The Belmont Stakes nearly lost its marquee player Thursday morning when a different horse got loose and nearly ran into Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another during training hours at Belmont Park.
Alpha, one of just four stakes winners among the dozen 3-year-olds being pointed to the June 9 Belmont Stakes, will miss the race after developing a temperature earlier in the week. Alpha’s defection leaves two-time Eclipse Award winner Ramon Dominguez without a mount for the Belmont and reduces the number of likely starters to 11.
Jockey Mario Gutierrez is taking this week off to spend time in Western Canada before traveling to New York to ride Triple Crown hopeful I’ll Have Another in the Belmont Stakes on June 9.
At Belmont Park on Wednesday, Guyana Star Dweej did little to enhance his Belmont Stakes credentials when he was pulled up by jockey Eddie Castro in the final sixteenth of a mile of what was to be a five-furlong workout.
Bob Meeking has been saddling horses since the year 1947 BC – Before Citation – in a rollicking training career spanning parts of eight decades. Still going strong at 83, he has been witness to four Triple Crown winners since taking out his first trainer’s license.
The time has arrived, Patrice Wolfson said Wednesday, to pass the Triple Crown torch. Wolfson and her late husband, Lou, owned the last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, who swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes in 1978. The torch has been in her hands so long, she might have third-degree burns.
Of all the thorny questions dividing the nation, nothing seems to stir the emotions quite like the rampant speculation over the potential impact of what could be the first Triple Crown winner in 34 years. Of course, 33 years is not an eternity. It only feels that way. And believe it or not there are tougher Triple Crowns to win, but not many.
All horses entered in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 9, will be required to be on the grounds at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., by noon on Wednesday, June 6, and will then be confined to an isolated barn guarded by personnel from the New York State Racing and Wagering Board and private security guards under a series of strict requirements announced by the board on Wednesday.
Doug O’Neill wasn’t so much interested in talking to the connections of the recent horses who attempted – and failed – to win the Triple Crown. Instead, O’Neill wanted to talk someone who actually accomplished the feat.
Dullahan, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, arrived at Belmont at 6:30 a.m. following a lengthy van ride from Churchill Downs.
