Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Belmont Winner’s Gotta’ Have Style
ELMONT, NY, June 2, 2010--In the Kentucky Derby, the winner needs brilliance, toughness and heart. At Pimlico, it’s positional speed, turn of foot, and stamina.
But at Belmont Park, the winner needs style and a pedigree that won’t quit. A patient race rider completes the trifecta.
Billy Turner, who knows something about winning a Triple Crown, once explained that in the Belmont, a horse needs the ability to make three moves:
The first move is the run away from the barrier. Twelve furlongs is a galloper’s race but the right style demands that a horse has enough tactical speed to get away cleanly, steer clear of trouble, and find his own rhythmic beat. Nice and easy.
The second comes somewhere down the backstretch. It can be the subtle closure of a few lengths so that there’s not too much to do in the lane. Or reacting to a compromisingly slow pace, an assertive move that takes a tactical advantage.
Think George Martens and Summing in 1981.
The third move is to dig down deep and run farther and harder than horses likely will ever need to do so again.
Considering three-year-olds are still relatively young this time of year, that’s the kind of determination it takes to one day be called a champion.
There’s another element of Belmont style; physical attributes. A Belmont horse has got to “look the part.”
If there’s one animal that stands out on looks of the dozen hat were entered in Belmont 142 Wednesday morning, it’s Preakness runnerup First Dude, who drew post 11 and was installed an early line second favorite at 7-2.
“When Ramon [Dominguez] got off him after the Florida Derby, he said to me the Belmont is his race,” explained trainer Dale Romans at the draw. “He’ll love that track and will run all day.” Belmont style; First Dude’s got it.
“He just does everything right. When he made the [Preakness] lead in forty six and two, it looked like he was galloping. He was pressed all the way and when they surrounded him at the quarter pole, I thought he was done. But he dug back in.”
“This is the age of the bounce. Was the effort too enervating?” he was asked by Tom Durkin. Romans didn’t answer directly but made his feelings on that possibility known: “With a horse like this, you’re not going to skip a classic race.
“He’s a throwback kind of horse, a big rugged kind of horse, nothing bothers him. We were waiting to go a mile and a half. I don’t think the three weeks will bother him.”
The once-around-the park Belmont for three-year-olds provides a long run to the first turn, and the oval’s wide expanse provides plenty of room for all to get a clean trip.
So the only way post positions become relevant are where horses draw in relation to each other. The Nick Zito horses are well positioned, next to one another in mid-pack. Early favorite Ice Box (3-1) leaves from #6; Fly Down (9-2) alongside in slip #5.
At both extremes in the gate are Dave In Dixie (20-1), breaking from the rail, appropriately enough beneath Calvin Borel, and Interactif (12-1), likely to be part of a flying wedge from post 12 as he and First Dude curl around the first turn.
Co-fourth choice at 10-1 is Make Music For Me, leaving from post 4. “I think we’ll probably be in the middle somewhere,” explained Alexis Barba, bidding to become the first woman to saddle a Belmont winner.
“Our barometer has been Lookin At Lucky. We were overlooked because he did not win, but he definitely made his presence felt,” said Barba of her music man. Despite extreme trouble, the Bernstein colt (hence the name) came from last, beaten less than five lengths.
But it’s Zito, bidding for his third Belmont, who holds the aces. “Both are training exceptionally, they‘re very forward horses” said assistant trainer Stacy Pryor. “It was stop and start, stop and start,” said racing manager Ernie Reichard, “and once he got going on the outside [in Louisville], he just made up ground.”
“Nick is always tough in this race,” admitted Romans, “before referring to the trouble his First Dude had in Ice Box‘s Florida Derby. “But we think with extra distance and a little more experience, we can turn the tables.”
You need the right style to win the Belmont. A little confidence doesn’t hurt, either. We’ll take an analytical handicapping look at the Belmont field Friday, with a betting strategy posted on Saturday
Richard the Mignificent
With his neck in a brace to protect surgery that fused several vertebrae in his neck and spine, and with weariness laying heavily upon his face given the words he was about to speak, an emotional Richard Migliore, winner of 4,450 races, announced his retirement prior to the Belmont post draw, where his career started 30 years ago.
A Long Island native, the 46-year-old Migliore won or shared in 10 New York riding titles, not the least being the 298 winners in 1981, earning Migliore an Eclipse Award as the nation’s top apprentice. While “The Mig” never won a Triple Crown event, he rode the winners of 25 other Grade 1 races among his 362 career stakes victories.
“Everything good in my life has come from horses,” said Migliore, including meeting his wife Carmela on the backstretch when she worked for, and he apprenticed with, trainer Steve DiMauro. Migliore owns a farm in upstate New York where he lives with his wife and their four children.
“The biggest thing I feel is gratitude that I was able to live my dream.”
Written by John Pricci