Jockey: ‘He’s an amazing horse’

Rose wrestled winner back on course after collision

? Tim Ritchey has been in the horse business for three decades, and never before had he seen a race like this one.

The veteran trainer didn’t know what it felt like to win a Triple Crown race either, until Saturday at the Preakness.

After watching his Afleet Alex survive a near calamitous collision, Ritchey celebrated the victory with jockey Jeremy Rose, whose reflexes helped make it happen.

Afleet Alex had passed much of the field when he was bumped by front-runner Scrappy T at the top of the stretch. Rose’s horse dropped to his knees, drawing a gasp from the crowd, before bouncing up in an instant to resume his run to the wire.

“Over 30 years, I’ve seen some horses take some bad steps in races and still win,” Ritchey said. “I’ve never seen a horse stumble that badly and lose his momentum that much to come back on and win in a Grade I race like this.”

The remarkable horse finished 43â4 lengths ahead of runner-up Scrappy T. Rose did an outstanding job of keeping the horse on course to the finish after Afleet Alex and Scrappy T clicked heels.

“He’s an amazing horse. I’ve never seen a horse stumble like that and then win a race like this,” Rose said.

“I thought for sure we were going down,” he said. “The thought process was I was going to get run over. The instinct was just to hang on and try to get my balance back. : Luckily, he came back up underneath me.”

Rose’s prowess can be attributed in part to the fact that he was a 103-pound high school wrestler in Pennsylvania.

“I’m sure it was a plus,” Rose said. “You know, I have relatively good balance, and fear makes you very, very strong. I was willing to hang on.”

The collision occurred when Scrappy T rider Ramon Dominguez tried to whip his horse with the left hand. The horse reacted violently and moved into Afleet Alex.

“I’m sorry for the incident. The horse completely caught me off guard,” Dominguez said. “I felt like he was kind of easing back on me and looking around some. I decided to hit him left-handed, and it completely, I think, caught him off guard.”

Ritchey, who lives in Maryland, won the Preakness on the heels of a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

“I’ve been a trainer for over 30 years, so you put your time in at the small tracks,” he said. “Believe me, it’s the horse. Horses make trainers, trainers don’t make horses. He’s the star. I was fortunate enough to come across this horse. He did something that champions do today.”