Belmont tale: Sour grapes or legitimate issues raised?

In a race that a horse named for an NFL tight end figured prominently, another horse supposedly acted like a pulling guard on football’s power sweep in behalf of a third.

Not many horses that finish eighth and are beaten 38 3/4 lengths undergo much scrutiny afterward. Restoring Hope, 12th in the Kentucky Derby five weeks earlier and basically ignored before Saturday, became an unexpected source of attention in the 150th Belmont Stakes.

Restoring Hope ostensibly represented Bob Baffert’s “other” horse in a race with unbeaten Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Justify. On a day that Justify became horse racing’s 13th Triple Crown winner, Restoring Hope received one line in the Equibase chart footnote. The Giant’s Causeway colt was “three wide entering the first turn, moved in a bit stepping onto the backstretch, appeared done by the threeeighths pole and was allowed to steadily back away thereafter.”

Excuse me, but I don’t see a smoking gun.

Watching the replay, conspiracy theorists saw enough to question Restoring Hope’s true purpose in the race. Did jockey Florent Geroux on Restoring Hope, a 37-1 longshot, run interference for Mike Smith and Justify, putting another horse or two into what racing fans call “trick bags” early in the mile-and-half race?

Louisville-based Horse Racing Nation posted side and head-on shots of the run to the first turn. Restoring Hope, breaking from post seven, is shown accelerating between Bravazo and Tenfold, getting a good early position.

The intrigue begins when Restoring Hope moves by Noble Indy and veers to the right, forcing Javier Castellano to swerve Noble Indy to his right to avoid contact. Noble Indy never got closer than fourth (finishing last of 10) in a race that co-owner Mike Repole said the colt “is going to be on the lead.”

A YouTube video shot from the Belmont Park clubhouse calls Castellano’s ride into question. Quickly prominent from post nine, Noble Indy prepares to move by Tenfold when Castellano, according to the HRN story, “looks over to his left and grabs a hold of Noble Indy. So just as he is about to … gain a position alongside Justify, he takes hold and decides to be wide.”

[Repole, a prominent New York owner, ripped Castellano, as reported by Daily Racing Form: “You get to run in this race one time in your life, you would expect to follow directions. He chose an audible. That doesn’t sit well with me. It’ll be awhile before you see Javier in (his stable’s) blue and orange silks.”]

Then rounding the first turn, Bravazo appears poised to surge past Justify on the rail and Restoring Hope to his right. Countering that move, Geroux turns Restoring Hope’s head to his left. “This is not a common move in horse racing,” says the HRN writer. “Normally, if the jockey (or horse} wants to go to the lead, he would let the horse naturally progress up to Justify and then float over to the left without pulling on the horse.”

Restoring Hope tracked Justify in second until “done at the three-eighths pole.” Cheered on by more than 94,000, Justify won by a length and three quarters over Gronkowski, the horse named for the New England Patriots tight end. Justify’s Triple Crown overshadowed a Yankees-Mets game for the coveted back page (sports lead) in the next day’s New York tabloids. All good for racing, right?

Winding down from Sunday’s flight home, I did not hear of the Belmont controversy until Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon made it the No. 3 story on Monday’s “Pardon the Interruption” program on ESPN.

On first glance, it sounded like nothing more than sour grapes from losing connections. No stewards’ inquiry was requested after the race nor a foul claim lodged. Besides, who fouled whom? Justify literally was in the clear, leading from gate to wire, and since each of the 10 horses comprised a separate betting interest, disqualifying Restoring Hope would not have affected the outcome.

But what is racing to do, if anything, about apparent conflicts of interest concerning horse owners in the sport’s biggest events?

Kentucky-based WinStar Farm races both Justify, whose stud value stood to soar or sink with the Belmont outcome, and Noble Indy. WinStar and three other groups (China Horse Club International, Starlight Racing and Head of Plains Partners LLC) race both Justify and Audible, the latter removed from Belmont consideration after not bouncing back strongly from his Kentucky Derby third-place finish.

Todd Pletcher, one of racing’s most prominent trainers, conditions both Audible and Noble Indy plus fourth-place Belmont finisher Vino Rosso, another horse whose chances were compromised when Justify set a slow pace. Noble Indy, 17th in the Kentucky Derby, took blinkers off for the Belmont, which normally causes a horse to show less speed. Is everyone on the same page?

Credit Daily Racing Form handicapper Steve Grabowski with early insight. Analyzing the race in Saturday’s edition, Grabowski envisioned Restoring Hope “functioning as a target for Justify to run at here; don’t think he’ll be around at the finish.” That’s the race I think I saw.

More to the point: Are loyalty oaths needed before big races? Or should the oldest of racing caveats — let the bettor beware — be remembered before one steps to the windows?