[3] When the Assiniboia Downs season ended, Kaenel returned to the United States where he raced until May 5, 1981, when it was learned that his birth certificate had been a fake and he was actually fifteen years old.
[5] Prior to the big race, Aloma's Ruler had won the January 20, 1982 Bahamas Stakes at Hialeah Park over a distance of seven furlongs.
He was ridden by star jockey Ángel Cordero for trainer John Lenzini and owner Nathan Scherr, a Baltimore contractor.
Just one week before the Preakness, Aloma's Ruler was scheduled to run in the Withers Stakes, a mile race at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York.
Kaenel and Aloma's Ruler won the Withers in convincing fashion and Lenzini said the jockey gave the colt "a perfect ride."
At that point, sixteen-year-old Jack Kaenel's slower pace strategy left Aloma's Ruler with enough stamina to withstand the hard charging Linkage and win by half a length.
The New York Times story on the race summed it up perfectly, writing that "Kaenel outfoxed Shoemaker as if their ages and experience were reversed."
[10] Although his riding was interrupted in mid-year 1989 by a badly broken right leg sustained at his ranch in Northern California,[11] Jack Kaenel was the principal rider for the racemare Brown Bess.