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CNN Saturday Morning News
Will Kentucky Derby Champion War Emblem Repeat at Preakness?
Aired May 18, 2002 - 09:27 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The second jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown gets under way today. War Emblem won the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago. Will it be a repeat performance at the Preakness? CNN's Josie Karp joining us from Baltimore with a preview. Hello, Josie.
JOSIE KARP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
This is the -- actually the 127th running of the Preakness Stakes, and by the time the horses go off tonight, or just after 6:00 p.m. Eastern time, there's a good chance that this track is going to be very, very muddy. That could have an effect on the race.
There are 13 horses entered. Only four of those horses ran two weeks ago in the Kentucky Derby, and they do, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) include War Emblem, the wire-to-wire winner of the Derby two weeks ago.
Now, War Emblem has gone back and forth along with Medaglio d'Oro (ph) as the favorite here at the Preakness. War Emblem still has a long way to go before reaching legendary horse racing status. But this horse already has a part of horse racing lore.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Six weeks ago, he wasn't even a Kentucky Derby contender. Then War Emblem won the Illinois Derby and impressed trainer Bob Baffert and owner Prince Ahmad bin Samen (ph). They believed this horse could be something special. But there was one hitch. The colt belonged to someone else. It took $900,000 for Samen to solve that problem.
Twenty-three days later, War Emblem was a symbol for a new horse racing formula -- how to buy a Kentucky Derby winner.
BOB BAFFERT, WAR EMBLEM TRAINER: Nobody's ever been able to pull it off. And I think if we would have, you know, given all that money for him and he would have run up the track, then I can see people criticizing us. But being that we won and nobody picked him and nobody had him, I think the media itself are pretty upset about it that they didn't see it in front of their eyes that this horse is a really good horse.
PRINCE AHMAD BIN SAMEN, WAR EMBLEM OWNER: People sometimes just say, Oh, we just bought it four weeks ago. And I think it's much smarter to buy a horse four weeks ago, win the Kentucky Derby, than raise them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was very happy they won it, and I'm pleased that he won it. When you sell a horse to people, they pay a decent kind of money, you wish them success with it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hindsight's 50-50. I mean, you -- I was glad to see him win it. I really like the colt. I didn't have a problem with it.
KARP: War Emblem's victory made Samen the first Arab owner to win the Kentucky Derby. In this time of political tension between U.S. and Arab interests, the Saudi prince and the American trainer made history together.
BAFFERT: You know, sort of comprehend that be able to win the Derby, it -- you know, the -- because the Arabs' money has been in horses, I mean, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for years and years and years.
BIN SAMEN: I'm a businessman, I'm not politician.
(CROSSTALK)
BIN SAMEN: So I leave this question to our politicians and your politicians, which I think there's no problem anyway.
BAFFERT: He's very pro-American. He loves -- he went to school here in America. And so he really enjoys -- he'd rather race in America than in England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KARP: Although War Emblem's former owner has said that he's happy for all of the success that the horse has had, there is now some controversy involving War Emblem, and it involves a $1 million bonus that the prince and the horse earned by winning the Illinois Derby and then one Triple Crown Race. Reinman (ph) has said that he feels like he's entitled to half of that, Miles, and he said he's willing to sue to get it.
It remains to be seen what the prince is going to do.
Back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, what about my cut in that deal? Maybe I should join in in that suit, huh? All right, Josie Karp, enjoy the race, have a few black-eyed Susans, after you've done your work. I appreciate that. Check in with us a little bit later.
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