BackTrack: Tom Rolfe Stays Up After Preakness Objection

Capt. John Smith was a 17th century James Bond. By his account in his first four published works, he was an explosives expert in Austria against the Turks, victor in three head-severing duels, an escape artist—once from slavery in Turkey when he was befriended by "a noble gentlewoman of some claim," and again from pirates, Indians, and other sorts—an explorer, liaison man, soldier of fortune, and savior of the Virginia colony. The series sold well and in 1620 he recapped many of his adventures in The Generall Histoire of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles, in which we find first mention of his romantic rescue from the chopping block by beautiful Indian Princess Pocahontas' appeal to her father, Chief Powhatan. Noah Webster picked up the story for his The Little Reader's Assistant, the scene was painted over the west door of the new capitol rotunda in Washington, and most people bought it for a couple of hundred years.

Then historians had trouble checking out the Turk story, considerable doubt was cast on his Virginia yarn, and he was generally dismissed as a braggart with a flashy bullet-proof vest.

"John Smith is one of those persons about whom historians are apt to lose their tempers," said John Fiske.

More recent scholarly investigation, however, has re-established Capt. Smith as a man of some valor and probity. His earlier debunking has been attributed to his inability to spell correctly names of people and places in Hungary, indicating he was mightier with a sword than pen, and it now may be assumed that his stuff is more authentic than Ian Fleming's. At any rate, one presently can say with some confidence that Capt. Smith took Pocahontas back to Jamestown, where she met and married early tobacco man John Rolfe and in 1615 produces a son named Tom.

Bringing this matter up to date, we find that last week's Preakness—an old Minisi Indian word meaning "quail woods"—was won by Tom Rolfe, a 1962 son of Pocahontas (she a half sister to Capt. Smith), bred and owned by Raymond Guest's Powhatan Stable.

Tom Rolfe is by Ribot—one of those sires about which American breeders are apt to lose their tempers. Although many Americans conceded Ribot was a great race horse in Europe, and many also were aware that Ribot sired a champion or classic winner in each of his four European crops, until last week few American breeders were enthusiastic about the chances of Ribot's siring top horses for American racing.

Now that Ribot in his fifth crop, his first American crop, has come up with Tom Rolfe, Dapper Dan (second by a neck in both the Preakness and Kentucky Derby), and Maribeau (said to be the best of the lot, but for chronic bucked shins), everybody likes Ribot. But too late. John Galbreath's five-year lease, a $1,350,000 arrangement whereby Ribot has stood at Darby Dan Farm near Lexington since 1961, is expiring and Ribot is scheduled to return to Italy at the conclusion of the current breeding season. For bellringers, those who try to get money down on the lead horse in the seconds between the break and the bell that closes the machines, there are many disappointments.

If some were late on Ribot, even more were late on Tom Rolfe. He himself was a little late. Tom Rolfe did not win a stakes until his final start as a 2-year-old, taking the Cowdin by 2 1/2 lengths from Sadair, which was giving the winner 10 pounds. This is not to say Tom Rolfe was unknown at 2. He had finished third in the Christina Stakes in June and third in Bold Lad's Futurity just before the Cowdin. With three wins in 10 starts and earnings of $73,304, he was ranked the fifth best colt of the season with 122 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap.

Five months after the Cowdin, Tom Rolfe made his first start as a 3-year-old, winning a six-furlong allowance race at Bowie by a neck. Three weeks later, Bill Shoemaker rode him 9 1/2 lengths behind Flag Raiser. Back he went to Maryland, where on April 3 he won a mile allowance race. The following week he won the 1 1/16-mile Chesapeake Stakes and then was shipped to Churchill Downs, where he showed zip and tone in winning the seven-furlong Stepping Stone Purse from Native Charger. He was fourth choice in the betting for the Kentucky Derby a week later.

Going past the half-mile pole in the Derby, Tom Rolfe was third on the rail when he made a little move that got him about three-quarters of the way through a hole inside of Flag Raiser and Lucky Debonair. Inasmuch as Tom Rolfe was in fourth place, nearly three lengths back, when the field came out of the turn a quarter of a mile later, there were sufficient grounds for the widespread conjecture that Bob Ussery on Flag Raiser, with the acquiescence, if not help, of Shoemaker on Lucky Debonair, had closed the door on young Ron Turcotte and Tom Rolfe.

"No, I could have gotten through there if I had wanted," Turcotte said later. "They didn't shut me off. And I didn't check my horse. I just sat there, giving my horse a little breather, and they went on. If I had gotten through there then, I might have used up my horse and had nothing left to run as well as we did in the stretch."

At the head of the stretch, Turcotte took Tom Rolfe off the rail, around the stopping Flag Raiser, and finished third, two lengths behind Dapper Dan, which failed by a neck to catch Lucky Debonair.

Immediately after the Derby, trainer Frank Whiteley said he would decide later whether Tom Rolfe would run in the Preakness. It sure was later. Tom Rolfe did not become a definite starter in the Preakness until every other horse in the race was saddled and he finally was brought over from the other side of the track.

Most of the Preakness candidates were stabled in one barn behind the grandstand and all others were near by, except for Tom Rolfe, which Whiteley trained and kept at Laurel Park. On the Monday before the Preakness, he advised that he was shipping over a pony and a horse called Chamonix. The horse worked seven furlongs in 1:25 1/5 and immediately was vanned back to Laurel. Subsequent inquiry revealed the horse was Tom Rolfe. He remained at Laurel, was blown out three furlongs in :37 1/5, and did not return to Pimlico until Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, in the absence of Tom Rolfe, attention centered on the 1-2 Derby finishers, Lucky Debonair and Dapper Dan. Lucky Debonair worked seven furlongs in 1:27 on Monday and a rundown bandage ran up, permitting sand to work its way into the Derby winner's right hind fetlock. On Wednesday night the ankle filled.

Dr. Alex Harthill flew in from Louisville, Ky. Early Thursday afternoon, Dr. Harthill pronounced the injury a "very minor thing. He burned his heel when he breezed the other morning. It bled somewhat, resulting in a scab formation. There was a slight infection due to sand working into the burn." The ankle was poulticed with antiphlogistine and hosed. On Friday morning Dr. Harthill pronounced the ankle perfectly normal, and Lucky Debonair was breezed three furlongs in :35, a half-mile in :48. "Good as I've seen him do," said trainer Frank Catrone. "His heel's perfect."

On Wednesday, trainer Bill Winfrey sent Dapper Dan to the track for a seven-furlong work. Dapper Dan wasn't interested. He went the distance in 1:33, which would have been record time for a mile but was not much of a work at a furlong less.

"I thought he might have left his race on the track after that workout," Winfrey said with a laugh, "but he is coming up to the race all right."

Friday morning was brisk with temperatures in the high 40s; Dapper Dan was full of run and galloped as though he enjoyed it.

"This horse does only what he wants to do," Winfrey said. "You can't make him do anything he doesn't want. He will move in a race only when he decides he is ready."

Dapper Dan again galloped briskly on Saturday morning, but as he went he alternately pricked his ears and then put them back, as though dark thoughts were passing through his mind. He does not like other horses to get too close to him, either. Was he slow thinking or flighty?

"Neither one," said Winfrey. "He's just contrary. Has a mind of his own and likes things his way. I don't know whether he'll win this race, but if he runs well, I'd have to say we'd be in a good position for the Belmont."

Pre-race speculation concerned Flag Raiser. Would he set a fast early pace? Would he be run into the ground by Lucky Debonair and Native Charger? Would all three set up the race for the stretch-running Ribot colts? Would Flag Raiser draw out to a long lead, then coast home by himself as he had the week before in the mile Withers?

Nobody gave much thought to Swift Ruler, which went off at 42-1. At the start, however, it was Swift Ruler—first in the Arkansas Derby but seventh in the Kentucky Derby—which came out of the gate fastest. Flag Raiser was hustled into the lead after a sixteenth of a mile, and passing the finish line the first time held a three-length lead over Swift Ruler as Shoemaker went to work on Lucky Debonair to get him up to third.

"I knew when we went by the stands the first time," said Catrone, "that Lucky Debonair wasn't running right and wasn't going to get anything." Shoemaker said the Preakness favorite "never did run his race. I had to get into him just to keep up. On the backstretch I had pressure on him all the way."

Ussery let out a notch on the leader and Flag Raiser opened a lead of five lengths turning into the backstretch while Swift Ruler tracked him, three lengths in front of Lucky Debonair. Tom Rolfe was fifth, eight lengths back. Dapper Dan was seventh, 10 lengths behind the leader.

Flag Raiser Shortens Stride

It was Swift Ruler which caught Flag Raiser. He narrowed the gap to two lengths at the half-mile pole with Native Charger and Lucky Debonair another length behind, separated by a neck, going into the last turn. At that point Tom Rolfe was still fifth, nine lengths back, much farther off the pace than in the Derby but with a good deal of open pace in front of him, while Dapper Dan was sixth, only 9 1/2 lengths behind the leader, closer than he had been in the Derby at the same point.

By the middle of the turn, Swift Ruler had taken the lead with Native Charger lapped on him. Flag Raiser was fading fast. Lucky Debonair was still in contention, some two lengths behind the leader, but "I had him in a drive to get up there at the three-eighths pole and I knew he was through," said Shoemaker.

Turcotte made his move with Tom Rolfe on the turn, moving faster than did Dapper Dan. With three furlongs to go he was only five lengths off the pace and had opened up three lengths on Dapper Dan. Both Ribot colts were picking up momentum. Turcotte took the overland route on the outside while Milo Valenzuela kept Dapper Dan on the rail, both jockeys trying something different than what had proved unsuccessful for them in the Derby.

Rounding the elbow with a quarter-mile to go, Swift Ruler and Native Charger were head and head for the lead when Johnny Rotz on the gray horse looked around to see what that was running so big on the outside. It was Tom Rolfe.

Meanwhile, Valenzuela guided Dapper Dan between the fading Flag Raiser and Lucky Debonair so quickly his horse hardly noticed the proximity, and he then dropped Dapper Dan in on the rail for the final drive.

At the eighth pole, Dapper Dan, Swift ruler, Native Charger, and Tom Rolfe were almost even across the track, but not for long. Tom Rolfe assumed command. The middle two were left behind. Turcotte then let his mount drift toward the rail. At the sixteenth pole Tom Rolfe held a slight lead, but was running at an angle that seemed certain to cut off Dapper Dan.

Turcotte Saw Dapper Dan

"Yeah, I saw him," Turcotte said after the race. "I just moved over there to be sure my horse saw him, but when we got close I straightened out my horse."

Valenzuela never stopped driving with Dapper Dan, and the rail horse never missed a stride, but when Turcotte straightened his horse Tom Rolfe held a clear lead. Dapper Dan gained on him in the final 70 yards, got to within a neck at the finish, and went past the winner soon after the finish.

"I thought I had to claim foul," said Valenzuela. "There was no contact, but see, my horse kinda shies when the other horse comes over to him, and he checked himself a little bit. Me, I don't know whether the other horse is going to cut me off or not."

Three years ago in the Flamingo, he had claimed foul under similar circumstances. Sunrise County went wide and when Valenzuela finally decided after a sixteenth of a mile that he could not take Ridan around the leader, he steered to the inside. Although no contact was made, Hialeah stewards allowed Valenzuela's claim that he had been intimidated and disqualified Sunrise County for not keeping a straight course. The Pimlico stewards allowed the Preakness order of finish to stand.

Four lengths behind Dapper Dan came Hail to All, which beat Native Charger by a neck and Swift Ruler by three-quarters of a length for third money. Fifteen lengths back in seventh place came the favorite, Lucky Debonair. The early leader, Flag Raiser, did not beat a horse.

Time for the race was 1:56 1/5, third-fastest 1 3/16 miles in Preakness history. The last three-sixteenths of a mile was run in :19 1/5, only a tick slower than the Preakness record held by Nashua and Bold Ruler.

Lucky Debonair Bucks Shins

At the barn, the favorite's race was quickly explained. Lucky Debonair suffered a bucked shin in the left front leg. "He bucked the same shin when he was a 2-year-old," Catrone said, "and it was fired, but it certainly is sore now." There was no trouble with Lucky Debonair's right hind ankle. Catrone said he would ship Lucky Debonair to New Jersey and rest him for a month and probably would not get him back to races until July.

Native Charger favored his right foreleg immediately after the race and there was a suspicion that he had bowed a tendon. Trainer Ray Metcalf later brushed aside reports of the injury as exaggerated and announced plans to run Native Charger in the Jersey Derby.

Back at Barn I, Tom Rolfe was found to have lost his left front shoe and had run down slightly. Turcotte was surprised. "He must have lost it after the race because I never felt him change his stride or anything."

Whiteley and Turcotte went into the stall, inspected Tom Rolfe's ankle closely, and were satisfied nothing serious had happened. It was getting dark. The winning trainer and jockey had survived a lengthy confrontation with the press and had rehashed the race and events surrounding it a hundred times. Yet there was more to be said.

Inside the Preakness winner's stall, the little Canadian jockey looked up to the trainer and said quietly,

"Uh, Mr. Whiteley, I want to thank you for keeping me on this horse after the Derby."

Whiteley grinned and brushed a hand through Turcotte's hair. The big one was yet to come—the Belmont.