The "show must go on" and that it did one week ago at Belmont Park . After the events of the day before, the trip I made to see my 1st Belmont Stakes ended up a very enjoyable day. After writing my replacement column last Friday afternoon, the events of I'll Have Another weighed very heavily on my mind. I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to the trip and if I haven't pre-paid for it, I would have stayed home on the Sand Flats and watched the race on NBC. But after a long day of agony, bright and early Saturday morning I thought to make the best of it and go.
All the people who made the trip down on Wade Tours, were excited for a fabulous day of racing spite the news of there being no longer a Triple Crown threat. We got to Belmont Park around 10am and the facility was already beginning to get crowded. Since I had no reserved seat, I took my trusty Saratoga giveaway chair and found a spot right near the finish line. I had a little early success with the first five races and the crowd started to build as the under card stakes began.
The first stake of the day was the Easy Goer overnight stake at a mile and a sixteenth for three year old colts. Teeth of the Dog was the winner after last racing in the Preakness Stakes in his last start. Rank outsider, Fast Falcon finished 2nd at 27-1 for Nick Zito and gives him his first real shot at the three year old races this year.
Next up in the True North Handicap, we saw one of my favorite moments on the Belmont Stakes day card. The ever gutsy seven year old horse; Caixa Eletronica showed once again how versatile he is coming from dead last to win this six furlong test. He has won going route races and sprinting this year and was the claim of the decade for Todd Pletcher and Repole Stable. On a sad note out of this race, the N.Y. bred Horse of the Year; Giant Ryan broke down during the running and was euthanized this past Thursday.
In the Just the Game Stakes for filly and mares at a mile on the weeds, Tapitsfly from the rail wired the field with the two other co-choices finishing second and third. Impressive effort #2 for me was in the Woody Stephens Stakes for three year old colts going seven furlongs. I was very tough on the connections of Trinniberg for racing in this year's Kentucky Derby and thought that his effort in that race would be this horse's undoing next time out. Well, I always admit when I'm wrong and I was wrong about Trinniberg. This running fool wired a tough field and proved his Kentucky Derby DIDN'T take anything out of him. The time between the races was starting to spread out and the crowd was beginning to build. There was a blanket finish in the Manhattan Handicap with Desert Blanc winning in a photo for trainer Chad Brown. But, most of the attention was in the paddock area where a special horse was making his appearance.
The Kentucky Derby and Preakness hero; I'll Have Another made a last appearance in the paddock backyard to the roar of the Belmont Stakes crowd. He and his owners with handlers circled the paddock several times and I got to see the horse most people there came to see. It was great to see this horse and it was a very honorable thing that his connections did for the crowd that came to see his Triple Crown bid. This was a great lead into the race everyone came to see, the Belmont Stakes.
Now, I had to make my way back to the track and my spot near the finish line. I was fortunate to get very close to the fence among the crowd of 85,000 people and the race result did not disappoint me. Union Rags ran down the speedy Paynter just before the wire and redeemed himself for his Kentucky Derby effort. He did it from the inside and the question marks about him getting the mile and a half distance were answered. Once again, my Kentucky Derby selection is BACK in the three year old picture and nice to see. It was a long day and very crowded, but NYRA got great results and Belmont Stakes 144 was a success even though the Triple Crown bid went by the wayside the day before. I was glad I decided to go to Belmont Park this year and even though I was really disappointed the day before, in the end all things turned out great!
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