Chicago's Metropolitan Deli is getting a menu update. "We'll call the new sandwich the Preakness," said Terri Terry, who owns the eatery in Pleasanton, California. "I'll have to give the ingredients some thought. But it'll be something that has jalapenos in it. Martin just loves his jalapenos."

Chicago's Metropolitan is where Martin Garcia worked, before he became a jockey, before he started winning big races for Bob Baffert. Terry doubted that the Mexican-born Garcia would be able to fill the cook's vacancy when he came in, but she gave him a chance, anyway. For one thing, his English was virtually non-existent. For another thing, he was too short.


Too short? A short-order cook who was too short?

"Yes, he's 5-foot-1," Terry said. "We didn't think he'd be tall enough to put the entrees in the window, where the waitresses get them on the other side."

At 5-1 and 106 pounds, Garcia is the perfect size for Baffert. Every time the silvery haired trainer needs a shot in the arm for one of the horses in his barn, he drafts Garcia. Misremembered had suffered through three frustrating second-place finishes while being ridden by the veteran Victor Espinoza. In March, Baffert handed the reins to the 25-year-old Garcia and he rode Misremembered to victory in the Santa Anita Handicap. "He's a smart little rider," Baffert said. "He wants to be number one, and I like that in him."

Before the Preakness, Baffert entrusted Garcia with the enigmatic Lookin At Lucky, whose name was in danger of being changed to I'll Lose Somehow. In some of Lookin At Lucky's recent starts, the trouble lines on his record read: Bumped late. . . jumped heels. . . steadied 5/16 (pole). . . roughed twice early."

Garrett Gomez, whose mounts have earned almost $100 million in the last five years, was the passenger for all these train wrecks, including a third-place finish as the odds-on favorite in the Santa Anita Derby and a sixth-place finish as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby. I think that Baffert was angry enough that he would have replaced Gomez after the Santa Anita Derby, but the Kentucky Derby is no time to be experimenting with a new rider, especially a jockey who's never ridden in the race. Baffert did, however, use Garcia to ride Conveyance, his second-stringer at Churchill Downs. They led for six furlongs before finishing 15th.

Attending their first Derby, Terri Terry and her husband Scott were in the stands, screaming wildly for Coveyance to protect the lead. But for Terry, Garcia probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to become a jockey. When Garcia heard that his employer at the restaurant also had show horses, he begged her over and over to go out to the farm and get on the backs of a few. Garcia said that his family had kept hundreds of horses in Mexico, and he knew how to ride. Terry didn't believe him, but one day as he walked to work, Garcia was struck by a car. He required medical treatment, and on the way to the hospital they stopped at Garcia's apartment. Terry said there were posters of at least seven horses on the walls. She was convinced that he was serious about horses.

At the farm, while Terry wasn't looking, Garcia hopped on a 14-year-old thoroughbred mare named "Finny," and began riding her around without a saddle. "He's got a gift like all the great ones," Baffert said after Garcia and Lookin At Lucky won the Preakness. Then he began mentioning Garcia in the same sentences with Bill Shoemaker and Gary Stevens.

Terry got Garcia an introduction with a trainer at the Pleasanton training center. Garcia won his first race at the Bay Meadows Fair in August of 2005. He won 45 more races the rest of that year, then won 260 races, 16th highest in the country, in 2006. A move to the much saltier Southern California circuit didn't slow him down; from 2007 through last year, his mounts earned almost $13 million.

Baffert and the ownership of Lookin At Lucky tried to spin the Garcia-for-Gomez switch at the Preakness as gingerly as they could. Gomez still rides many of Baffert's best horses. "I go with my instincts," Baffert said. "We had to do something to change the mojo."

Mike Pegram, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness with the Baffert-trained Real Quiet in 1998, is part of the Lookin At Lucky partnership. Pegram has made jillions with McDonald's franchises. "I know hamburgers and Baffert knows horses," Pegram said after the Preakness. "Did you ever shoot craps? (The jockey change) was like shooting dice. When you have bad luck, you change tables."

Before Martin Garcia left Chicago's Metropolitan Deli (Terri Terry's husband is from Chicago) to ride horses full-time, he wowed many of the customers with his original shrimp-salad sandwich, naturally with jalapenos to give the meal a kick. The sandwich never made the menu, but regular customers knew they could order it. Seven dollars and 95 cents, Terri Terry said. I'm holding out for the new Preakness sandwich. I forgot to ask if they deliver.