Triple Crown hopeful American Pharoah to face seven rested rivals
While the weary sentence “No horse has won the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978” has become a dreary part of the American lexicon, a related sentence has come to loom: No horse has won the Belmont Stakes after participating in the first two legs of the Triple Crown since Afleet Alex in 2005.
Only two horses in the 2000s — Afleet Alex and Point Given in 2001 — have won the Belmont after racing both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. In this century of the rested ransacker, seven horses have won the Belmont after racing the Derby but taking Preakness day off to rest their 21st-century bones. A further six came from side roads.
The trend found a flashpoint a year ago not so much when Triple Crown aspirant California Chrome finished tied for fourth with Tonalist up front in only his second race since Feb. 22, but when NBC’s Kenny Rice found Chrome owner Steve Coburn for the usual televised postrace chat in the stands. Coburn, freshly beaten and freshly peeved, famously called the rest strategy “a coward’s way out” and said, “I’ll never see, and I’m 61 years old, another Triple Crown winner in my lifetime because of the way they do this.”
If he watches on Saturday, he may see a Triple Crown at 62, but if so, American Pharoah will have mastered the outlying distance (1½ miles), won the Triple Crown and foiled the chic strategy with which this eight-horse Belmont Stakes field is riddled. Of American Pharoah’s seven rivals, none has run both the first two legs. That detail heightens not only the challenge but the potential achievement.
“It absolutely does,” said Jerry Crawford, the Iowan president of Donegal Racing, which owns Keen Ice, who finished seventh in the Derby but did not race the Preakness. “Our responsibility, of the other horses in the race, is to be true to history and true to prior winners and, for that matter, true to American
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One of Pharoah’s rivals took side road to Belmont
Pharoah. So if he wins the Triple Crown, everyone will know he did that under the most challenging circumstances possible. If he can do that after a mile-and-ahalf race, my hat will be off to him.”
Five of his Belmont rivals have deployed the Derby-and-no-Preakness method. Only one — Tale of Verve — had the temerity to participate in the Preakness, but he didn’t run the Derby.
One more, Madefromlucky, aims to represent the side-roads brigade.
The side-roads brigade, which annually merges onto the Triple Crown highway only at the last on-ramp, has hogged five of the past eight Belmont Stakes. The filly Rags to Riches (2007) rested five weeks after winning the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs; Da’Tara (2008) rested three after finishing second in the Barbaro Stakes on Preakness day; Drosselmeyer (2010) rested four after finishing second in the Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park; Ruler on Ice (2011) rested five after winning the Frederico Tesio at Pimlico; and Tonalist (2014) rested four after winning the Peter Pan at Belmont. Odds 10-1 15-1 12-1 30-1 3-5 5-1 20-1 6-1
Thereafter, trainer Christophe Clement said of Tonalist, “He trained great, he looked great before the race,” while assistant trainer Alan Sherman said of California Chrome, “He was wore out, I think.”
This time, any foiling stands a bigger chance of coming from the Derby-to-Belmont method, the one used this century with Commendable (2000), Empire Maker (2003), Birdstone (2004), Jazil (2006), Summer Bird (2009), Union Rags (2012) and Palace Malice (2013). Two of those — Empire Maker and Birdstone — foiled Triple Crown bids. “I think it’s clear that it’s better for a horse’s performance to race on five weeks’ rest than three,” Crawford said. “And it’s not just three weeks rest for American Pharoah; it’s three weeks rest following on a race with two weeks rest.”
While Kentucky Derby second-place finisher Firing Line and third-place Dortmund don’t figure in this Belmont, the octet does include the horses who ran fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth and 11th in the Derby, similar to the Derby finish of Birdstone, who ran eighth in 2004 before catching Smarty Jones in the last furlong of the series.
Frosted came fourth this year under jockey Joel Rosario, who said, “He tried really hard and finished strong.” On Wednesday, he became the early second Belmont choice at 5-1. Materiality, noteworthy as he didn’t race at age 2, ran sixth. Trainer Todd Pletcher said that day, “He missed the break as he stumbled a little bit, pulled his shoe off, and I thought he closed pretty well despite that.” Materiality became the early third Belmont choice at 6-1.
Keen Ice ran a heady seventh even with a trying trip under Kent De- sormeaux, who has gone for two Triple Crowns at the Belmont and foiled one (1998), so Crawford called this week “an exciting time.” Mubtaahij, the foreign visitor who won the UAE Derby in late March, ran a commendable eighth in the Derby, of which South African trainer Mike de Kock said, “It’s one of those runs that’s not good and not bad. Those were some bloody good horses ahead of him.” And Frammento ran 11th and prompted trainer Nick Zito to say, “He looks like a Belmont horse. He’ll run all day.”
Zito trained Birdstone, and on the Sunday after the Belmont of 2004, trainer Bobby Frankel told a group of reporters, “Whatever you do, don’t blame the (Smarty Jones) jockey. It was the Derby and Preakness that got Smarty Jones beat. Birdstone didn’t have to run in all those tough races like Smarty Jones did.” Of Birdstone’s skinniness, Frankel cracked, “If Birdstone had run in all three races, you could have slid him under a door.”
Frankel, of course, knew the path, his Derby favorite Empire Maker having taken it the previous year to upend Triple Crown-minded Funny Cide.