Charismatic

dark horse noun – a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.

At Dark Horse Luxury Homes each of our floor plans are named after an underdog race horse winner. We hope you enjoy the history!

The Preakness Stakes is the second title in the Triple Crown, and it has produced its fair share of upsets too. Possibly the best horse race champ to come from behind at Preakness was Charismatic.

It happened in 1999. Charismatic was a chestnut colt whose career didn’t start off great. He spent a lot of time in claiming races before his connections felt confident to enter him for classic races. Eventually an upset win in the Grade 2 Lexington Stakes at 1,200 odds earned Charismatic a spot in Louisville. His underdog odds there were 3,100. And he won, surging from seventh place after the ¾-mile mark.

It’s sensational when an underdog wins a race, but one swallow doesn’t make a summer. Charismatic didn’t get much respect at the windows in the Preakness Stakes. It was Menifee that had the highest odds for a horse to win, at -200. Charismatic was an 800 longshot.

A record 100,311 spectators watched as the horses broke from the gates. Charismatic settled near the back of the pack and accelerated as the field hit the home turn. He was five-wide.

“Here comes Charismatic!” exclaimed the announcer.

Charismatic surged past his rivals one by one, and charged over the wire to win by 1½ lengths.

Suddenly Charismatic was a national hero.