TRIPLE CROWN FEVER AT BELMONT:
Beware Justify: Big Sandy has doomed many a fave
Codex won the 1980 Preakness by 4¾ lengths over Kentucky Derby winner Genuine Risk, and after the second leg of the Triple Crown was complete, Codex’s trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, was feeling pretty swell about the colt’s chances in the Belmont Stakes. After all, Lukas had already seen Codex win the Santa Anita Derby and the Hollywood Derby. With the upset victory at Pimlico, Lukas thought it would be smooth sailing at the track in Elmont, L.I., three weeks later.
“We came over for the Belmont, and that was a new experience to say the least. I come from quarter horse tracks and you’re pretty overwhelmed by the size of that damn thing when you first see it,” Lukas says now. “I don’t want to sound like it’s a Tom Sawyer deal, where you’re sitting there starryeyed, but you are impressed with the size and the scope and the width of the turns.”
Yes, the track nicknamed “The Big Sandy” — which stretches a mile-and-a-half in circumference — swallowed Codex that June day 38 years ago, when the colt finished seventh in a field of 10 horses. Genuine Risk finished second behind Temperence Hill. Lukas, 82 years young, laughs when asked how Codex did at the ’80 Belmont. “I know we didn’t do any good,” Lukas says. Many a Triple Crown contender and their connections have come to Belmont Park on a wave of euphoria, only to encounter horse racing’s equivalent of Kryptonite — a mileand-a-half sand pit that has caused many a heartache among thoroughbred owners, trainers, jockeys, and horse racing fans over the years. It took American Pharoah, jockey Victor Espinoza and Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert to end a 37-year Triple Crown drought in 2015, but before that thrilling race, there were plenty of horses who came up short in the third leg of racing’s three crown jewels — either succumbing to the distance, the deep, sandy track or other factors tangible and intangible.
When jockey Mike Smith rides Justify today in the 150th running of the Belmont Stakes — with the Baffert-trained chestnut colt on the cusp of becoming horse racing’s 13th Triple Crown winner — Smith would be wise to block out the gallery of horses that “almost” won in Elmont.
Do the names Real Quiet, Smarty Jones, Silver Charm, War Emblem, Funny Cide and Big Brown ring a bell?
“Real Quiet slowed down in the middle of the (final) stretch and thought it was over,” says Kent Desormeaux, the jockey aboard Real Quiet in the 1998 Belmont Stakes. “Real Quiet had a brain lapse, and that was hurtful in the end. The thing is, when Real Quiet saw competition, at that immediate instance, he took off. He didn’t know the fight at hand. We were in the lead (at the Belmont) and he was like, ‘This is over. I’m in front. Why are you asking me to go faster?’ ”
Victory Gallop won the ’98 Belmont by a nose over Real Quiet, the smallest margin of victory in that race’s history.
“First time I ever saw Belmont, I said, ‘Why is the track so big? You can’t see the horses.’ It’s like if it was a circus, and you were trying to entertain people, you can’t see the horses,” says Desormeaux, a Hall-of-Fame jockey.
Smith, the 52-year-old Roswell, N.M. native, has won the Belmont Stakes twice (2010, 2013), but the Triple Crown was not on the line in either case. Smith says it’s not so much “The Big Sandy” reputation of Belmont’s track that is intimidating for jockeys.
“It’s those big, old humongous turns,” says Smith. “Totally different. You can make a move on the three-quarter pole, and that might be an eighth of a mile too soon.”
Rick Dutrow Jr. trained Big Brown in 2008, and the horse lived up to its name in the first two legs of the Triple Crown, easily beating the competition. Desormeaux was aboard the colt that year, but when he rode Big Brown at Belmont on a sweltering Saturday in June, the Triple Crown hopes died on the last turn. Desormeaux pulled up Big Brown and the horse didn’t even finish the race.
“I didn’t feel the track was the obstacle. I think Belmont’s a great track,” says Dutrow. “I’ve always loved that track. What are you going to be, afraid for a horse going a mile and a half after you’ve won the first two legs? You’ve got to be confident.
“Maybe it was too much for (Big Brown). I don’t know,” adds Dutrow. “Maybe it’s possible he didn’t like Belmont’s surface. It was 110 degrees. It was a bad scene for all the people, all the horses. Maybe all these things caught up with him. He didn’t break real good coming out of the gate. He got jostled around an awful lot going into the first turn. Then he got carried so wide in the first turn. It all has to add up when it comes to a horse.”
Desormeaux calls the 2008 Belmont race “the biggest debacle of my career,” and said a crack in Big Brown’s left front hoof was a factor throughout the Triple Crown bid. “Big Brown never got to strut his stuff,” says Desormeaux.
War Emblem definitely strutted his stuff during the 2002 Derby and Preakness,
winning both and setting up a possible Triple Crown celebration. Victor Espinoza was aboard War Emblem that year, and Bob Baffert was the trainer. Baffert by then had already experienced back-to-back Triple Crown heartache with Silver Charm (’97) and Real Quiet (’98), who both lost at Belmont. War Emblem seemed like it would be Baffert’s third-time-is-the-charm horse.
That is, Espinoza says, until the Belmont start gates flew open and War Emblem nearly fell to his knees.
“It was a challenge for me, a very demanding track,” says Espinoza, the Mexican-born jockey, referring to his early experience at Belmont. “What happened, with War Emblem, everything was smooth, everything was going fine. Even inside the gate (at Belmont), it was perfectly fine until the doors opened. That completely changed the strategy. Everything went in a different direction that I was not expecting. When he stumbled, it was a surprise. Next thing I know, I tightened my body really hard because I thought I was going to hit the ground. Luckily I had a little balance and the horse pushed me back into the saddle.”
But War Emblem faded in the stretch and finished eighth out of 11. Espinoza remembers thinking that maybe his one and only shot at a Triple Crown had come and gone.
“That was my chance to win the Triple Crown, gone,” says Espinoza. “In that moment, you think that. But as time goes by, there is always hope for the next chance. It take me a few months to realize, ‘I’m still here. I might get another chance.’ ”
That next opportunity came in 2015, when Espinoza and Baffert basked in Triple Crown glory. Will it happen again today? The Big Sandy might have something to say about that.
“I’ll go to my grave thinking that if it didn’t rain about five inches that day, Funny Cide would have won the Triple Crown,” says Jack Knowlton, Funny Cide’s owner. Funny Cide won the 2003 Derby and Preakness, then finished a disappointing third at Belmont when inclement weather wreaked havoc all that day. “On a fast track we were going to beat Empire Maker (the ’03 Belmont winner). But everything has to go perfect.”
Even if things are seemingly perfect the Saturday of the Belmont, there are always other factors in play — Belmont’s intimidating size, a fresh horse in the field, or maybe even someone looking to play spoiler.
“Well, I get paid to break up the drain. You bet,” laughs Lukas, who trains Bravazo, one of the 10 horses in the Belmont field today, and one of Justify’s chief competitors. “That’s my job. That’s what (Bravazo owner) Brad Kelley wants me to do. I get paid to spoil the dream. I’ll have no problem with that. Bob Baffert and I are good friends, real good friends. Yet, that’s my job. They’ve hired me to go over there and kick his ass.”