Gee, do you think Justify will be going to the White House?
The massive chestnut colt – huge, as a certain American president would say – secured the Triple Crown in decisive fashion Saturday with a win in the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York. Schooled by Bob Baffert, 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah’s trainer, Justify is the 13th colt to win the Crown and only the second to do so undefeated (behind Seattle Slew, 1977). Neigh-sayers (I couldn’t resist) note that …
Read MoreLast weekend was one for hats – at the royal wedding Saturday and later at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore for the Preakness Stakes, in which Kentucky Derby winner Justify edged past Good Magic, then hung on to beat Bravaro and Tenfold. (At least that’s what seemed to happen. It was hard to see the horses for the fog on the rainy, muddy track.)
Can Justify become the first undefeated horse since Seattle Slew in 1977 to win the Triple Crown? Already the naysayers – the No, No Nanettes – are out in force, noting that Justify looked tired and just squeaked by Bravaro. But he got the job done, didn’t he? …
Read MoreJust when I said that Nyquist reminded me of Seattle Slew, lo and behold some of the experts come along and agree. Like Slew, Nyquist is dark, underrated and a prodigy, becoming a champ at 2. Like Slew, Nyquist came into the Kentucky Derby undefeated. And like Slew, Nyquist has captured the Derby, the first jewel in the Triple Crown and now moves on to the Preakness May 21.
There are those like Thoroughbred aficionado and art collector Thomas DeChiara who see the hard-charging Exaggerator’s second-place Derby finish to Nyquist as a kind of Affirmed-Alydar rivalry. Could be. Alydar is the only horse in history to finish second in the three Triple Crown races, always to Affirmed, who succeeded Slew as Triple Crown champ in 1978. But for Affirmed, Alydar would’ve won the Triple Crown. ...
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You know how they always say you have to get back on the horse, back in the saddle?
Well, that’s just what American Pharoah has done, so to speak. After a three-week victory parade, he’s back working out at his home track, Santa Anita, and looking good doing it.
No word on where he’ll be racing next so there’s no point in speculating. What’s clear is that he has a few races left, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic Oct. 30 and 31, before he begins making other little horseys. That’s too bad. Bloodlines are tricky, as I’ll explore in “Criterion,” the third planned book in my series “The Games Men Play,” told in part from the viewpoint of a racehorse trying to win the Triple Crown. ...
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So what’s next for the champ? The Pharoah has gone back to his home base, Churchill Downs in Kentucky, for a breather. But he may soon be back in our area.
Trainer Bob Baffert has said he’ll run two or three more times this year, possibly at the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in New Jersey on Aug. 2 and the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in New York Aug. 29. The ultimate goal, though, is the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic in October where he could meet up with our old friend California Chrome.
It’s so exciting to watch a 4-year-old like Chrome take on a 3-year-old like the Pharoah. I remember a 4-year-old Seattle Slew beating a 3-year-old Affirmed twice in the only battles of former Triple Crown winners. But then a 4-year-old Affirmed beat a 3-year-old Spectacular Bid, who should’ve won the Crown in 1979, the year after Affirmed. The superiority of a 4-year-old racehorse to a 3-year-old is sort of like Roger Federer in his prime taking on a teenage Novak Djokovic. It’s no contest. Still the Pharoah might take Chrome. ...
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Well, say what you want and, of course, in the blogosphere, the public has already said plenty. American Pharoah isn’t Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner. The field the Pharoah ran against in the Belmont Stakes Saturday, D-Day, was weak. Blah, blah, blah.
But you know what? You play the hand you’re dealt. American Pharoah led wire-to-wire, as did the last horse to win the Triple Crown before him, my beloved Affirmed, in 1978. AP ran the Belmont faster than Affirmed and Seattle Slew, who won the Triple Crown in 1977. He did whatever was asked of him, poor baby, running with his spongy earplugs, because the crowd noise rattles him. In doing so, he gave us a moment in history. That’s what great athletes do. They give us a moment in time in which we can say “I was there when” or “I remember when,” a moment that unites us with those we’ll never know. ...
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Saturday, June 6 is D Day in more ways than one. American Pharoah will attempt to become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to win the Triple Crown. Post time is 5:50 p.m. on NBC, though coverage begins at 3:30 p.m.
The odds, the experts say, are not with the Pharoah. There will be fresh horses – Frosted and Materiality, among them – gunning for him. Belmont Park, with the longest of the three Triple Crown tracks at 1 ½ miles, is not his home track as it was in the 1970s for Affirmed, Seattle Slew and Secretariat, the last three Triple Crown winners. Horses are bred today for speed not endurance. Yada, yada, yada. ...
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