Belmont Always Long, Strange Trip

Those of us fortunate enough to cover the Triple Crown sweeps by Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed in the 1970s didn’t know how sweet it was. But after Affirmed gave us three exhilarating wins over the star-crossed Alydar in 1978, the gates slammed shut on Triple Crown heaven. The death of the 28-year-old Seattle Slew, three days after the running of the 2002 Derby, also meant that there wasn’t even a Triple Crown champ left alive.

The 1970s spoiled us, all right. We were so awash with Triple Crown heroes that when Spectacular Bid came along, at the end of the decade, we had the first three paragraphs of our stories written before he went into the gate of the Belmont Stakes. Trouble was, they still had to run the race. Just as they still have to run the race in New York on June 5, when Smarty Jones will try to join Affirmed and 10 others in racing’s pantheon.

Does the undefeated Smarty Jones owe us one more win, and a Triple Crown sweep that will end a drought of 25 years? Not really. The Smarty One has more than paid his dues, given racing just one more transfusion, and whatever he does the rest of his career ought to be accepted as gravy. If Smarty Jones wins the last race in the series, it will be because the Belmont Stakes owes us one. How sadistic can a race be? How much more torture will the Belmont subject us to? In theory, there’s still no rooting in the press box, but there’s nothing wrong with pulling for the best story, and with Smarty Jones, just as it was at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, the best story needs to be written one more time.

How can Smarty lose this one? Sorry to say, that’s what we asked about Sunday Silence and War Emblem and Funny Cide, among others. Since Affirmed, there have been nine near-misses, Derby-Preakness winners who couldn’t win the Belmont.

The gods of the Belmont are a fickle lot. In 1979, they left a mysterious open safety pin in Spectacular Bid’s stall the morning of the race, and hypnotized trainer Bud Delp into thinking that young Ronnie Franklin wouldn’t double-clutch. Spectacular Bid, three lengths ahead with a quarter-mile left, “weakened under pressure,” according to the Daily Racing Form’s chart. Franklin, in over his head in the Belmont, never rode the horse again.

Two years later, Jorge Velasquez, one of the best riders in the business, couldn’t get Pleasant Colony home in the Belmont. Then there were no Triple Crown threats until 1987, when Alysheba, after a nightmarish trip under Chris McCarron, was beaten by 14-plus lengths, the worst defeat of his career.

In 1989, Easy Goer beat Sunday Silence almost as badly as Bet Twice beat Alysheba. “It would be nice to go back there and avenge Sunday Silence’s defeat,” Pat Valenzuela said this week, just before the California Horse Racing Board suspended him for June. With the Belmont mount aboard Rock Hard Ten, the probable second choice, in the offing, Valenzuela was still mulling over his legal options Thursday.

The early 1990s were uninspiring times to cover a Belmont, although A.P. Indy and Julie Krone, the first -- and only -- woman to ride the winner, tried in earnest to jazz it up. By 1997, after an eight-year gap, the Belmont teased us again. Silver Charm had emerged from an exceptional crop of 3-year-olds but was knocked off by Touch Gold. Ten years after Alysheba, McCarron had his revenge aboard Touch Gold.

Since Silver Charm, there has been an onslaught of horses knocking on the door. The next year, Real Quiet was nipped by Victory Gallop at the wire, and a funereal silence at the post-race news conference was broken by his trainer, Bob Baffert, who said: “Cheer up. Nobody died.”

The Belmont gods spared an injured Charismatic in 1999, but not after he had run third to Lemon Drop Kid in his Triple Crown bid. Then in 2002, War Emblem was taken out of his game with a stumbling start, and last year Funny Cide ran out of tricks against Empire Maker.

Before the Kentucky Derby, Smarty Jones broke poorly in a couple of races but had enough talent to compensate. His jockey, the 39-year-old Stewart Elliott, might be a Belmont rookie, but he’s not mistake-prone the way Franklin was.

Late Thursday, a call was placed to the gods of the Belmont. After seven minutes on hold, one of them said that all was in order for June 5. Whatever that means. Another of them came on and talked briefly before hanging up. The connection was crackly, but I think he said: “They still have to run the race.”