Baffert back with another seeking TC membership

Nothing can happen Saturday in the 150th Belmont Stakes that can equal the feel-good moment horse racing received in the same venue three years ago.

Winning by 5 1/2 lengths at New York’s Belmont Park, American Pharoah joined the sport’s most exclusive society as its 12th Triple Crown winner. The 13th Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner since Affirmed in 1978, American Pharoah brought the Triple Crown into the 21st Century, many close to the sport witnessing the feat for the first time.

American Pharoah’s victory was warmly received not only at Belmont Park, where the crowd was limited to 90,000, but anywhere horse racing is a going concern. Especially so at Oaklawn Park, where the Pioneerof the Nile colt, the previous year’s male juvenile champion, won his first two starts as a 3-year-old.

Trainer Bob Baffert sent American Pharoah to Oaklawn in March for the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes and again in April for the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. Those two preps furthered the colt’s education — winning the Rebel on the lead over a sloppy surface, a performance he would duplicate in the Preakness, and the Arkansas Derby off the pace, his ticket to winning the Kentucky Derby.

Winning the 147th Belmont, American Pharoah relieved somewhat the sting of Smarty Jones’ 2004 Belmont defeat after winning the same two Oaklawn preps and the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

Oaklawn officials and simulcast patrons celebrated loudly as American Pharoah became the 10th Hot Springsbased horse to win a Triple Crown event since 1976. (Arkansas Derby winner Creator’s

2016 Belmont victory raised that bar to 11 horses and 15 TC victories.) Commemorative trading cards were distributed at Oaklawn on Belmont Day before AP’s victory increased their value on eBay and other sites.

“History was made today,” said then-Oaklawn general manager Eric Jackson. “He did it with an exclamation point.”

Short of winning the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Turf (at Belmont, incidentally) with champion-to-be Northern Spur, Charles J. Cella, who died last December, never experienced a prouder moment in almost 50 years as Oaklawn’s president.

“I thought it was spectacular,” Cella said in a 2015 interview with Daily Racing Form. “The horse proved something special, running into history. I must have gotten a hundred calls after the race.”

After no Triple Crown winner in 37 years, horse racing might get its second such champion in three years Saturday when Justify goes in the Belmont. And to think, Oaklawn almost had him. Baffert had penciled in the April 14 Arkansas Derby for the colt’s stakes debut until an injury to stablemate McKinzie prompted the trainer to keep Justify home for the Santa Anita Derby a week earlier.

Outdueling Bolt d’Oro in California, Justify took his act out of town, to Louisville’s Churchill Downs, where in the slop he shattered the “Curse of Apollo” as the first Kentucky Derby winner since 1882 not to race as a 2-year-old. Two weeks later, again in the slop, Justify improved to 5 for 5 lifetime with a narrow Preakness victory, rebuffing a suicide mission from the gate by juvenile champion and Derby runner-up Good Magic.

Emotions might well be mixed on Belmont Day at Oaklawn, where the first race from Belmont Park starts at 10:35 a.m. CT (with the main event set for

5:37 p.m.). Unless one is financially or emotionally motivated to support another horse, who can cheer against a would-be Triple Crown winner?

Yet, with local winners Bravazo and Tenfold expected to run, Oaklawn has a strong rooting interest. Both are trained by Hall of Famers, Bravazo by Wayne Lukas and Tenfold by Steve Asmussen, and were coming on late in the Preakness when (take your pick) Justify weakened or jockey Mike Smith wrapped up on the winner.

Of Bravazo, Lukas said after the Preakness, “He’s a tough horse and if he’ll come back in two weeks (after the Derby), he’ll damn sure come back in three.”

American Pharoah proved good enough to overcome the twists of fate that collared Triple Crown hopefuls after Affirmed. Spectacular Bid (1979) looked inevitable until he chased a hopeless longshot early in the Belmont, trainer Bud Delp saying his colt stepped on a safety pin in his stall before running third.

Baffert, before scoring with American Pharoah, suffered excruciating Belmont defeats with TC hopefuls Silver Charm (1997 to Touch Gold) and Real Quiet (1998 to Arkansas Derby winner Victory Gallop). War Emblem, another Baffert trainee poised for greatness, broke poorly in 2002 and Smarty Jones, in the outcome that causes pain to this day, was under the gun from the start in 2004.

Perhaps things will go differently for Justify, allowing Baffert to join Sunny Jim Fitsimmons (Gallant Fox, Omaha) and Ben Jones (Whirlaway, Citation) as trainers of two Triple Crown winners. Rest assured that none of the other trainers is conceding anything at a mile and a half in what is rightfully called the “Test of the Champion.”

After the Preakness, with the Belmont marathon ahead, Baffert compared the big chestnut to Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, the fastest man on earth.

“He was in all those Olympics, but we still waited to see him, see if he still has it,” Baffert said. “I think the Triple Crown is about, let’s see if (Justify) still has it.”