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Monday, June 2, 2008
Will Belmont be too much for Big Brown?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thirty years is a long gap between Triple Crown champions, but that is about to come to an end if Big Brown has not led us astray in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. We know he is very big, and we know he is very brown, and we know he comes equipped with overdrive. But 18 thoroughbreds before Big Brown have won the Derby and Preakness in previous years and found a mile and a half too much for them. The Belmont is a marathon to American-breds. It is that last quarter-mile that has done in some of our four-legged headliners among others, Northern Dancer, Spectacular Bid, Alysheba and Carry Back. My mission here is to weed out the five most memorable victims of this test of speed and stamina that some of equine authority call the only true measure of a horse in American racing. Thus, we set forth:
• No. 1: It’s not that the Belmont of 2002 was that much of an upset. War Emblem himself was an upsetter in the Kentucky Derby. After winning the Illinois Derby, he had been bought by one of the Arab sheiks, then won the Derby and Preakness. The quality of the upset was in the longshot that ran War Emblem into the ground at Belmont, (he finished 8th), an import from Brazil named Sarava, who returned the biggest payoff in Belmont history, $140 for a $2 win ticket. Such an astonishing charge failed to do much for his breeding status. Sarava now stands for $3,000 at a farm in Florida.
• No. 2: Majestic Prince takes us back a long way, to 1969, when he was the early rage. He was hugely impressive, and Bill Hartack in the saddle created even more of an aura about him. Impressive winner in the Derby and Preakness, there was no way he could lose the Belmont, but Hartack found a way. The irrascible jockey gave Majestic Prince a bad ride from gate to wire, wiser judges than I discerned, as well as misjudging the challenger and winner, Arts and Letters, quite well-bred himself. Hartack finished off his life just last year, serving as a race track steward.
• No. 3: Three years out of four I went against the chalk in the Belmont and won. Shame I wasn’t a big roller. When Silver Charm reached the Belmont 1997, his connections were following him like a circus. Owner Bob Lewis, the Californian beer distributor, chartered a plane to fly his guests to New York, and each morning a string of limos lined up outside the Garden City Hotel to accommodate those guests. Bob Baffert was the perfect trainer for such a situation, flamboyant, verbose and about as shy as a political candidate. Touch Gold caught Silver Charm at the wire, and Victory Gallop did the same to Real Quiet, also Baffert-trained, in the Belmont the next year.
• No. 4: Ah, one of my all-time favorites here, but also a victim. No thoroughbred had ever come from so far under such second-class conditions and achieved so much. Canonero II had won the Derby as one dropped in the betting field, reserved in those times for horses considered having no chance. Then he not only won the Preakness, but this $1,200 colt set the event record. Belmont, I’d suppose, was too much for a thoroughbred who had been trained in Venezuela like a plow horse. He finished fourth in 1971 to Pass Catcher, who wasn’t too shabby a fellow himself, but Canonero II finally ran out of gas and fought off and injury to finish fourth.
• No. 5: There was a lot off the wall about Funny Cide, a gelding, and no gelding had won the Kentucky Derby since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929. Owned and vociferously followed by a collection of friends from northern New York, who traveled to the races in a school bus. Trained by Barclay Tagg, a rather dour fellow new to bright lights. After winning the Preakness in 2003, what was to stop him? Only Empire Maker, who now stands for $100,000 a pop in Kentucky. Funny Cide? He roams somewhere in a pasture with no social appointments on his calendar. (PS: I would like to enter a word here about Charismatic, who barely squeezed into the Derby field in 1999, then won the Preakness, then broke down as he hit the wire third at Belmont. He now stands at stud in Japan.)
