Belmont Spoiler Ready

[Secretariat]

Stevens could be Belmont spoiler
If Sunday Break wins next Saturday, the jockey twice will have denied a Triple Crown winner.

June 1, 2002

By LARRY BORTSTEIN
The Orange County Register


Gary Stevens has won all three Triple Crown races, but never more than two in the same year.

He won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes with Thunder Gulch in 1995 and the Preakness and Belmont Stakes with Point Given last year.

The closest he has come to sweeping the series was in 1997, when he won the Derby and Preakness with Silver Charm, only to be denied the Belmont Stakes by Touch Gold and Chris McCarron.

But Stevens can make another kind of Triple Crown history June 8 when he gets up on Sunday Break for the race's 134th running.

Sunday Break, the Japanese-bred son of Forty Niner, is virtually certain to be the second choice in the betting. A victory by him would make Stevens the first rider to twice deprive other jockeys of sweeping the Triple Crown.

His target this year will be Victor Espinoza, who will be using all his skill to help War Emblem become the 12th Triple Crown winner - and first since Affirmed in 1978.

"If I can't win the race, I hope Victor does," Stevens said. "I think it would be great for racing to have a Triple Crown champion. But more than anything, I want to win another Belmont."

Stevens thwarted an attempt at a Triple Crown for the first time in 1998 when he piloted Victory Gallop to a head victory over Derby-Preakness champion Real Quiet.

Today, he still calls the ride "the best of my career."

Stevens and trainer Elliott Walden had a game plan going into the Belmont and, Stevens recalled, it worked perfectly.

"Victory Gallop had a big kick but he didn't get a chance to show it in the Preakness, because we laid too close to the pace," the Hall of Fame rider recalled.

"But before the Belmont, I told Elliott I thought we ought to take him back and Elliott agreed completely. We came flying on the outside."

A similar ride by Touch Gold beat Silver Charm by a half-length in the 1997 Belmont.

"McCarron rode a great race that day," Stevens said.

"Silver Charm loved a fight, and Chris knew that. So he swung his horse wide in the lane and Silver Charm didn't see him. I think if Silver Charm had known he was there, he would have fought back.

"As we got near the wire, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow behind me, and I knew it was Touch Gold. I think it's the worst feeling I've ever had."

[bill777]

he's got no shot

[hart attack]

there will be NO triple crown winner this year!! you heard it hear!

[Secretariat]

Belmont Resurges After Decline
By JASON DIAMOS


he week leading up to the 134th running of the Belmont Stakes began yesterday with a hot-dog eating contest, a nondescript allowance feature on the grass and a modest, family-oriented crowd of 8,070.

It was a day like many others at Belmont Park, whose 420-acre site and one-and-a-half-mile dirt oval are the biggest of any thoroughbred racetrack in North America. But this Saturday, when War Emblem tries to become the first horse since 1978 to complete racing's Triple Crown, the expected crowd of 80,000 or more will match — for at least a day — the immensity of its surroundings.

"I don't think I'm going because there are going to be too many people," Betty Iwanciw, who is from the Glendale section of Queens, said yesterday as she gave the horses a last look in the paddock before the eighth race. "It's going to be hard to get a bet in."

The big crowd did not seem to matter to George Norton Sr. and his family, who are from the Bronx. "We'll be here, absolutely," he said. Norton and his son, George, attend Belmont every Saturday. His son added, "The Belmont Stakes is a must."

At the very least, the race has come back into vogue in recent years after a period of decline.

Since 1997, when 70,682 were on hand to watch the Bob Baffert-trained Silver Charm fall three-quarters of a length short of a Triple Crown to Touch Gold, the Belmont Stakes has attracted huge crowds.

In 1998, Real Quiet, also trained by Baffert, missed out on his Triple Crown bid by the length of Victory Gallop's nose in front of 80,162, the biggest Belmont crowd since 1971, when Canonero II's Triple Crown bid was thwarted by Pass Catcher before 82,694.

That 28-year-old record fell in 1999, when 85,818 saw Charismatic, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, become the third colt in three years to be narrowly denied the Triple Crown. He finished third, a length and a half behind Lemon Drop Kid, and was hurt just before the finish line, ending his career.

Even without the chance for a Triple Crown the last two years, the Belmont Stakes has drawn well: 67,810 in 2000 and 73,857 last year.

Contrast those figures with 1993 through 1996, when the biggest crowd was 45,037. In 1995, the crowd of 37,171 was the smallest on Belmont Stakes day since 1957, in the days before the racetrack was renovated from 1963 to 1968.

The 1960's were horse racing's heyday, when crowds of 50,000 on the weekends and 22,000 on weekdays were not out of the ordinary. With the advent of off-track betting in 1971, year-round racing in 1976, phone wagering in the 1980's and in-home televising of races in the 1990's, attendance at the track has steadily declined.

But the Belmont Stakes has experienced a renaissance.

"What we started doing was work to get the local communities involved," said Terry Meyocks, president and chief operating officer of the New York Racing Association, which operates Belmont Park. "In 1996, we started the Belmont Festival. And then we got lucky; for three years in a row, there was a potential Triple Crown winner. But even in 2000, when the race didn't have the Kentucky Derby winner or the Preakness winner, we still drew 67,000."

With the Baffert-trained War Emblem on the cusp of becoming just the 12th Triple Crown winner and the first since Affirmed, Belmont could find itself jammed with more than 80,000 people this Saturday.

"We need good weather," said Meyocks, who declined to estimate Saturday's crowd. "Whatever it is, we're prepared for a big crowd."

More than 700 tellers will help take bets, Meyocks said. On a normal weekday, there are usually 75 to 100 at Belmont. There were about 250 on hand today, Meyocks said.

The lines do not figure to be nearly as long on Friday for the 72nd running of the Acorn Stakes, a Grade I race for 3-year-old fillies. Whereas the Kentucky Derby's distaff counterpart, the Kentucky Oaks, drew 101,923 this year, the attendance for the Acorn last year was 11,110. This year, the New York Racing Association is trying to draw more people for Friday's Acorn card, which begins at 3 p.m. for twilight racing, with a Broadway promotion.

Saturday's card, which will have five graded stakes, needs no such help.

And even though Betty Iwanciw might not be there, she, like many others here today, said she was rooting for War Emblem.

"I would like to see him win the Triple Crown," she said. "It's been a long time."

[Secretariat]

Baffert: Healthy War Emblem will win
Belmont favorite gets No. 10 post
BY JEFF MILLER
[email protected]

ELMONT, N.Y. - This is trainer Bob Baffert talking about his horse two weeks ago:

``He's like Seattle Slew. He's that good. I was thinking Triple Crown the first time I saw him work out. He's too much for those other horses. If we keep him healthy, he'll win. He already has broken the hearts of those other horses. They know what's going on.''

This is Bob Baffert talking about his horse Wednesday:

``How's he look? Does he look like $5 million?''

OK, to be fair, Baffert did admit a victory by War Emblem in the Belmont Stakes is ''no gimme.'' But, to be accurate, a victory Saturday is very much expected.

That's why the colt is an even-money favorite, a result that would make a lot of history -- the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 -- and even more money, a $5 million bonus from Visa.

War Emblem will start from the 10th post position, which should spare him the danger of being boxed in or crowded at the first turn. Wiseman's Ferry, a 20-1 shot expected to charge out early and push -- or pull War Emblem -- will start from No. 3.

''I think the horse in the three hole is the key,'' said Bobby Frankel, the trainer for Medaglia d'Oro. ``If he goes, then the outside horse has to go. If [War Emblem] can stand the heat and still win, you've got to say he's a great horse.''

Entering the Kentucky Derby last month, War Emblem was a lightly regarded, mostly unknown 20-1 field filler. He then dominated the sport's most celebrated race, leading the entire way. In the Preakness Stakes, he surged from second place in the final turn to win.

Now he's here, having arrived Wednesday morning, greeted by so many photographers and reporters it appeared the media expected him to do something spectacular, like perhaps speak. War Emblem traveled from Louisville, Ky., on the same plane with his closest rival, Proud Citizen, who was second in the Derby and third in the Preakness and is the morning-line second choice at 5-1.

''Mentally, he's a very tough horse,'' Baffert said of War Emblem. ``He shipped good. We've done our homework. He's ready. As long as he's doing great, you'll see a smile on my face.''

This Triple Crown business and this final leg haven't been kind to Baffert, who otherwise has been successful in every respect. He came to New York with Silver Charm in 1997 and with Real Quiet in 1998, both horses having gone 2 for 2. Both, however, finished runner-up here.

Since '97, Baffert has won the Derby three times, the Preakness four times and the Belmont once. He also can claim something of a Triple Crown-plus, having won the past four races in the series -- last year's Preakness and Belmont, this year's Derby and Preakness.

Yet, he remains a mile and a half from completing the genuine Crown, a final obstacle his often ornery colt can clear Saturday.

[Jeff]