This year's Belmont Stakes lacks sizzle
Photo credit: David Alcosser | The starting gate for the Belmont Stakes 2009.
Galleries
The 2010 Preakness Stakes
Train hard through winter into spring, stay healthy and earn enough money to make the Kentucky Derby. Endure a 20-horse random rodeo of 1¼ miles, farther than any 3-year-old had ever run, then return in only 14 days in the Preakness. Three weeks later, for the few who are still sound and in form, make a 1½-mile lap of Belmont Park.
The Triple Crown - three races totaling almost 4 miles in five weeks - is a grueling grind, and for the last 32 years, a sweep has been beyond even Hall of Famers. When the most elusive trophy in sports is on the line in June on Long Island, the Belmont becomes a mainstream happening. But if not, what might have been a grand finale is often only an afterthought.
Which, unfortunately, is the fate of Saturday's 142nd Belmont Stakes. There's no star, no rivalry, and of the 11 likely entries, only Derby runner-up Ice Box has a Grade I win on conventional dirt. The field's record in graded stakes: 4-for-33. Well, it shapes up as an intriguing betting race, the undercard should be strong, and maybe the sun will shine.
PHOTOS: 135th Preakness Stakes | Kentucky Derby | Hats and celebrities at the Kentucky Derby
For only the third time since 1970, neither the Derby winner nor the Preakness winner will show up. That doesn't bother Kiaran McLaughlin, trainer of long shot Uptowncharlybrown.
"The bookkeeper still pays you the same, and it's still an American classic and a Grade I,'' he said. "And we don't mind that aren't in there. It makes it a little bit easier, and we're happy about that.''
Derby winner Super Saver tired badly and finished eighth at Pimlico, and trainer Bob Baffert decided this would be one race too many for Lookin At Lucky. "I like the Belmont,'' Baffert said. "It's a long, tough race. But I don't want to run him a mile and a half. I want to save something for the fall. I want to keep him around.''
A wise decision, because no race can knock out marquee horses like the Belmont, Even for those who triumph, there can be a high price. Three years ago, Rags to Riches and Curlin battled through a final quarter-mile in 23.83 seconds, a brilliantly fast finish for 12 furlongs on dirt.
Not since 1905 had a filly won, but Rags to Riches paid for making history. She spiked fevers and trained poorly throughout the summer. In September, she lost her comeback race and suffered a career-ending leg injury.
Even two-time Horse of the Year Curlin needed almost four months to bounce back. A two-month rest wasn't enough in the Haskell, in which the huge chestnut was a lifeless third. Jockey Robby Albarado sounded distraught, saying, "I don't know what happened. He just didn't fire.''
Maybe it was the Belmont's aftereffects. Yes, Summer Bird and Birdstone went on to take the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup, but Empire Maker never won again. Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex never ran again.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who has four Belmont trophies, believes the distance is too much for modern thoroughbreds. As he told paulickreport.com: "We're not breeding horses anymore to go more than 1¼ miles, the American classic distance. Nowhere in the United States do we have to prepare horses to go a mile and a half again after the Belmont.''
Ever since Affirmed and jockey Steve Cauthen ran the table in 1978, "The Test of the Champion'' has been heartbreaking or anticlimactic. Former trainer Elliott Walden was the king of buzzkill in 1998, when his Victory Gallop denied Baffert's Real Quiet the Triple Crown by a nose.
Walden is racing manager for WinStar Farm, which bred and owns Super Saver. For two weeks, Walden and WinStar CEO Doug Cauthen, Steve's younger brother, had their own glorious fantasy. But instead of shooting for immortality Saturday, they'll run underachiever Drosselmeyer, who is 0-for-3 in stakes.
"This Belmont is not what it could be,'' Walden said. "It's hard being the third leg of the Triple Crown. Some years you benefit by it, some years you get hurt by it. There will be a crowd there . . . It's still the Belmont.''
Too bad it's not one that means much.
