Tomorrow afternoon's Old Nelson Handicap is only 1 and one-sixteenth miles at Colonial Downs, but it's a milestone in 6-year-old Scrappy T's comeback.

The gelding that became the standard of quality for trainer Rob Bailes led the 2005 Preakness with five-sixteenths to go. In a heartstopping moment, Scrappy T veered, tripping Afleet Alex and bringing the eventual winner nearly to his knees.

Near-tragedy could have been Scrappy's legacy. That split second is what many racing fans remember about a horse that never finished lower than third in his first 12 starts, five of them graded stakes races.

"It's part of the game," owner Marshall Dowell said. "Fortunately no one got hurt. And for that we're all grateful. You take it, you answer questions about it, you continue on. It's part of horse racing."

Afleet Alex went on to win the Belmont and an Eclipse Award, then retired to Gainesway Farm in Kentucky. His first foals already are yearlings.

But three years after that moment, it's Scrappy T who's still battling back.

Dowell lives in Mechanicsville. He spends a lot of afternoons during the season watching Colonial Downs, a track he's passionate about. After the Preakness, Scrappy T came to New Kent to work on the turf for the first time, testing the waters for a run at his owner's favorite track.

"At the time he seemed like he didn't like it that much," Bailes said. "But looking back at it now, we don't know if it was the grass or maybe the little problem."

The problem was a slight tear in a suspensory ligament, an injury that may have started in that awkward instant at Pimlico.

Scrappy placed in a pair of graded stakes, but his last 2005 start was in the Grade I Cigar Mile. It was the first time the dark brown gelding finished out of the money and the first time he came back truly sore.

Nearly two years of frustration and disappointment followed in the recovery process.

"Every time we got him back, we thought he was back to where we needed to be, something else would come up," Bailes said. "It was just one little thing after another."

The uncertainty was hard on the people who love the horse. Dowell and Bailes agree that Scrappy owes them nothing. When he's no longer competitive, or if he ever seems sour, the horse named for Dowell's grandson has a home for life at the family's Goochland farm.

But until then, Scrappy loves to run -- and that's an opportunity his connections feel they owe him.

"So long as he's able to show the desire that he wants to come back and the willingness to keep trying, then we'll continue on with him," Dowell said.

In the past couple of years, Bailes and his clients have tended toward young prospects that could be the next Scrappy T. In that crowd, the original Scrappy has become the elder statesman. Each summer a new group of college kids comes to work for the well-known trainer, taking care of a 30-horse stable. Every year, Bailes said, Scrappy T becomes the barn favorite.

"Every horse has his own personality," he said. "They really do. Some of them good, some of them bad, but this colt here, he's been nothing but a pleasure to work with. He loves his work, and he's Mr. Personality."

The Old Nelson isn't the biggest race scheduled for Colonial Downs tomorrow. But it's a big chance for Scrappy T to leave behind congeniality awards and return to form.

In two starts this year, the gelding has failed to show. According to Bailes, his love for Scrappy may have been the horse's biggest handicap.

"You know, you just watch over him a little more -- not that you don't watch over all your horses, trust me -- but you try not to let him get too close to you," Bailes said. " . . . I'd gotten to the point last year where I felt like I was handling him with kid gloves, where he's a horse that loves to train."

Dowell admits he also has a lot of emotion invested in what may well be his once-in-a-lifetime horse. But Bailes, he says, is particularly devoted.

"He thinks the sun rises and shines in that horse," Dowell said. "He truly does."

Recently Scrappy's been seeing the hard work he thrives on at sunrise. And today, after he has a nice morning work and his lunch, he'll ship down to Colonial Downs for his first start on turf -- and maybe the start of a new legacy.