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Belmont Draw notes: No luster lost for trainers
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
ELMONT, N.Y. -- No Triple Crown threat. No Derby winner. No Preakness winner.
No Japanese posse, either. And how about that oh-so-proper Englishman? Or camera-happy Bob Baffert?
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From left, are Hugh Hefner trainer Martin Jones, Aptitude trainer Bobby Frankel, Postponed trainer Scotty Schulhofer, Wheelaway trainer John Kimmel, and Impeachment trainer Todd Pletcher. |
If star appeal is your thing, Belmont Park isn't for you. Put it this way, if Nick Zito were here, he'd be hailed like Ted Williams at last year's All-Star Game.
Welcome to this year's Belmont Stakes: The world's most expensive race held for 3-year-olds that no one has heard of.
With Kentucky Derby flash-in-the-pan cult figure, Fusaichi Pegasus, and the upset winner of the Preakness, Red Bullet, out of the third jewel of the Triple Crown, the air has seemingly been blown out of the race. After all, it's the first time since 1970 that the pristine grounds of Belmont has seen a Stakes go off without at least one horse looking to make it two-for-three in the sport's grandest series of races.
Just don't tell that to the 11 trainers who made the pilgrimage up north for the 132nd running of the Belmont. As far as they're concerned, this race will serve as the perfect showcase to prove just how deep the 3-year-old pool is. The divisional championship and Horse of the Year honors are still up in the air, as well, depending on how FuPeg and Red Bullet fare the rest of the season. And, for one lucky set of connections, it will undoubtedly set up quite a bit of publicity for the Frazier-Ali-Foreman pseudo-tournament for horse racing's heavyweight title over the next five months between all three winners of this spring's prestigious races.
Sitting together over breakfast at small white-clothed tables, the participating trainers did their best to hype up Saturday's race while awaiting the post-position draw.
Though you'd never know it, the most joyous man of the group was Robert Frankel, the esteemed trainer for Derby runner-up Aptitude. His dark bay is going off as the favorite at 8-5, something that would have looked like an impossibility five weeks ago when the FuPeg Open was taking place.
"Good," said the 1995 Hall of Fame inductee, "I don't need the competition. If it was up to me it'd be a one-horse race."
He wasn't kidding.
"Whatever is easiest for me to win," says Frankel. "I'm not disappointed at all [that Fusaichi Pegasus is out of the race]. We'll hook up some other time."
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We conceded this thing [Triple Crown] to Fusaichi Pegasus, but then came Red Bullet. There's no sure-thing now with the competition. You're gonna get beat on this circuit now. ” |
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— Trainer Carl Nafzger |
When the notion of this being a lackluster Belmont Stakes due to the absence of several name horses, Carl Nafzger shook his head furiously. He understands, though. It's the naivete of the sport's Johnny Come Latelys that make this race hardly a blip on the sports map this weekend.
"The fields are so much tougher nowadays, where in the past it was all about two or three horses," said the trainer of Unshaded. "It's three times tougher now than it was in the '80s or early '90s. I mean, find me a bad horse in the field."
Nobody dared to mutter "Hugh Hefner," the fan-favorite, but the biggest longshot at 50-1.
"We conceded this thing [Triple Crown] to Fusaichi Pegasus, but then came Red Bullet," said Nafzger, who won the Kentucky Derby with Unbridled in 1990. "There's no sure-thing now with the competition. You're gonna get beat on this circuit now."
A mention of any sort of letdown only draws disgusted looks from the legendary 75-year-old trainer Scotty Schulhofer, who is here with Postponed.
"It's a good race. Why shouldn't it be good for racing fans?"
And, no, it's not just the trainers-turned-spin doctors who aren't walking around with their heads down because it's the first time this track hasn't had a Triple Crown on the line since 1996. In fact, the beam illuminating from ABC's longtime announcer Dave Johnson's face could light up Yankee Stadium.
"This is all so great, just like every year," says Johnson, who only has mixed feelings about this year's Belmont because it's ABC's last crack at covering it. "What can I say, I bet horses. I go to the track on my days off. I do it because I love it.
"So it's impossible to say that this year's race isn't going to be special once again."
Hef's a frontrunner
Leave it to a colt named Hugh Hefner to always be at the forefront. Just as he did at the Preakness before dropping back for a sixth-place finish, the Martin Jones-trained dark bay is expected to scamper to the head of the pack from post 10.
"Everyone knows what we're doing -- we're going to lead with him," said Jones, who mentioned that it was owner Ed Nahem's decision to run here, not his.
But without another speed horse to speak of (yes, Hal's Hope will be missed), the other 10 trainers are counting on ol' Hef to keep a good pace.
"I'm a little concerned, I'd like to see more pace," said Schulhofer.
"For his chances, it's [speed] critical," said Todd Pletcher of Impeachment's chances. "We need an honest pace."
Only Frankel seems confident that Hugh Hefner will get it done in the early going to set up the rest of the field nicely for the last half-mile or so of the one-and-a-half mile race.
"There'll be plenty of pace," said Frankel, once known as "King of the Claimers" for his skilled eye. "Hugh Hefner will be up there on the lead. We'll be fine."
The one and only
Who would have known that only one horse would make it to all three jewels of the Triple Crown? Todd Pletcher can't speak for the others, but he knew his brown colt would be here.
"He's a real durable, rugged type of individual," said the 33-year-old trainer of Impeachment. "The way he drops off the pace makes it easy on him."
The fact that his third-place finisher in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness is running in all three has a lot to do with his colt's poor, shall we say, motivational habits.
"He's almost on the lazy side," said Pletcher, making his first Belmont start. "That's why we went on to the Pimlico. Five weeks would have been too long of a layoff. That's also why we always work him in tandem [with stablemate Silver Phantom]."
If Impeachment finishes third once again, it'll be the first time since Mane Minister in 1991 that a horse placed in all three events.
Mo Money
This race is paramount for 30-1 Tahkodha Hills. Not simply because of the $600,000 payout or the prestige of winning one of the jewels of the Triple Crown, either. If Ralph Ziadie's colt wins on Saturday, he will earn a $1 million bonus from Lone Star Park for winning the Lone Star Derby (April 22) and a Triple Crown race.
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