In my 30 years as a horseracing fan I’ve seen 10 horses win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes only to fall short in the Belmont Stakes. Sometimes I was there in the stands, sometimes I was a TV viewer. Last week I recounted my experiences watching the first five failures. This week, the rest of the story…
2002 – War Emblem – I watched this one on television from my apartment in Lexington, Kentucky. The race was over as soon as the gates opened and War Emblem fell to his kneels. The speedy colt needed to be on or near the lead to have any chance and that chance vanished with the bad break. It was Wiseman’s Ferry (Wise Dan’s sire) who took the early initiative while jockey Victor Espinoza fought with a headstrong War Emblem and with other riders for a comfortable running position. He did rush up to be 2nd after a mile but never was there a point that he would be serious factor in the race. The Bob Baffert-trained colt crossed the wire in 8th well behind 70-1 chance Sarava, the longest shot ever to win the Test of Champions.
Espinoza gets another chance with California Chrome on June 7 but, because of that poor break in 2002, he’ll do so without previous experience in guiding a speed horse around the vast Belmont Park oval. It’s probably a small thing, but this type of exprerience likely cost really good horses like Spectacular Bid in 1979 and, as we’ll see, Smarty Jones in 2004.
2003 – Funny Cide I was at Belmont Park on that dreary, rainy Saturday as the spunky New York-bred with New York-based owners in the yellow school bus tried for immortality. The rub that year was that his main rival, Empire Maker, was probably a better horse. After toying with Funny Cide in the Wood Memorial, Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel later admitted to going easy on the royally-bred son of Unbridled leading up the the Kentucky Derby. Part of the reason was a minor foot issue that nagged Empire Maker, part of the reason was that Frankel wanted a colt as fresh as possible for a sweep of all three Classics. Funny Cide was at his best on Derby Day and kept Empire Maker and Frankel out of roses way. With his Triple Crown hopes dashed, Frankel skipped the Preakness to get Empire Maker 100% for the Belmont Stakes. Many blame the sloppy track for Funny Cide’s 3rd-place Belmont finish behind Empire Maker and eventual Travers S. winner Ten Most Wanted, but I side with the others that feel that the Triple Crown was lost in 2003 when Empire Maker fell short on the first Saturday in May.
2004 – Smarty Jones – If you want to know why the Belmont Stakes is no longer a BYOB event, watch the 2004 Belmont Stakes. A record crowd of over 120,000 people, including myself, crammed into Belmont Park that year hoping, expecting, the unbeaten Smarty Jones would be crowned a Triple Crown champion.
Smarty Jones was so impressive, first in the Kentucky Derby on a very sloppy track and then the Preakness Stakes on dry land. So much so that the first thing I did after Smarty Jones demolished the Preakness field was book a flight to New York. This would be the year. And it might have been had rider Stewart Elliot been more judicious with Smarty Jones’ speed. He parried early and often with Eddington and Rock Hard Ten before spurting away from those rivals at the top of the stretch. Birdstone looming, but not dangerously, right? Not Birdstone… Smarty was running his heart out but his legs began to slow by mid stretch. And Birdstone got closer. And closer and…
It’s an incredible thing to see and feel a large crowd go from absolute frenzy to complete silence but that’s exactly what happened when Birdstone nudged by Smarty Jones in those final agonizing yards. All of that excited energy of 120,000 people evaporated in an instant out of the Belmont Park balloon. We were all stunned, what was there to say? We just silently began to accept that we were robbed of the chance to bear witness to history yet again.
That was from my vantage point up on the third floor of the grandstand. I would later hear about boos and catcalls at the winner’s cirlce and the near riots and police action in the spacious backyard picnic area. And the next year we would all hear about the new alcohol policy at Belmont Park.
2008 – Big Brown – I was ready to riot after Big Brown’s failure in 2008. I again came to Belmont Park expecting to see a Triple Crown winner. This was no only because of Big Brown’s obvious talent but also because of paucity of talent evident in his competitors.
There was a lot of controversy swirling around the unbeaten colt’s primary owners IEAH Stable, who brought a slick (some said shady) Wall Street financier-type approach to thoroughbred ownership. And then there was controversial and boisterous trainer Richard Dutrow, a lightning rod who invited more media strikes as the Triple Crown progressed. IEAH is no more and Dutrow is serving a 10 year suspension for numerous medication infractions. Oh, and there was the steroid thing. It came to light that Big Brown was given a steady diet of a steroid call Winstrol and it came further to light that this was not all together illegal in the thoroughbred racing game. That’s since changed in many states and Dutrow said he took Big Brown off of his regimen after the Preakness Stakes.
I was on a radio program the Thursday before the Belmont. As we talked about all these issues I remember saying something like ‘I think just seeing this horse do it, seeing him actually roll down that stretch and win it after all these years. That moment will be so incredible that the whole backstory will just go away.’
I believed it and kept tring to maintain faith even though there was something ‘off’ that Saturday at Belmont. It was insanely hot, 95 degrees with very high humidity. There was also some kind a water main break that knocked out service to good portion of the plant, including several restrooms. Hot, crowded and standing in line for the restroom all day is no way to spend a Belmont A few of my friends, veterans of scores of Belmont Days, said this was their last one.
Still, all Big Brown had to do was win and everything is better. Everyone is exuberant. Instead, the exact opposite happened. Big Brown was eased at the top of the stretch when rider Kent Desmormeaux felt all was lost. So now not only is everything not better, everything is decidedly worse. With the whole world watching and well up to speed on the owners and the trainer and steroids, the horse didn’t just lose, he stopped running! Everything was much worse and I slammed my program down to the concrete steps with a loud and disgusted ‘God Damnnn it!!!’ It’s still the maddest I’ve been after a horse race (well, after Mine That Bird’s Derby is pretty close).
2012 – I’ll Have Another – It’s easy to say now, but I had a feeling… I flew to New York early on Friday morning, June 8 and was settled into the Bay Shore home of long-time family friends for their annual Belmont Stakes weekend bash. It’s easy to say now but I had a feeling…I think I was even sipping on a margarita when I saw the news on the small kitchen TV. I had feeling… maybe that’s why it was so hard to believe when it actually came true. The past nine Triple Crown failures happened on the track. I’ll Have Another’s would fail to leave the barn. I was the first to see it, everyone else was chatting and making more margaritas. I stared at the TV for several more moments. I wasn’t sure I should say ‘Well, I had a feeling…’. Before I could say anything someone else noticed. “What?! I’ll Have Another scratched??!!”
Belmont Park was a museum to what could have been the following day. There were I’ll Have Another buttons everywhere and I’ll Have Another posters stacked on lonely tables. Then you’d see the posters on the floor scattered around like big, sad confetti. The only thing sadder were the poor souls trying to unload all of the I’ll Have Another t-shirts. I made the best of a bad situation by betting winner Union Rags (redemption for my Derby pick) and nailing the exacta and trifecta with Paynter running second and Atigun third. If you’re going to be disappointed for the 10th time it helps to have a margarita in your hand and a back up plan for the windows.
(originally published on http://www.myfantasystable.com
Matt O'Neil Consulting 