Racing world eager to see if 12th name will be added to list of immortals
ELMONT, N.Y. — Their names carry such resonance that it’s as if the people who gave them might have been clairvoyant: Whirlaway, Seattle Slew, War Admiral, Citation, Secretariat. There were also Assault, Count Fleet, Omaha, Gallant Fox, Sir Barton. Then comes the durable, mandatory, American-English sentence: No horse has won the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978.
If American Pharoah becomes the 12th Triple Crown winner today in the Belmont Stakes, which huffily demands a mile and a half of hoofing, he will have done more than remain oblivious to his misspelled name. He will have thrown that name into a rare mix versatile. We know already that he can run a fast track, an off track, in (a) monsoon. He ran in five different tracks. This horse does not need his track with him, even though people keep saying, ‘Oh, Belmont, a mile and a half, different configuration.’
“But if you’re good, you’re good, and the difference between good and greatness is what we’re going to hopefully see tomorrow, because in order for you to do something that only 11 horses in the history of the game have done it, you have to earn it.
“Everybody keeps asking me, ‘Are you mad at fresh horses taking (time) off and now coming in?’ No! I’m a competitor. He
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Measuring up to Secretariat, Seattle Slew a tall task
has to earn it. We’re talking about defining greatness, right? He’s got to earn it!”
Even beyond success today, his reputation could owe something to the look, tenor and contour of his Belmont win.
Secretariat tops rankings lists and became the subject of a Diane Lane movie largely because of the visual effect of his 31-length win in the Belmont (not to mention his still-standing records in all three Triple Crown races).
Somewhat occluded in Secretariat’s 1970s shine, Seattle Slew’s 1977 Triple Crown sprang from a wretched first moment, a Kentucky Derby start from the gate that featured a little head-banging, some near-jockey-throwing and an atypical bit of swerving. None deterred him. He embodied a rare trait one vastly experienced trainer notes in the Triple Crown winners: Caliber overrode any circumstances.
“It’s the presence,” five-time Triple Crown race winner Nick Zito said. “It means that you got the powerful horse. You got the best horse. It means you could get away on a horse.”
Zito said this as the trainer of Frammento, one of five Pharoah rivals who ran the Derby but skipped the Preakness. He said this also near his barn sign that acknowledges Birdstone, the forgotten 36-1 shot who caught Smarty Jones in the last furlong to wreck the mirth in 2004.
He said of American Pharoah: “They’re comparing him to Slew, and I think he’s going to have to be like Seattle Slew to be compared to him, and tomorrow’s going to tell the story. I think he’s an amazing 3-year-old, certainly the best on paper. But, you know, when they talk about Slew and those horses, those are great horses. So if he runs like Slew tomorrow, then yeah.”
To scoff at American Pharoah, some might argue that the field withered through the spring. Six weeks ago, the chatter centered on this as the best crop of 3-year-olds in a considerable while, and it may yet prove thus.
But while American Pharoah faced two of his prominent Derby rivals in the muddy Preakness, in the Belmont his most worry-wreaking rivals, according to trainer Bob Baffert, were the fifth and sixth betting choices in the Kentucky Derby: Frosted and Materiality. Nobody else has come along.
On the other side, no Triple Crown winner has ever beaten more than seven horses in the Belmont Stakes, with Sir Barton (1919) and Count Fleet (1943) besting only two, Gallant Fox (1930) and Whirlaway (1941) three, and Omaha (1935), Secretariat (1973) and Affirmed (1978) four; the latter two did oppose the hardy Derby runner-up.
American Pharoah’s reputation might benefit from a distinction, as with Whirlaway’s flying tail and Assault’s misshapen hoof that spawned the nickname “Club-Footed Comet.” With American Pharoah, that could be his gliding way.
Jockey Chris McCarron, who finished fourth on Alysheba bidding for a Triple Crown in the 1987 Belmont Stakes, then won in 1997 aboard Touch Gold to spoil Silver Charm’s bid, likes American Pharoah to win because, he said, “I think he’s got a great high-cruising speed.”
Baffert pretty much echoed that, saying, “When he went by us after going around (on Friday morning), he looked like he was still ... floating over the racetrack, like he moves, and that means he’s healthy.”
And before this five-week run began, a seasoned clocker at Churchill Downs brought worthy attention to clockers everywhere when Gary Young pegged American Pharoah probably the best horse he had seen in 35 years.
“He’s simply like Michael Jordan,” Young told reporters then, “and stays in the air like (Jordan) did in his rookie year. He stays in the air longer than any horse.”
One more win and people can spend the ensuing years deciding how much he resembles Michael Jordan.