JC / Railbird

Triple Crown Archive

Thursday Morning Links

– Racing journalism has its problems, but access to the sport’s (human) stars isn’t one. In this way, at least, being a niche sport benefits fans and writers, unlike baseball.
– The Quick-Pick inquiry spreads, wild finger pointing begins, and a California state legislator notices that there’s no independent wagering monitor. Uh oh.
– Pittsburg Phil, Noted Plunger, Passes Away. Consumption, such a shame. He was just at Ascot last year.
– Dutrow has yet to confirm post-Belmont plans for Big Brown with IEAH, but he’s considering the Travers and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Curlin vs. Brown — we can dream.
– How they take those pics: Wired at the Preakness Stakes.
– Mike Brunker is looking prescient. Flashback to his April 1 column, in which he not only predicted Big Brown’s Derby win, but went a couple steps further: “This is a colt with the talent to end the 29-year Triple Crown drought …”

Posted in The Industry, Triple Crown on May 22, 2008

On Bellyaching

I’ve been accused of late, in emails and comments, of not being properly enthusiastic about Big Brown, so let me give the horse his due: Big Brown is a phenomenal talent, a freak, and he would be coming out of any barn. He’s dominated every start, he’s shown that he can rate or lead, that he can break from the inside or the outside. He accelerates effortlessly, and he displays qualities exhibited by past great racehorses — he makes every race look like his own and every horse he beats look second-rate.

I hope he wins the Triple Crown. It’s been 30 years; racing fans deserve a superstar.

Apparently, that’s all I’m supposed to say. Anything else is “bellyaching.”

You know, over the past two weeks, we’ve heard endlessly that racing is in crisis, that racing must change, that the sport has to deal with its drug problem and breed more durable horses.

Last Saturday, both ESPN and NBC dedicated panels to discussing these and other issues and everyone involved earnestly agreed to the necessity of reform.

Not 10 minutes after the NBC segment wrapped, Bob Costas was announcing a stud deal for lightly-raced Big Brown.

A few minutes later, NTRA president Alex Waldrop appeared and, among other things, promised that racing would be steroids free by 2009, without even giving a nod to the fact that the Preakness favorite — and more than likely, half the field — was on steroids as a matter of course.

And yet all that, as well as trainer Rick Dutrow’s lengthy record and questionable character, should be put aside.

Well, I’m not interested in doing that. Big Brown, on the verge of a historic achievement, embodies racing’s rot. I watch his races and feel the transcendence that great horses offer — I really meant it when I said he’s phenomenal — but then the disenchantment comes on.

To stop talking now about Dutrow’s career and methods, or IEAH’s rush to stud and its business plan and what it all means, is to give the racing establishment a pass on the problems corroding our game.

Racing is compromised, its future success threatened, and to refuse to grapple with the contradictions and questions that surround Big Brown is to willingly put on blinkers.

But I guess desperately wanting to celebrate a Triple Crown winner nullifies any claims integrity or intellectual honesty make on our consciences. As David Brooks wrote of the unsavory Melmotte, “Dishonesty becomes acceptable so long as it contributes to success.”

Posted in Misdeeds & Wrongdoing, Triple Crown on May 21, 2008

Back to the ’70s

In slightly more than two weeks, Big Brown will attempt to become the 12th Triple Crown winner, the first in 30 years and only the second undefeated. In this brief lull before Belmont Stakes anticipation explodes, it seems worthwhile to take a quick look back at the last three …

The Rivals

It began during their 1977 2-year-old campaigns and continued through every Triple Crown race. In 1978, the story was the rivalry of Affirmed and Alydar, which reached its apex in the one mile match race that unfolded during the Belmont Stakes:

At the end:

Affirmed’s head is in front of Alydar’s, and as the two jockeys rise in their saddles beyond the finish line Velasquez yells over to Cauthen, “Stevie, congratulations.” Cauthen yells back, “Georgie, thank you. It ain’t been easy.”

Alydar became known as the only horse to finish second in every spring classic, a shadow Triple Crown winner.

More: SI cover / recap / Kentucky Derby replay / Preakness replay

The Undefeated

Seattle Slew went into the Belmont a perfect 8-for-8, but that wasn’t enough to quell the doubters, who complained about his slow Wood victory over an undistinguished field and groused that his Kentucky Derby win wasn’t all that impressive. The 1977 Belmont convinced even the most ardent skeptics that Slew was no slouch:

It was “the easiest win race of his career,” said trainer Billy Turner after. From the start:

Slew smothered the Belmont field so completely … that his seven opponents looked as if they were running in place. Run Dusty Run challenged early in the backstretch hut Slew just moved out a notch. A half-mile later Sanhedrin made a bid, but for naught. Slew drew away as he headed home. A few jumps before the winning post. Jockey Jean Cruguet, once a $20-a-month bartender in the French army, stood high in his stirrups and waved his whip to the crowd in jubilation.

The following year, Seattle Slew met Affirmed in the Marlboro Cup, where as the 2-1 second choice, he wired the field and won by four lengths despite going wide on the final turn. Affirmed, the 1-2 favorite, finished second.

More: SI cover / recap / Kentucky Derby replay / Preakness replay

The Greatest

Secretariat, transcendent in 1973:

Secretariat won by 31 lengths and knocked more than two seconds off the track record. His performance was then, and it still remains:

The greatest performance by a racehorse in this century.

More: Photo / recap / Kentucky Derby replay / Preakness replay

Posted in Triple Crown on May 21, 2008

The Other Contenders

– Tale of Ekati worked for the first time since finishing fourth in the Kentucky Derby, zipping four furlongs in :46.84 at Belmont on Tuesday morning. “He went a little faster than we wanted, but he did it easy,” said assistant trainer Robin Smullen, who confirmed that the Belmont Stakes was the colt’s next likely start. “We realize that Big Brown is a very salty customer, but Tale of Ekati is doing awfully well” (DRF). Along with Tale of Ekati, two other Derby starters are likely — Denis of Cork and Anak Nakal — as are two Preakness starters — Icabad Crane and runner-up Macho Again.
– Casino Drive, widely considered Big Brown’s main rival, remains without a jockey. “We are leaving our options open,” said racing manager Nobutaka Tada. “Fortunately, many good riders are interested” (Blood-Horse). Over on Green But Game, Dana considers who she would like to see on the half-brother of Rags to Riches and Jazil and narrows the possibilities down to Castellano or Prado …
– Music Note reappears. The 3-year-old A.P Indy filly made her debut last fall in a maiden special that turned out to be a major key race, returned three weeks later to win her second start by an impressive 7 1/2 lengths while under a handride, and then was shipped to Dubai for the winter, where she apparently didn’t race. On Thursday, she makes her first start for trainer Saeed bin Suroor in the third, a one mile N1X, which drew a couple promising maiden winners in the Seeking the Gold filly Charming ($3.2 million Keeneland yearling purchase) and the Barclay Tagg-trained Song of Love (half to Nobiz Like Shobiz), as well as A Rose for You, making her second start for Kiaran McLaughlin.
– Interesting: “It’s impossible to overlook the fact that every Grade 1 winner [Dutrow has] had since Carson Hollow in 2002 had started his or her career in another barn.”
– Epoxy, Whistle Dick, and 498 more bad horse names.

Posted in Triple Crown on May 20, 2008