Justify’s Triple Crown win brings us together to admire an uncommonly gifted horse

Sat, 09 Jun 2018 18:45:00 -0400

Justify made racing history Saturday with his victory in the Belmont Stakes, becoming only the 13th Triple Crown champion and the first since American Pharoah won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 2015.

The crowd was enthusiastic, appreciative and thrilled to witness the second Triple Crown winner in four years.

After American Pharoah became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, Sports Illustrated published a cover photo that showed a packed apron on a gorgeous day at Belmont Park.

In the background of the photo was American Pharoah crossing the finish line. In the foreground were hundreds of people, all with their phones raised, doing their best to capture in a split-second a moment of history. Even people who bet against American Pharoah were happy to trade losing money for witnessing the elusive accomplishment.

Unanimity, or near unanimity, is a rare thing in horse racing. The very essence of pari-mutuel wagering is that I bet against you in the same pool, and if I win, I get your money. It’s the customers’ money – not the house’s – that supplies the payoffs. Strong opinions are currency; and a big payout is not uncommonly accompanied by a trace of smugness.

In that way, horse racing may not be all that different from politics – another activity in which participants revel in disagreement, crow about being right, and can get big payouts if they pick a winner.

Fortunately, most racetrack disputes end with even the defeated offering a grudging respect for the winners. Even the people who bet against Justify on Saturday appreciated the prodigious accomplishments of an uncommonly gifted racehorse.

And even though “the horse race” has become a conventional metaphor for an election cycle, the grace that often accompanies losing hasn’t quite transferred to the political arena.

In the mid-20th century, when horse racing was the most popular sport in the country and when it began to be televised widely, horses like Seabiscuit and Native Dancer captured the country’s imagination.

These horses appeared on mainstream magazine covers, and after four Triple Crown winners in the 1940s the sport’s audience fixated on the quest for the next horse that could win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.

As the overall popularity of racing declined with the rise of other legal forms of betting, most people in the U.S. would pay attention to horse racing only at the beginning of May, with the Kentucky Derby. They’d stick around for two weeks, and if the Derby winner faltered in the Preakness, they turned their attention elsewhere until the next year.

If a horse came to Belmont having won the first two legs, attention became frenzied, with more than 100,000 people coming out in the early years of the 21st century, hoping to see history made.

That’s why after American Pharoah won the Triple Crown attendance at horse races didn’t increase by any significant number. Even a Triple Crown winner doesn’t have the ability to build a mass audience, and the buzz accompanying this year’s attempt was far more muted than it was three years ago.

There was one pretty much sure bet on the day: that when it was over, we’d go back to our respective camps, in the hope, maybe, of getting another chance to come together next year.

Justify is the story at the Belmont Stakes

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 17:43:00 -0400

Heading into Saturday’s Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., the story is obviously Justify, the 33rd horse to come to the Belmont after having won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. Only 12 of those 32 horses have won the Belmont, and Justify stands a very good chance of becoming the 13th.

When he won the Kentucky Derby, Justify became the first horse since Apollo in 1882 to win the race without having raced as a two-year-old. He won his first four races seemingly effortlessly, and even when challenged in the Preakness three weeks ago, he drew on reserves of tenacity and stamina to prevail by a half-length, remaining undefeated.

His trainer, Bob Baffert, is at Belmont for the fourth time trying to win a Triple Crown. Unsuccessful in his first two attempts, in 1997 and 1998, he broke the 39-year Triple Crown drought three years ago with American Pharoah.

Justify is owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, Starlight Racing and Head of Plains Partners. While all eyes will be on the chestnut colt with the big white blaze, racing enthusiasts and casual fans shouldn’t ignore the other stories in the race, or the opportunity to make a profit while trying to beat the favorite.

Such as: both Baffert and WinStar have other horses in the races. Baffert will run longshot Restoring Hope, who is owned by Gary and Mary West, and WinStar will run Noble Indy, owned in partnership with Repole Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher. So conceivably, both the owner and the trainer have a chance to win the race but lose the Triple Crown.

Tenfold finished less than a length behind Justify in the Preakness, finishing third, and he is sponsored by Sentient Jet, which has a charitable partnership with Homes For Our Troops, a non-profit that builds custom homes for injured and disabled veterans, at no cost to the service people.

Hofburg is even more lightly raced than Justify, but considered to have a good shot at the upset. Hofburg has just won just once in four races, but his second-place finish in the Florida Derby was impressive. He was seventh in the Kentucky Derby and skipped the Preakness.

Bravazo is trained by 82-year-old D. Wayne Lukas, a two-time winner of the Belmont (1995 and 2000) and finished a close second to Justify in the Preakness. An institution on the backstretch, Lukas is known for, on his way to the winner’s circle, choosing a child to come into the picture with him. Whether he’d do that for a Belmont Stakes win is debatable, but Lukas in the winner’s circle with or without a child would cause a media frenzy.

Gronkowski is indeed named for the football player, who purchased a share in his namesake this spring as the horse prepared for the Kentucky Derby. At the time based in England, Gronkowski suffered an infection that kept him out of the Derby, and he was then transferred by his owners to the U.S. barn of Chad Brown, last year’s Eclipse Award winner for Outstanding Trainer. Gronkowski has never raced on dirt, he’s never raced in the United States, and he’s never run beyond a mile (the Belmont is a mile and a half), but his odds on Saturday will almost certainly be lower than they should be because of his name.

The other runners in the Belmont are Free Drop Billy, Vino Rosso, and Blended Citizen. Free Drop Billy’s trainer Dale Romans became something of a local hero on Tuesday night when, after the Belmont Stakes draw was held at Citi Field, he performed the Heimlich maneuver during the Mets-Orioles game on a choking woman.

Vino Rosso is owned by two New Yorkers, Mike Repole of Queens and Vinnie Viola of Brooklyn, the former the founder of Vitamin Water (and the co-owner of Noble Indy), the latter the owner of the NHL’s Florida Panthers. Both would consider winning their hometown race a crowning achievement.

Though based in California, Blended Citizen shipped to Belmont last month and won the Peter Pan Stakes; ignore experience and a win over Belmont’s unusual track configuration at your peril.

The weather forecast has improved, racing history is on the line, and there’s money to be made at the windows. Post time for the Belmont on Saturday is 6:46 pm, and the race will be televised on NBC. The winner will be worthy – good luck and safe trips to all the horses and jockeys.

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Justify’s Triple Crown win brings us together to admire an uncommonly gifted horse

Justify is the story at the Belmont Stakes