With a set of Saturday stakes results that fell shy of noteworthy, this seems like a good time to talk a little Belmont Stakes, and specifically what is to me the most interesting aspect to this Belmont – the abject lack of pace.
As of Sunday morning, Daily Racing Form has 10 listed as possible Belmont Stakes starters. They are, in alphabetical order: Brody’s Cause, Cherry Wine, Creator, Destin, Exaggerator, Governor Malibu, Lani, Stradivari, Suddenbreakingnews, and Wild About Deb.
A racing writer does not want to spend too much time wallowing in the past, or else readers might think that writer is stuck there and never gets out much anymore.
Then again, Memorial Day comes with a built-in obligation to gaze upon history with an eye toward those who died fighting for the United States of America. From Los Angeles National Cemetery in West L.A. to Arlington National in Washington, the weekend will be filled with a chorus of remembrance and loss, of sacrifice, duty, and honor.
Two steps forward and one back, or one forward and two back. That seems forever to be the pace at which Thoroughbred racing makes its progress through the contemporary culture, whether measured by the ephemeral metrics of social media or the hard numbers represented by fans in the stands and dollars online.
The Preakness is always run in a fishbowl when the Kentucky Derby winner is front and center – especially when the Derby winner is an undefeated champion with one leg up on the Triple Crown.
So it was last Saturday when Nyquist and jockey Mario Gutierrez could not sustain the pressured momentum of a hot first quarter and half and ended up beaten conclusively by their former wingman, Exaggerator, and Pimlico homeboy Kent Desormeaux.
Let the flogging begin.
BALTIMORE. – It was a little weird, coming into this Preakness on Saturday. So many people thought Nyquist’s march toward an attempted sweep of the Triple Crown series at Belmont Park on June 11 was going to be easy, a fait accompli, and I must include myself in this as well. Even crusty curmudgeons are susceptible to rookie mistakes.
On Saturday, rain or shine, Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist will try to do what only one horse in history has done before. And what a horse that was.
Majestic Prince was a golden chestnut with a pair of hind stockings and a 77-inch girth. The one thing had nothing to do with the other, except for the fact that each of his many elements worked in perfect concert with the rest, resulting in a colt of singular power and presence.
“One rarely sees such an enormous colt with quite Majestic Prince’s finish,” praised Charles Hatton, the era’s recognized authority on such things.
There are several key differences between the fields for the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago and the Preakness on Saturday. Are they enough to change the outcome?
There was very little early speed in the Derby field, and there’s a lot in the Preakness. Eight of the 11 Preakness entrants are new shooters who did not run for the roses. Finally, the National Weather Service is predicting an inch of rain Saturday afternoon in Baltimore, making it likely that the Pimlico track will be sloppy as opposed to the fast track at Churchill.
Along with a few thousand others, Peter Fluor found himself soaked to the bone last year at Pimlico when the heavens unloaded on Baltimore and turned the Preakness into a regatta. He was there to cheer on American Pharoah and his trainer, Bob Baffert, who just that week had taken into the fold a 2-year-old colt by City Zip owned by Fluor and his partner, K.C. Weiner.
“It was my first Preakness and a great experience watching American Pharoah win,” Fluor said this week. “But I can promise you I’ll be rooting a lot harder for Baffert this year.”
For the handful of Thoroughbred horse-racing fans not following the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship currently underway in Russia – and I know you’re out there – it should be of more than passing interest that through preliminary-round play last Sunday, Gustav Nyquist was the leading goal scorer of the tournament, and that his Swedish national team was sitting second in the Group A standings with one game left to play, which assured them of a place among the final eight in the knockout round commencing Thursday in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Go … Sweden?
Jemayal, an 11-1 outsider, edged the previously unbeaten Camprock in Monday’s $282,775 Prix Saint-Alary for 3-year-old fillies at Deauville in France, giving owner Sheikh Joann’s Al Shaqab Racing of Qatar its second group stakes win at the popular seaside racecourse in as many days.
On Sunday, Al Shaqab’s Mekhtaal won the Group 2 Prix Hocquart for 3-year-old colts and fillies.
