Rispoli Recounts His Route To Preakness Victory
Journalism’s Preakness win was an exciting spectacle and also a point of debate as rider Umberto Rispoli was criticised for taking a tight passage on an inside line.
UMBERTO RISPOLI is back home in California, but two days after his knees pressed against the yellow Black Eyed Susans draped over Journalism’s withers, the Preakness-winning jockey still hasn’t had time to sit back quietly and reflect on the joy of a career-defining victory.
“It’s been incredible to win the Preakness: unbelievable,” he says. “After the race we had the press conference and interviews, and then I wanted to be nice to everybody who came to me and spend time enjoying the moment with everyone, signing autographs, taking pictures. You wait for that for a long time and you want to enjoy it with all those people.”
Since Journalism raked past Gosger to nail a famous win last Saturday afternoon, Rispoli has barely stopped for breath. After taking his family to see Journalism in his box, the first Italian jockey to ever win a U.S. Triple Crown race finally left the track and headed for dinner with the winning connections. Then it was back to the hotel for a brief rest – two hours of sleep for his wife Kimberley and their two young sons – before the family caught a 6am flight to Los Angeles from Baltimore.
Rispoli had five rides Sunday afternoon at Santa Anita, bagging a maiden claimer for Journalism’s trainer Michael McCarthy.
“I went to bed Sunday night and I thought I would crash, but still I couldn’t sleep,” he says. “I’d been awake since 7am on the day of the Preakness. All the flight home I stayed awake, all night, so I did over 24 hours without sleeping plus riding horses. Monday morning at 5:30am I was awake again to ride three horses for the stakes races next week.
“After today,” he laughs, “I’m going to throw away the phone for a couple of days so I can take it in and enjoy the family for a little bit.”
It’s been tiring, but he’d do it all again. Even the criticism, though hard for this passionate Neapolitan competitor to swallow, has been worth it if it means having a Preakness on his record.
Rispoli struggled to contain his emotions immediately after Journalism’s brave win in the second leg of the Triple Crown had salved some of the disappointment of his second place run in the Kentucky Derby two weeks earlier. But the ecstasy of a Preakness triumph has been tempered a little by the post-race fallout from a contest that had something of the gladiatorial about it when the main protagonists turned into the Pimlico home stretch.
Tap/hover on the photos below to read Umberto Rispoli’s breakdown of the race
Rispoli opted for a ground-saving inside run, had the guts to go for a gap and held his nerve as the space closed on Journalism: a good imitation of ‘bumper cars’ ensued for a few strides. That move has been dissected and analysed by experts, supposed experts, and armchair riders; from the soundbite jockeys of NBC and Fox Sports to the studious Youtube analysts and the slack-fingered keyboard warriors that inhabit the X sphere.
There was outcry in some quarters that Journalism should have been ‘thrown out’ and Rispoli sanctioned for forcing through a tight gap between the fading Clever Again and Goal Oriented to his outer, ridden by Flavien Prat. The latter took a bump that knocked him sideways after leaning in on the pressing Journalism.
Others questioned Rispoli’s judgement, even suggesting the two-time Italian champion jockey was all at sea, indecisive, and even panicked
“I didn’t even blink an eye,” he says. “I was going in there and if (Flavien) was going to put up an elbow to not let me out, I was going to keep going.
“I mean, after the race it’s always easy for people to be talking, saying it should be taken down, it was a rough trip, or he was panicking. I didn’t panic at all. You know when you know a jockey is panicking? When he steps his foot in there and he comes back to get out of there. When he decides to not go anymore, that’s when he’s panicking. When I stepped my foot in that gap, I knew exactly what I was doing.”
Rispoli says he was surprised that Journalism wasn’t travelling as well as he’d have liked in the backstretch and he had to get to work on the even money favourite. The dourness of his mount’s performance at that juncture defined how the race played out.
“Not every race comes up the way you expected,” he says. “If anybody would say they expected my horse at the half-mile pole would be going nowhere, I would tell them they’re a liar. Nobody expected that he would drop the bridle and I’d be driving.
“So I’m thinking two things: I do not have the horse or he’s just too relaxed. And then at the time I was trying to point him to go on the outside, I said to myself, ‘He might be going to give me something if I take him outside, he might think it’s time to start running, like he did in the Kentucky Derby’. But he didn’t do it, when I took him out he was off the bridle, no matter what
“I was running nowhere, so then I said to myself, ‘Well, if I do not have a horse, if I have to go all the way around, I wouldn’t get any benefit from it’. It’s a split-second decision and you have to take it at that time: I wasn’t feeling comfortable; I mean, I wasn’t trying to ride a ‘smart’ race, I thought in those circumstances, if I’m going to have a chance to save some ground, I’ll do it.”
That decision to save ground took him towards the final turn positioned inside of the Prat-ridden Goal Oriented, with Clever Again and Gosager side by side in front of him.
“You can see every race I’ve ridden Journalism, every time, I have to start to drive him from the three eighths pole; you start to ride him, you start to be on top of him. But on Saturday he was lazier than other days. I know he’s a horse that once you give him a smack on the ass, he takes off. I know that.
“But, at that point (before the turn), what I’m thinking is Jose (Ortiz) is going to open up on Clever Again, (Luis) Saez on Gosger is going to go with him, Flavien (Prat) obviously needs to move around three-wide and is going to go around Gosger, and then at the top of the stretch I will go outside Flavien. But then Jose’s horse stops, Flavien ducked out and the horse backed up and was going nowhere; then he was trying to go back in, and that’s when I’d already put my foot in there, so what do you want me to do?”
Pressed between the fading Clever Again and the Prat-ridden Goal Oriented as Gosger kicked for the wire and began opening up a lead, Rispoli and Journalism found themselves buffeted and their momentum stalled.
“It’s race riding,” he says. “I think back home everyone would appreciate that ride, that’s the way we ride. It’s true I took some risks to go in there but that’s a part of the sport.
“And, like I said, it wasn’t the only option in my mind when I made the decision to go inside because if Goal Oriented had gone around Saez right away, I‘d have gone around him, I wouldn’t go in the gap, no chance, I would have come clear on the path, I’m not stupid. On the grass, I would have done that because it’s grass, but on the dirt I wouldn’t have taken that risk, but I was already in there and I knew exactly what I was doing.”
Rispoli is now looking ahead to the Triple Crown’s third leg, the G1 Belmont Stakes, which this year is again being held at Saratoga over 10 furlongs, rather than a mile and half at Belmont Park, which is under renovation. There, he hopes to clash again with the first and third from the Kentucky Derby, Sovereignty and Baeza, both of which ducked the Preakness.
“It will be interesting to see everybody back on a dry track instead of the sloppy we had for the Derby,” he says. “It’s going to be tough, you know, my horse has three weeks to recover and Sovereignty and Baeza will have a couple of weeks more than that with one less race on their legs.
“It would have been good for the sport (to have them in the Preakness) but I will never say a trainer is not right to do this or that. If a trainer makes that decision, you should respect them, especially trainers like Bill Mott and John Shirreffs, if they decide not to go there, there might be a reason.
“You have to respect a trainer like Bill Mott, he’s a legend of the sport so if he decided not to go to the Preakness with the Derby winner, you have to respect that they tried to do the best for their horse.”
Rispoli was at pains to point out that there’s a whole team of people working to do the best for Journalism, not least McCarthy and the ownership group – Eclipse Thoroughbred, Bridlewood Farm, Don Alberto Stable, LaPenta, Elayne Stables 5, and Coolmore partners – but also the grooms, work riders and assistants.
“I’m proud that I achieved this with Michael McCarthy who has supported me a long time, also the groom, Rolando, and Marc who rides work, the assistants Felipe, Oneil, and Justin, and all the other people working in Kentucky and in California, it’s a big team win and I’m glad it happened with those people, we help each other and support each other to get the best out of us.
“Now,” he adds, “I need to recharge the batteries and get some sleep.” ∎
