
Fierceness is washed outside his barn during the morning training for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 01, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
There was plenty of greatness this weekend in the sporting world. First of all congrats to Scottie Scheffler for winning the PGA Championship. And Journalism won the 150th Preakness.
Let's start with the horses. With all due respect to Secretariat who dominated the Triple Crown in the early 1970's, Journalism ran the most amazing race I've ever seen on Saturday. I'm not old enough to have seen Secretariat. But with an 1/8 of a mile to go Journalism was pinned in and seemed destined for a top 5 finish. But its jockey, Umberto Rispoli, instead of going wide and around several horses, threaded the needle into two horses even though there was no room between them.
At that point several horses were banging bodies at full speed. The most contact came with Bob Baffert's Goal Oriented. Audiences around the world were holding their collective breaths should one of the horses fall. Journalism miraculously emerged from the pack with one horse, Gosger ahead of him. Way ahead of him. As if squeezing through the pack was not enough Journalism's closing speed to catch Gosger at the wire was amazing.
PLENTY OF GREATNESS
There was plenty of greatness this weekend in sports. In addition to the Preakness, Scottie Scheffler, the top golfer in the world, maintained his top billing by winning the PGA Championship...by 5 strokes! And that's because he bogeyed 18 or his margin of victory would have been a half dozen. It was his third Major. He takes home 3.4 million dollars for his win at Quail Hollow. And this weekend's win was a lot better than last year's PGA for Scheffler when he began the weekend in jail because an officer wouldn't let him through traffic even though he was credentialed.
For more talk and analysis on this weekend's events tune in to Craig Shemon and Company from 2-6 pm on ESPN Southwest Florida.