Once again, the “Test of the Champion” proved otherwise.
A day after Palace Malice pulled off an upset in the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown, the race for a championship is wide open now that each of the classics has been won by a different 3-year-old.
“Everyone goes into the rest of the summer and fall with similar resumes,” trainer Todd Pletcher said yesterday, as he declared his Belmont winner is “feeling very good.”
“I don’t think there’s a clear-cut leader.”
In a Belmont featuring a rematch between Kentucky Derby winner Orb and Preakness winner Oxbow, it was one of Pletcher’s record five entries that handled the 1 1/2 -mile marathon the best.
The son of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin took the lead from Oxbow on the far turn and barreled down the stretch for a 3 1/4-length victory Saturday. Orb made a run at the leaders from way back in the field of 14, but didn’t come close and finished third, 1 3/4 lengths behind Oxbow.
“To try to make up that much ground is almost impossible because it’s so tiring,” said Orb’s trainer, Shug McGaughey. “Those horses shook loose and we couldn’t catch them.”
The Belmont has been a heartbreaker for decades. This one prevented Orb or Oxbow from rising to the top of the 3-year-old class. Other Belmonts, though, have done in 11 horses who tried and failed to become a Triple Crown champion, leaving the sport without one for 35 years.
Having a well-rested horse for the Belmont seems to have its benefits. Since 2000, there have been seven Belmont winners who ran in the Derby but skipped the Preakness. And, all four of the Triple Crown tries during that time were spoiled by horses who did not run in the Preakness.
“It’s not coincidental at all,” said Pletcher, who also won the 2007 Belmont with Rags to Riches. “If you want to win the Belmont, it makes a lot of sense to sit out the middle one.”
“The fresh horse is always going to have an edge, in my opinion.”