He was standing inside a bustling restaurant at his Triple Crown hotel, watching his jockey being interviewed on a television above the bar, a little more than 24 hours before his horse, California Chrome, tries to make history.
“I’ve said this horse is going to win a Triple Crown, and I’m saying it again: This horse is going to win a Triple Crown,” Steve Coburn told The Post.
“I guarantee it.”
We watched Willis Reed limp out for Game 7 at the Garden 44 years ago. We watched Mark Messier hoist the Stanley Cup at the Garden 20 years ago. It has been five years since the Yankees won their 27th championship at Yankee Stadium, 28 years since the Mets won Game 7 at Shea Stadium over the Red Sox.
It has been 34 years since Billy Smith skated with a beer in his hand after the Islanders swept the Edmonton Oilers at the Nassau Coliseum to win their fourth consecutive Cup. It has been 38 years since Dr. J. led the Long Island Nets to the ABA crown over the Denver Nuggets. It has been 11 years since the Devils beat the Mighty Ducks in Game 7 and won the Stanley Cup at Continental Airlines Arena.
And it has been 36 years since Belmont Park has witnessed a Triple Crown.
That’s long enough.
A little before 7 on Saturday night, this unlikely contender named California Chrome tries to join Affirmed (the last horse to win the Triple Crown), Seattle Slew, Secretariat and all the other greats in the forever winner’s circle.
An ailing sport turns its lonely eyes to California Chrome, and jockey Victor Espinoza, and the self-proclaimed “Dumb-Ass” owners Steve Coburn and Perry Martin, whose improbable racing dream began for $8,000 with a filly named Love the Chase, and trainer Art Sherman, who was an exercise rider on 1955 Kentucky Derby winner Swaps, and asks them all to remind the nation what the Sport of Kings used to mean.
Asks this horse to be the first California-bred Triple Crown winner and destiny’s darling.
Asks Espinoza for the ride of his life after War Emblem betrayed his first shot at a Triple Crown 12 years ago.
California Chrome: the Say Hay Kid.
“They’ve called him a joke, they’ve called him everything but a clown … and he’s proved them all wrong, he’s turned them all back,” Coburn said.
“This is the best 3-year-old out there. When Bob Baffert steps up to the plate and says, ‘I’m not going to race against this monster again,’ then you know you’ve got a serious racehorse.
“This horse is very easygoing, he’s got a very, very good demeanor about him, he loves people. But [Saturday], in the saddling paddock, when they put the blinkers on this horse, you watch his change of attitude. This is a very, very serious horse.”
Game face.
“Yes sir,” Coburn said. “It’s a lot of fun, and he’s doing it for one reason, because he loves what he does. This is a very serious racehorse.”
Coburn, who works as a press operator in a factory that puts magnetic strips on credit cards in the Reno, Nev., area, so much more cowboy than Kentucky blue blood, was wearing his ever-present, off-white cowboy hat.
“I’ll get nervous when they lock him up on the gate,” he said, “because if an accident’s going to happen, that’s when it’s going to happen. As long as everybody’s real calm and he gets a clean break, this horse will win the race. He’ll win the race.”
Coburn, 61, saw California Chrome on Friday morning at the track.
“He got his Mrs. Pastures cookies so he’s a pretty happy horse,” Coburn said, and smiled. “There’s an old saying: ‘A happy horse is a horse that will run for you.’
“We’ve only been in this game six years. Like I said, this horse was sent down from the heavens to us, I don’t know why, I’m not going to question it. It could have happened to anybody, but it happened to us. And we’re just thankful that it happened.”
Secretariat jockey Ron Turcotte and Seattle Slew jockey Jean Cruguet, signing autographs Friday at Belmont, will be rooting for California Chrome, along with most of the 130,000 who will endure the gridlock on the Cross Island Parkway and Hempstead Turnpike hoping Smarty Jones and Big Brown and California Chrome will not leave them with a Triple Frown.
“You don’t have to be the multi-multi-millionaire guy to get in the game,” Coburn said. “Dreams do come true, and we’re living examples of that.
“We just want the American people to know that it’s not about the money — it’s about the love of a horse, the love of a mare, and just the people that have stood behind us, not only in the United States now, but around the world.
“And I honestly believe you’ll be able to hear the world clapping simultaneously when this horse wins the race.”