most of the race with Rombauer, who slipped into the lead from the rail on the final turn and held off Midnight Bourbon at the finish line to win by 3 1/2 lengths.

It was nearly back to normal for the second jewel in thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown. The races were out of order in 2020 because of the COVID-19, and there were no fans in attendance for last year’s race, which was held in October.

This year’s race drew a limited capacity of 10,000 fans, much less than the usual crowd of 100,000. That was less than the 51,838 fans who attended the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago.

The buzz before Saturday’s race centered around Derby winner Medina Spirit, who failed a post-race drug test and may still have his victory taken away. Medina Spirit was found to have 21 picograms of the steroid betamethasone in his postrace blood sample on May 1, ESPN reported.

The Maryland Jockey Club announced Friday that Medina Spirit had passed two additional rounds of drug testing, which was required as a condition for him to enter the Preakness, The Baltimore Sun reported.

>> Photos: 2021 Preakness Stakes

The first round of testing, stemming from blood samples taken May 6, came back clean Thursday, The Washington Post reported.. The last two, from Monday and Tuesday, came back clean Friday, the newspaper reported. In addition, race organizers said Medina Spirit’s medical records -- showing the application of the dermatitis ointment Otomax, believed to have been the source of the betamethasone in the horse’s system -- were consistent with trainer Bob Baffert’s explanation.

Results from testing on a split-sample are expected back within several weeks, the Post reported. If that result is consistent with the initial positive, Medina Spirit probably would be disqualified and runner-up Mandaloun declared the winner.

Baffert stayed away from Saturday’s race, saying he did not want to be a “distraction,” the newspaper reported. He watched the race from his California home.

Baffert has won the Preakness a record-tying seven times, sharing the mark with 19th-century trainer R.W. Walden.

In 2020, Swiss Skydiver became the sixth filly to win the Preakness.

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