Sports

Lukas duo on track for Belmont

D. Wayne Lukas, who set the record for 14 Triple Crown victories when he saddled Oxbow to win this year’s Preakness, has declared both Oxbow, sixth in the Kentucky Derby, and Will Take Charge, eighth in the Derby and seventh in the Preakness, will run in next Saturday’s 145th Belmont Stakes.

“They’re both doing great,” Lukas said after his two colts worked Thursday at Churchill Downs, “or else I wouldn’t be putting them on a van.”

If Shug McGaughey is satisfied with the way Derby winner Orb works tomorrow morning at Belmont Park, he would join Lukas’ pair as the only 3-year-olds from this crop to compete in the Derby, Preakness and Belmont.

Which raises the question: What does the future hold for horses that run in all three Triple Crown events?

There is no doubt the Triple Crown grind can take its toll, even for the winners. Seattle Slew, after the 1977 Belmont, finished a distant fourth in the Swaps and didn’t win another stakes until September 1978. Affirmed won the Jim Dandy, then lost five straight. Even Secretariat lost two of his next four starts.

But then there are iron horses such as Damascus, Arts and Letters, Easy Goer, Skip Away and Curlin, who seem to come out of their Triple Crown campaigns better than ever.

Over the past 20 years, 39 horses have run in all three of the Crown jewels, including five in 1996, four in 1999 and 2001, and none in 2006 and 2010. Of the horses in that span that won two of the three, many did not fare well as 3-year-olds following the Belmont (although some came back to be superior 4-year-olds):

* Silver Charm (1997) did not race again until December.

* Real Quiet (1998) did not race again until February 1999.

* Charismatic (1999) broke down in the Belmont.

* War Emblem (2002) won the Haskell, finished up the track in the Pacific Classic and Breeders’ Cup, and was retired.

* Funny Cide (2003) was 0-for-2.

* Smarty Jones (2004) never raced again.

* Afleet Alex (2005) never raced again.

* Big Brown (2008) won the Haskell and another race at Monmouth Park and was retired.

Other champions that went 2-for-3 in the Triple Crown, however, were productive in their remaining races at 3:

* Tabasco Cat (1994) won the Kentucky Cup Classic and placed in the Jim Dandy, Travers and Breeders’ Cup Classic. He did not race at 4.

* Thunder Gulch (1995) won the Swaps, Travers and Kentucky Cup Classic before breaking down in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

* Point Given (2001) won the Haskell and Travers before he was retired with an injury.

So the results are mixed for horses that dance every Triple Crown dance. Horses such as Louis Quatorze, Victory Gallop, Hard Spun and Shackleford emerge from the spring classics with some bullets left to fire. But for every one of those, there is a Wild Gale, a Go for Gin, an Impeachment, Monarchos, Proud Citizen or Mine That Bird that never wins another race.