Lovely Maria
circle to greet Clark with the joy not only of a major win, but of living to see the race. Just over a year earlier, Jones had fallen from one of the racehorses he routinely rides in morning exercise and suffered a serious brain injury. As Jones recounts his brush with mortality, he stopped breathing and had to be revived prior to a scheduled surgery to stop bleeding on his brain.With surgery no longer an option, he was put on a ventilator with a grim prognosis, but on Easter Sunday the bleeding stopped and he slowly recovered—and eventually was able to resume training and riding. “It’s all been a godsend,” Jones said after hoisting the Oaks trophy. “I am glad He showed me this blessing.” “It never gets old,” exclaimed Brereton Jones, the master of Airdrie Stud who led in the winner with his wife, Libby, and
stands Lovely Maria’s sire, Majesticperfection. “The Good Lord has blessed us all.” The following day, a Derby record crowd of 170,513 flooded the grandstand, infield and parking lots and were blessed by a different kind of miracle, one racing fans had almost given up on ever seeing again. American Pharoah, the 2014 champion juvenile male who had recovered from a foot injury that kept him out of last year’s Breeders’ Cup and delayed the start of his sophomore campaign, grittily prevailed in the 141st edition of the Run for the Roses. After shadowing early leaders Dortmund and Firing Line, American Pharoah wore them down under persistent urging from jockey Victor Espinoza to win by a length. INTERNATIONAL RACEHORSE
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