The prospect of a Triple Crown had to be shelved for at least another year as Hall of Fame trainer D.Wayne Lukas schooled Oxbow pulled off a shocker in the G1 Preakness Stakes. The son of Awesome Again made it a pillar to post affair, in a timing that happened to be the slowest since 1961. The Kentucky Derby winner Orb failed to relish the slow pace of the race and ended up a tame fourth. 50 year old jockey Gary Stevens who was back into his riding boots at the beginning of the year after staying away for seven years was astride Oxbow.

Stevens, who has two Preakness wins to his credit - Silver Charm in 1997 and Point Given in 2001 –, went past Goldencents to hit the front right from the start of the race. Orb was settled in midfield along the rails for most part of the trip. As they took the final turn, Oxbow was still travelling smoothly with Stevens just having to guide him. Itsmyluckyday and Mylute were in pursuit towards the closing stages but Oxbow was home comfortably and the two finished second and third respectively.  

"It's real special for me to do this for Wayne," said Stevens. "He was one of the first people to call me up in January when I came back and he told me he had a horse for me to ride, and that was Oxbow”.

Speaking about the pace, Stevens divulged, “We talked about strategy and I didn’t expect to be on the lead. In these Classic races, you don’t give up anything you get for free. They gave me free three-quarters of a mile today. I was smiling pretty good midway down the backside. I actually thought about Wayne [Lukas] up in the grandstand. I knew he would be looking at those fractions and be pleased with what he was seeing."

"What a story this is," was how the winning trainer Lukas summed the victory.