NEW YORK - For the fourth time in six years, a horse is bidding for the Triple Crown, racing's most celebrated and elusive prize. Yet the most enduring aspect of recent Triple Crown history may reside in human rather than equine achievement. The training feats of D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert are among the most astounding accomplishments in racing history.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Easy Goer was the odds-on favorite for the Kentucky Derby of 1989 but was upset by Sunday Silence. They didn't believe it, so Easy Goer was again an odds-on favorite in the Preakness, and again the decision went to Sunday Silence. By now they were convinced, and in the Belmont it was Sunday Silence who was the odds-on favorite. Easy Goer won by eight lengths because the Belmont, at 1 1/2 miles, is a completely different race than the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
ELMONT, N.Y. - The Triple Crown Diner on Jericho Turnpike has nothing special planned for Saturday night after the Belmont Stakes, whether or not War Emblem comes through.
"Every night here is special," said Sammy, the rightfully proud manager.
Everything there is gleaming chrome, bright floors, new tables and booths, which is as it should be, since the Triple Crown Diner is less than two years old. As for theme decor, a photograph of Tiznow winning the 2001 Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park leans against a window, just inside the entrance.
ELMONT, N.Y. - An outstanding weekend of racing in New York gets under way Friday with the $250,000 Acorn Mile for 3-year-old fillies.
Bella Bellucci, an impressive seven-length winner of the Comely Mile in her last start, looks like the one to beat. She has won four of five starts for owner Michael Tabor, who with his Coolmore partners has put together a world-class stable.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Billy Turner had the walk timed to perfection. It would take eight minutes, going at Seattle Slew's steady pace, to make it from his barn in the far corner of the Belmont Park stables to the entrance of the amphitheater paddock.
Turner knew it because he had clocked it several times leading up to the 1977 Belmont Stakes. There was no detail he was leaving to chance. He remembered it this week because no one is letting him forget, especially since the death of Seattle Slew on May 7, the 25th anniversary of his Kentucky Derby win.
ELMONT, N.Y.- - The first time Allen Jerkens allowed himself to mumble the name of Puzzlement in the same sentence as "Belmont Stakes" was last March 30 at Gulfstream Park.
"He just broke his maiden," Jerkens said. "I liked the way he did it. I figured, if he kept improving, maybe if the Belmont came up ordinary . . . only it didn't come up so ordinary, did it?"
WASHINGTON - When War Emblem attempts to win the Triple Crown, newspapers, magazines, and television will devote more attention to the Belmont Stakes than to any other race of the year. More than 80,000 people will jam Belmont Park on Saturday - triple the attendance for the great championship races that will be run there later this season.
ELMONT, N.Y. - With bright prospects for the first Triple Crown triumph in 24 years, these are exciting days for racing. The 3-year-olds dominate the headlines but have no monopoly on drama. Saturday's $500,000 Massachusetts Handicap was as thrilling a race as we've seen in some time, and the victorious Macho Uno was so impressive in it, in his second start of the year, that he is already a force majeure among older horses.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - In the days leading up to his date in the 1987 Belmont Stakes with Alysheba, Chris McCarron could almost taste the fifty grand. All he had to do was win the race, then utter those magic words:
"I'm going to Disneyland."
Every sports star was doing it - World Series heroes, Super Bowl MVP's, stars of the NBA championships. The Disney spot was the endorsement icing on a career, the seal of approval from corporate America.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - In her 1967 volume "Weight on the Thoroughbred Racehorse," Irene McCanliss addressed a popular misconception:
"The whole set-up of racing history contradicts any assumption that the handicap weighted race, as we know it, is the criterion by which a racehorse is to be judged." In fact, she added, "The absurd statement that . . . 'the handicap race is as old as racing itself' is simply not true."