36 The QUEE NS Courier • june 9, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com No Crown, but lots of fun in store at this year’s Belmont Stakes BY ROBERT POZARYCKI [email protected]/@robbpoz After 37 years of failure, Belmont Park celebrated like never before when American Pharoah became only the 12th horse in racing history to sweep the Triple Crown at last year’s Belmont Stakes. For the 90,000 in attendance that day, it was a moment they’ll never forget; the prolonged roar after American Pharoah crossed the finish line went on and on, as fans cheered a true horse racing legend. Once the cheers finally faded, racing fans began to wonder if the 2016 Belmont Stakes would produce the same kind of drama, excitement and history. As things turned out, this year’s Belmont Stakes on June 11 won’t have the same drama of a Triple Crown chase, as the first two legs of the Triple Crown were split between Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and Preakness Stakes champion Exaggerator. Fans hoped that the two horses would make it to Belmont Park for a rubber-match showdown, but a few days after the Preakness, Nyquist was ruled out of the Belmont due to illness. Fortunately, Exaggerator — trained and ridden by the Desormeaux brothers, Keith and Kent, respectively — will make the journey to Belmont Park on Saturday, June 11, looking to become the first horse since Afleet Alex in 2005 to win the last two legs of the Triple Crown after failing to win the first. Exaggerator can expect to face a slew of challengers, many of whom won key Kentucky Derby prep races in the spring, including Creator (Arkansas Derby winner), Brody’s Cause (Blue Grass Stakes winner), Destin (Tampa Bay Derby winner) and Lani (UAE Derby winner). Even without the Triple Crown suspense, there will be plenty of excitement in the days leading up to and including the Belmont Stakes. The NYRA will host its third Belmont Stakes Festival, three straight days of stakes races and entertainment from Thursday, June 9, through Saturday, June 11. Triple Crown winning trainer Bob Baffert and the owners of American Pharoah, the Zayat family, will hold a special question-and-answer session with the public on Thursday. The June 10 card features the $500,000 New York Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf and the $200,000 Belmont Gold Cup, a 2-mile turf race for older horses. Following the races, fans will enjoy a concert from the country duo Maddie & Tae. Along with the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, the June 11 card features three other races worth at least $1 million: the Metropolitan Mile for older horses on the dirt; the Ogden Phipps Handicap for older fillies and mares on the dirt; and the Manhattan Handicap for older horses on the turf. Rock group Daughtry will hold a concert after the races, and throughout the day, fans will be entertained by performances from the Broadway cast of the musical “Beautiful” and the United States Military Academy Band. Purchase tickets for the Belmont Stakes Festival at www.belmontstakes. com. If you’re heading to the races this weekend, take the Long Island Rail Road’s special Belmont Park Shuttle, which operates at the Jamaica station. TEN GREAT MOMENTS OF THE BELMONT STAKES 1.) “He is moving like a tremendous machine!” Secretariat’s 31-length triumph in the 1973 Belmont Stakes was perhaps the most impressive performance by a thoroughbred in racing history. He pulled away from his closest rival, Sham, with six furlongs left in the race, having run the first six furlongs in a record 1:09.4. The crowd roared louder as Secretariat’s lead grew further, and the horse seemed to go faster. Secretariat, who became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years, crossed the wire in a record time for the 1 1/2 miles in 2:24; no horse has come closer within two seconds of breaking it in the 42 runnings since. 2.) Affirmed and Alydar. Perhaps the greatest rivalry in thoroughbred history, Affirmed and Alydar finished one-two respectively in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. They went to the lead almost as soon as the Belmont Stakes gates opened. Affirmed maintained an edge on Alydar until the top of the stretch, when Alydar poked a head in front and looked as if he was going to finally beat his rival. But Affirmed, under jockey Steve Cauthen, showed the heart of a champion, fighting back on the rail and nosing out Alydar on the wire in becoming racing’s 11th Triple Crown champion. 3.) “American Pharoah is finally the one!” Between 1978 and 2015, 13 horses tried and failed to win the Triple Crown, with some losing in heartbreaking fashion near the Belmont Park finish line. The fans were desperate to see another Triple Crown triumph, and American Pharoah wouldn’t disappoint them. Under jockey Victor Espinoza, American Pharoah went to the lead and never looked back. He pulled away from his closest rival, Frosted, with 3/16th of a mile to go. Well clear of the field, 90,000 fans roared as Pharoah crossed the wire first, finally putting to an end the 37-year Triple Crown drought. 4.) Seattle Slew. The undefeated Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner of 1977 entered the Belmont Stakes rather unheralded, especially four years removed from Secretariat. But Seattle Slew would prove his mettle in his Belmont Stakes triumph and Triple Crown sweep. Despite facing nine rivals and a muddy track, Seattle Slew was unfazed. He went to the lead and never looked back, pulling away from the competition at the quarter pole. He strode into racing immortality under jockey Jean Cruguet, who triumphantly raised his whip to the fans as Seattle Slew crossed the finish line. 5.) “This photo is worth 5 million dollars!” Twenty years after Affirmed won the Triple Crown, Real Quiet entered the Belmont Stakes looking to capture one of his own and take a $5 million bonus for the sweep. Jockey Kent Desormeaux sat Real Quiet back through the first six furlongs of the race, then made his move to get Quiet to the lead. Real Quiet entered the stretch with a four length lead, but he was tiring fast. Victory Gallop, who finished second to Real Quiet in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, surged in the stretch, and the two horses hit the line together. But the photo would show Victory Gallop beating Real Quiet by a nostril, denying him the crown. 6.) “Birdstone surges past!” An announced record crowd of 120,000 packed Belmont Park in 2004 to see if the undefeated Smarty Jones, an upstart horse from Pennsylvania, would sweep the Triple Crown. As with past winners, Smarty Jones went to the lead, but ran through testing fractions through the first mile of the race. Nonetheless, he entered the stretch with a two-length lead, but he was facing a challenge from the late-running Birdstone. Smarty Jones would run out of gas in the stretch, and Birdstone ran by him at the 16th pole, causing an almost simultaneous groan from the crowd for yet another Triple Crown disappointment. 7.) New York’s horse. California-based Sunday Silence entered the 1989 Belmont Stakes with a chance to sweep the Triple Crown, having narrowly beaten the New York-based Easy Goer in the first two legs. Sunday Silence would go off as the betting favorite, but many New York fans — in the classic East-West showdown — made Easy Goer a sentimental choice. It looked as if Sunday Silence would beat Easy Goer again as he took the lead on the far turn, but Easy Goer would roll by his West Coast rival. In the stretch, as Sunday Silence faded, and fans cheered as “New York’s Eeeeee-asy Goer” (as track announcer Marshall Cassidy called) pulled away to a resounding Belmont Stakes victory. 8.) Making her-story. With no Triple Crown on the line and under rainy and foggy skies, the 1993 Belmont Stakes looked to be a rather anti-climatic running. But jockey Julie Krone and her horse, Colonial Affair, would make sure this race was memorable. Krone guided Colonial Affair over the sloppy Belmont Park course to victory, and propelled herself into racing history in becoming the first female jockey to win a Triple Crown race. 9.) A five-peat for Woody Stephens. If you can’t win three races in a single spring, why not sweep five classic races in five consecutive years? That’s what trainer Woody Stephens accomplished in 1986, when his Danzig Connection captured the Belmont Stakes under jockey Chris McCarron. Stephens set an all-time record for consecutive Belmont Stakes training victories, having won the four previous runnings with Conquistador Cielo, Caveat, Swale and Creme Fraiche. 10.) Saving Charismatic. Sometimes something greater comes out of defeat than it does in victory. Charismatic lost his bid to become a Triple Crown champion in the 1999 Belmont Stakes to Lemon Drop Kid, but the horse suffered what could have been a catastrophic leg injury in the stretch. Jockey Chris Antley pulled Charismatic up shortly after the finish line, then held the horse and his injured leg in place while help arrived. Antley’s efforts, captured on national TV, were credited with saving the horse’s life.
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