Hard to Predict - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:39:00 GMT

Another Triple Crown season has come and gone, and as usual it did not disappoint. Many of the happenings would have been impossible to predict, however, such as:

• A 50-1 shot winning the May 2 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). It looked like Quality Road, The Pamplemousse, and I Want Revenge would all bring solid credentials to Churchill Downs for the Derby, but they fell by the wayside. At the end of the day, a new star was born when Mine That Bird came through on the rail under the master of such rides, Calvin “Bo-Rail” Borel, to wear the roses.

• The trainer of the Derby winner, Bennie “Chip” Woolley Jr., winning the race with his first-ever starter in a graded stakes race. Woolley proved there are good horsemen at every track in the country, just waiting to get their hands on a good horse. Two things stand out about Woolley: 1) He was incredibly accommodating to the media and fans, doing hundreds of interviews and signing hundreds of autographs. This from a guy surely worn out from hobbling around on crutches since breaking his leg in a motorcycle accident. 2) Over and over and over again, Woolley took little credit for the Derby win, BlackBerry Preakness (gr. I) second, or Belmont (gr. I) third. He credited the horse.

• A filly winning the Preakness for the first time since 1924. Those who witnessed the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) were left speechless by Rachel Alexandra’s dazzling 20 1/4-length procession the day prior to the Derby and left wondering if she would have beaten the boys had she run Saturday instead of Friday. Her owners (Dolphus Morrison and Michael Lauffer) did not want to run against males, but the next week she was sold (to Jess Jackson and Harold McCormick), switched barns (from Hal Wiggins to Steve Asmussen), and was headed to Baltimore for the middle leg of the Triple Crown.

• A jockey giving up the mount on the Kentucky Derby winner. In an unprecedented but completely understandable move, Borel stuck with the filly and made the right choice as she won the Preakness, holding off Mine That Bird and jockey Mike Smith. Borel and his longtime agent, Jerry Hissam, were put in an unusual situation but did what was right for the rider’s business.

• Borel regaining the mount on Mine That Bird; Borel becoming a media sensation. Calvin with Jay Leno; Calvin with David Letterman; Calvin on Good Morning America; Calvin ringing the opening bell on Wall Street as traders chanted his name. It’s Calvinmania. What is President Obama waiting for? Calvin Borel is a sweet, warm, down-to-earth person you can’t help but love, and every appearance helps Thoroughbred racing. If we could be so lucky as to have Mine That Bird turn into the next John Henry, we could ride this show for years to come. Again, Woolley showed complete class, knowing the jockey had to make the choice he did and putting him back on for the Belmont. It appeared Borel moved too soon in the Belmont, but after acknowledging that, the trainer said he would “be the first to pat him on the back.”

• Another trainer winning his first graded race in a classic. While it was not his first start in a graded race—it was his seventh—Tim Ice won the Belmont with Summer Bird for his first graded victory. A 15-year assistant, Ice learned his lessons well, skipping the Preakness, shipping to Belmont Park early, and saddling the colt to win the “Test of the Champion” in only his fifth start.

• Two classic winners for a sire in his first crop. We’ve seen numerous sires get one classic winner lately in his first crop, but Gainesway Farm stallion Birdstone notched two in Mine That Bird and Summer Bird. They carry C.V. Whitney bloodlines, and that leading to success is the one thing that could have been predicted to have turned out as it did.

Just Like Yesterday - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:15:00 GMT

There are moments along the Triple Crown trail that remain forever etched in our minds. For this writer, one of those was April 27, 1978.

Prior to the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) at Keeneland, then run just nine days before the Run for the Roses, Jorge Velasquez slowly walked local favorite Alydar from the post parade and toward the outside rail. There, the jockey stood the dark chestnut before his elderly, frail owners, Adm. and Mrs. Gene Markey.

The Markeys, who owned historic Calumet Farm near Keeneland, beamed as their latest star stood glistening under the farm’s easily recognizable red and blue silks and blinkers.

Though it happened 30 years ago, one can still see the station wagon pulling onto the grass beside the clubhouse, and Mrs. Markey walking to the rail with the aid of a Keeneland usher.

For a racing crazy University of Kentucky student in the last year of his teens, Alydar winning that day by 13 meant only one thing—he would be Calumet’s ninth Kentucky Derby winner.

Of course, it was not to be. Alydar’s nemesis, Affirmed, won all three Triple Crown races, and Alydar became the only horse to run second throughout the classic series. In fact, the Derby (gr. I) was by far the least exciting of the three races, Affirmed scoring by 1 1⁄2 lengths. The two were separated by only a neck in the Preakness (gr. I), and put on a show in the Belmont (gr. I) that will be recorded as one of the greatest races of all time. For the final six-plus furlongs, they ran together, Affirmed a determined head in front at the wire.

The evening of April 20, 2008, this writer watched the 1978 Triple Crown races for the first time in 30 years. And as Alydar put his head briefly in front at the three-sixteenths pole in the Belmont, emotions rushed back of knowing Alydar would get his revenge in the Test of the Champion.

We all know what happened. Affirmed was that good.

As a 2-year-old, Affirmed made nine starts and won seven. He finished second twice…to Alydar.

As a 2-year-old, Alydar made 10 starts and won five. He finished second four times. His connections thought so much of him they ran him first time out in the Youthful Stakes at Belmont, which Affirmed won by five lengths, with Alydar finishing fifth. Affirmed would beat him three more times that year, and Alydar also finished second in the Remsen Stakes (gr. II) to Believe It.

A few weeks ago, The Blood-Horse arranged to reunite the jockeys of Affirmed (Steve Cauthen) and Alydar (Velasquez). Features editor Lenny Shulman asked questions, replayed the Triple Crown races, and sat back and listened for two hours. As he notes in his introduction, the tape of the races was really not needed—each day, each workout, each step of the races remembered as if it were yesterday.

Besides the remembrance in this issue, four lengthy video pieces with the jockeys will air in the coming weeks. (Watch the video here.)

It was a great rivalry, perhaps the greatest.

“Alydar and Affirmed were six or seven lengths better than the rest of their generation. Simple as that. Alydar would run away from his fields, but Affirmed would only do it when Alydar was there to make him do it,” Cauthen said.

“These two horses were like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. They always brought the best out in each other,” Velasquez said.

”The longest three weeks of my life was the time between the Preakness and the Belmont,” Cauthen said, later adding, “There wasn’t a lot between those two horses. One small mistake, one little thing, can switch it either way.”

It is the stuff movies are made of.

Here’s hoping some movie producer thinks so.

What's Going On Here : preakness

Hard to Predict - by Dan Liebman

Just Like Yesterday - by Dan Liebman