Smarty Jones, bred in Pennsylvania and unbeaten through the Preakness, by all rights should have been the 12th Triple Crown winner. If you thought Bodemeister was impressive in losing the 2012 Kentucky Derby under extreme early pressure, go ahead, punch up a replay of the 2004 Belmont Stakes and get a load of what Smarty faced. I’ll wait. . . .
(Start spreading the news/I’m leaving today/I want to be a part of it/New York, New York.)
Funny Cide could have turned Triple Crown history on its head. Here was a gelding, labeled as a New York-bred, owned by a bunch of upstate party animals and trained by a guy who could do without all the fuss. Establishment Funny Cide was not.
He was, however, a rock-solid racehorse who was at his best in the 2003 Kentucky Derby and even better in the Preakness, which he won by nearly 10 lengths. This made for great headlines, but trainer Barclay Tagg was not as thrilled, knowing that the Triple Crown is a long haul and a horse can peak too soon. If he peaks at all.
Charismatic, bursting upon the scene in 1999, was not the first headline horse to come to a bad ending in the Belmont Stakes.
In 1941, on his way to a 25-length win and the Triple Crown, Count Fleet rapped his right foreleg severely enough to end his brilliant career. In 1958, also going for the Triple Crown, Tim Tam shattered the sesamoids of his right foreleg while finishing second and never raced again.
Real Quiet and Victory Gallop descended upon Belmont Park for the 1998 Belmont Stakes with best act in the business. They’d already run 1-2 in the Derby and the Preakness, and the third leg figured to offer more of the same.
Victory Gallop, though, was more than just a striving second banana. His people had their eyes on top billing, and Real Quiet, let’s face it, was trying to become the most blue-collar Triple Crown winner in history, having once lost a race in New Mexico.
[bc_video_id:235274:]Silver Charm, the star of the 1997 show, tangled with what was probably the deepest, meanest bunch of 3-year-olds since the 1975 Triple Crown dramatics provided by Foolish Pleasure, Avatar, Master Derby, and Diabolo.
Sunday Silence, smarting from a bruised foot, missed three days of training between his win in the 1989 Kentucky Derby and his thriller over Easy Goer in the Preakness. Following the Preakness, the black colt trained without interruption at Belmont Park, where he made headlines inflicting an accidental head wound upon his trainer one morning with a rearing front hoof. Blood trickling from his bald dome, Charlie Whittingham reacted in perfect character:
“I just hope he didn’t hurt himself on my hard head.”
[bc_video_id:235304:]Alysheba, the Derby and Preakness hero of 1987, entered the Belmont Stakes with a bi-coastal fan base and a rip-roaring story, led by larger-than-life trainer Jack Van Berg and his quietly confident jockey, Chris McCarron.
“I told Chris in the paddock he could go to the lead and gallop them to death,” Van Berg says whenever someone asks. “Alysheba had all the speed to put those horses away any time he wanted to.”
[bc_video_id:235308:]Compared with Spectacular Bid, Pleasant Colony offered a more forthright tale. Even his trainer, the late Johnny Campo, had few delusions going into the 1981 Belmont after the colt had won the Wood Memorial by three, the Derby by three-quarters, and the roughly run Preakness by a length.
“The horse needed a break,” Campo said.
History, of course, does not allow for such luxuries. To that point there had been 22 horses win the Derby and the Preakness, and all but the two who had gone wrong – Burgoo King and Bold Venture – showed up for the Belmont.
Spectacular Bid should have lost the 1979 Florida Derby after a weird, wide trip, but he didn’t. He could have lost the 1980 Strub Stakes when Flying Paster ran the race of his life, but he didn’t. And if he’d made one mistake in the 1980 Haskell Handicap he would have lost to champion mare Glorious Song. But he didn’t.
