Creator edges Destin to win Belmont
Exaggerator finishes 11th
Irad Ortiz Jr., riding Creator, celebrates after winning the 148th running of the Belmont Stakes Saturday. “He was calm and I just waited for somewhere to go,” Ortiz said of the horse after the race. The victory gave Ortiz his first Triple Crown race win.
NEW YORK — The finish was dramatic, even without a Triple Crown on the line.
Creator found an opening in the stretch and ran down Destin in the final stride to win the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes by a nose — the closest possible margin.
“Today was perfect for us by inches,” said Steve Asmussen, who will be inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame this summer at Saratoga. “Being the victor of the Belmont Stakes will look good on that plaque.”
The 50-year-old trainer has won more than 7,300 races, including the Preakness with champions Curlin in 2007 and Rachel Alexandra in 2009. He was taken off the Hall of Fame ballot last year, though, because of allegations made by PETA about the way he treated his horses. He was later cleared by racing authorities in Kentucky and New York.
The 1 ½-mile “Test of the Champion” wraps up the Triple Crown a year after American Pharoah’s run to glory in becoming the first horse in 37 years to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont. This year, a different horse won each leg. Nyquist took the Derby and Exaggerator won the Preakness.
This was Creator’s day, a hot, sticky one at Belmont Park with temperatures in the mid-80s. Exaggerator, the 7-5 favorite in the field of 13, who raced well back in the pack, appeared to make it into contention but just didn’t have his usual finishing kick. He finished 11th.
A 3-year-old gray colt, Creator came flying down the stretch as Destin tried to hang on to the lead. Destin almost made it but settled for second with Japan-based Lani a closing third.
“I’m glad to see him put that number up; they came to the wire together,” Asmussen said of the Creator-Destin showdown. “Irad (jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.) gave him a dream trip. The horse ran super.”
Creator, sent off 16-1, returned $34.80, $14.60 and $9.40. Destin, trained by Todd Pletcher, returned $9.40 and $6.20 and Lani paid $6.60. The winning time was 2:28.51. The first three finishers were gray colts.
Governor Malibu was fourth, followed by Stradivari, Brody’s Cause, Cherry Wine, Gettysburg, Suddenbreakingnews, Trojan Nation, Exaggerator, Seeking the Soul and Forever d’Oro.
Ortiz won his first Triple Crown race.
“He was calm and I just waited for somewhere to go,” Ortiz said. “When he got clear, he started running.” Unlike Exaggerator. Kent Desormeaux, the Hall of Fame rider aboard the colt, second-guessed his decision to ask Exaggerator to wait behind the pace. When he tried to make a move, the horse trained by his brother, Keith, just didn’t have it.
“I don’t know if there would have been any difference in the outcome,” Kent Desormeaux said. “When I picked him up at the quarter-pole to try and win the race, there was nothing there.”
No one needs to remind the San Jose Sharks about the difficulties of closing out a playoff series, how each missed opportunity can give confidence to the opponent and plant seeds of doubt in the leading team.
Two years after becoming the fourth NHL team ever to lose a best-of-seven series after winning the first three games, San Jose is trying to pull off a historic comeback of its own in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Sharks looks to stave off elimination for a second straight contest and force a decisive seventh game in the final when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 today (7 p.m., WMC Channel 5 ).
“The longer it goes, you just feel that pressure, ‘You got to get it done, you got to get it done,’” Sharks defenseman Justin Braun said. “And when it doesn’t happen, it creates a little frustration and you’re like, ‘We could have been done with this days ago and we’re still going.’ I think that gets in your head a little bit.”
That’s what happened to San Jose in the first round in 2014 against Los Angeles and what the Sharks hope the Penguins are feeling after failing to win the Cup on home ice in Game 5.
Despite being outplayed for much of the series, including the Game 5 win when Pittsburgh outshot San Jose 46-21, the Sharks know the pressure on the Penguins will increase if San Jose can win at home to force the winner-takeall seventh game in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.
“I’ve been a part of teams, especially over there, that have lost being up 3-1,” said Sharks defenseman