Destin had taken what looked to be an insurmountable lead in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.
If you threw out the Kentucky Derby, when he broke badly and was knocked off his race when he collided with another horse, Destin looked like a contender if he could just get near the front without incident. He did.
He was clearly in the lead, and Creator had nowhere to run, blocked behind a wall of horses, until Governor Malibu briefly veered toward the rail.
That was all Creator jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. needed. He knew he had a ton of horse, and he fired him into the rapidly closing seam, came out on the other side and at the wire beat Destin by a nose.
Creator -- winner of the Arkansas Derby when he sucked the life out of the party, roaring down the stretch and going from 12th to first -- went off at exactly the same odds in the Belmont as he did at Oaklawn Park, 16.40-1.
As they crossed the finish line, Ortiz immediately pumped his arm in victory. But it was close, and not until Destin's rider Javier Castellano did not pump his arm was there confidence that for the 14th time since 2004, the year of Smarty Jones, a horse who had run at Oaklawn had won a Triple Crown race.
In that span of time, Oaklawn also has had 13 who ran second and 7 who got third-place money in the Triple Crown races.
That is a very strong trend. In fact, not once in those 39 races has Oaklawn not had a horse hit the board in one of the three races.
Maybe it is time for the Thoroughbred Racing Association to go to Hot Springs and ask whether Oaklawn Park, a traditional track but one that has become more vibrant and viable than any track the past 13 years, could help.
If there was ever the perfect track to move the Preakness to, it is Oaklawn Park. It is centrally located and professionally run.
Nothing against Pimlico, home of the Preakness, but it can't help being a slab of concrete with leaky toilets, no room in the grandstand, poor parking and barns that make you think of claiming races.
Of course that won't happen, but there was a rhyme and reason to Creator training at Oaklawn.
After one race at Fairgrounds in New Orleans, where he had spent the winter, he shipped to Hot Springs for his 3-year-old campaign.
He broke his maiden with a more than 7-length victory. He moved up to the Grade II Rebel Stakes and finished third, but he was closing on Whitmore and winner Cupid.
Then it was the Arkansas Derby, and his victory was impressive enough for the whispers to begin: Don't forget where Triple Crown champion American Pharoah prepped.
In the Kentucky Derby, he had more trouble than a rookie New York City cabdriver from Hayseed, Texas.
Checked, bumped and lost in the large field, he never cut loose.
Trainer Steve Asmussen almost immediately said he wouldn't be running in the Preakness, but he was putting a plan into motion with the bosses at WinStar Farm. Gettysburg, who can't run much more than a mile, was put under Asmussen's care and entered late to the Belmont field.
In the week leading up to the 148th Belmont, Asmussen was asked almost daily whether Gettysburg was going to be Creator's rabbit. He said no, but apparently he didn't mean it.
That's what happened, and in the stretch run when it looked like Creator had nowhere to go, the racing gods smiled. Ortiz rushed his mount up and seconds later, the Oaklawn horse was headed to the winner's circle.
For the 14th time in the past 13 years, Oaklawn Park had a winner in a Triple Crown race.
Sports on 06/14/2016