The 1993 season in Thoroughbred racing produced a juicy reel of highlights, with history made left and right. But in the end it belonged to Michael Earl Smith, the kid from New Mexico who had taken New York by storm.
Age 27 at the dawn of the year, with a fine head of dark hair and a beaming Colgate smile, Smith would go on to take his third straight New York Racing Association title. Along the way he won a record 62 stakes events, thanks to horses like Holy Bull, Sky Beauty, Heavenly Prize, Birdonthewire, Devil His Due, and Lure. The $14 million earned by his mounts led the national standings, and for his trouble Smith was handed both the Eclipse Award as the year’s outstanding jockey and the ESPY Award as the sport’s preeminent rider.
Smith’s 1993 accomplishments were topped by his first victory in a Triple Crown race and the first champion he could call his very own, both courtesy of Prairie Bayou, owned by John Ed Anthony’s Loblolly Stable and trained by Tom Bohannan. Their victory together in the 118th running of the Preakness was one of the most satisfying moments in Smith’s Hall of Fame career, made even more precious by the fact that he has not won a Preakness since.
“I’ve come close a few times,” Smith said this week as he prepared to head for Baltimore and a date with Kentucky Derby winner Justify. “But 25 years – man, that feels like a long time ago.”
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Prairie Bayou was a darkish chestnut with a daub of white between his eyes. He was bred by his owner, whose stable was large enough in those days to maintain a second string trained by Tony Reinstedler at Churchill Downs. That’s where the unpretentious Prairie Bayou ended up as a 2-year-old, gelded out of a stud career but bred stoutly enough – by the Cox’s Ridge stallion Little Missouri out of a Wavering Monarch mare – to win two November races at 1 1/16 miles.
Bohannan launched Prairie Bayou’s 3-year-old campaign over the inner track at Aqueduct, and by then Smith was firmly attached. For those paying attention, it was a Technicolor preview of things to come.
“He was so consistent,” Smith said. “He was about as blue collar as blue collar comes. Had a turn of foot that was just sick. I mean he could finish some kind of strong.”
After getting to know each other with a second in the slop, Smith and Prairie Bayou won the Count Fleet by three lengths and the Whirlaway by the same margin. The Jim Beam was up next, but Smith was committed to Loblolly’s Dalhart for the Rebel at Oaklawn on the same day, so Chris McCarron got the call for the one-shot deal at Turfway. Everybody won.
By early April the prime contenders for the 1993 classics were making themselves known. Personal Hope won the Santa Anita Derby narrowly from Union City. Storm Tower was impressive in the Wood Memorial. Sea Hero, winner of the 1992 Champagne, entered the picture late, but he was no match for Prairie Bayou’s two-length score in the Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 10, three weeks before the 119th running of the Kentucky Derby.
Twenty were entered in the Derby, 19 ran, and confusion reigned among horseplayers. Even with a seven-horse mutuel field and a two-horse entry, there were five individual runners with single-digit odds. Prairie Bayou, at $4.40 on the dollar, was the post-time favorite.
Once again he came running with the hurtling power finish that had become so familiar to his backers and fans. This time, however, Prairie Bayou and Smith had to settle for second, 2 1/2 lengths behind Sea Hero and Jerry Bailey.
“Sea Hero was running about four, five lengths in front of us,” Smith recalled. “Just about every time Jerry wanted to, he’d get through so pretty. But by the time I got there the hole was closed, so he was able to open up on me. When I finally got through, man, he came running about as hard as a horse could run.”
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The replay will testify to Sea Hero’s winning, inside spurt through the stretch, while Prairie Bayou was parked out in the middle of the track. Once he had second place measured – the margin was a head over Wild Gale – Smith let his horse finish under his own steam, saving something for another day.
That day came two weeks later, on May 15, as early as a Preakness can be run. Smith spent the time between classics winning the May 8 Acorn Stakes at Belmont with Sky Beauty, then descended upon Pimlico cocked and loaded for bear.
“Yeah, I guess you could say I was on a pretty good roll that weekend,” he said.
No kidding. Smith loosened up with a victory on Preakness Eve aboard Loblolly’s Aztec Hill in the Black-Eyed Susan. Then, earlier on the Preakness card, he won the Dixie Handicap with Lure for Claiborne Farm.
As for the Preakness, a dozen started, including six from the Derby field. Prairie Bayou was favored once again, and this time he got the trip.
“My horse broke a little sluggish, but that was okay,” Smith said. “He settled into stride, picking up one horse after another all the way around, then split horses when I needed to and tipped to the outside turning for home. He jumped on them like a cat.”
The only possible hiccup came halfway down the backstretch when Union City, running in midpack, broke down. Smith was able to steer an unflinching Prairie Bayou cleanly through an inside lane.
“He was so athletic,” Smith said. “He just liked to get the job done, get up just in time, and then shut it down.”
Which is exactly what happened. Prairie Bayou was pulling away from Cherokee Run deep in the stretch when he idled, and Smith stayed busy. The winning margin of a half-length was not quite as close as it looked. Far from the cool, unflappable veteran he is today, Smith let loose with a hollering, fist-pumping celebration heard all the way back to his hometown of Roswell.
The sweet taste of 1993 turns to ash for Smith when he thinks of how the Triple Crown ended that year. Just as Union City was fatally injured in the Preakness, Prairie Bayou sustained an irreparable fracture of his left foreleg barely halfway through the Belmont Stakes.
“It hit me pretty hard,” Smith said. “Obviously, I’ve never gotten over losing him like that.”
So ended a Triple Crown of high drama and terrible tragedy. With Sea Hero came Paul Mellon and Mack Miller, two grand gentlemen of the game winning their first Kentucky Derby, and with Colonial Affair’s victory in the Belmont came Julie Krone, the first woman to win an American classic. Prairie Bayou, the fallen hero of the second act, was voted a posthumous Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male.
“He was such a sweetheart of a horse,” Smith said. “You could put a kid on him and walk around, safe as could be. I naturally spent a lot of time at Tom’s barn. Sometimes there would be his groom, sleeping on top of him.”
It would be 12 years and a series of near-misses before Smith would win another Triple Crown event. He has made up for that gap in a big way, with two Derby victories and a pair of Belmonts since 2005.
Justify will be odds-on to give him a sixth classic Saturday, and at 52 Smith is far from jaded. If it happens the excitement will be sincere, but it also will be tinged with the memories of his first visit to the top of the game.
“I’ll be thinking about old Prairie Bayou when I’m back there,” Smith said. “You can bet on that.”