Close race may bring spark back to racing

Steve Carp

Monday, June 8, 1998 | 9:15 a.m.

BELMONT, N.Y. -- They brought these huge bags of ice to Barn 9 to guarantee the 15 cases of beer stayed cold. Back at the Garden City Hotel, two cases of pink Dom Perignon also were on ice.

The trappings for a victory celebration were there for the connections of Real Quiet. He was poised to become thoroughbred racing's first Triple Crown winner in 20 years. The horse with the skinny features, who had been nicknamed "The Fish" by trainer Bob Baffert, was ready to deliver a much-needed shot in the arm to a sport that has struggled to keep up with the financial times.

Instead, Saturday's 130th running of the Belmont Stakes kept with recent tradition as Real Quiet came up a nose short. The number of Triple Crown winners remains at 11 as Victory Gallop's stirring stretch run was good enough to keep owner Mike Pegram's champagne on ice.

Had the finish line come up a foot shorter, they might've been calling for more champagne today. But those last 12 inches proved to be too much to overcome. Instead of joining the exclusive club of Triple Crown winners Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, Real Quiet becomes the 14th horse to be denied the honor, joining the ranks of Spectacular Bid, Pleasant Colony, Alysheba, Sunday Silence and Silver Charm.

No one knows if Pegram sold or gave the bubbly to the Preston brothers, owners of Victory Gallop.

As for the beer, it was long gone by the time Saturday had turned to Sunday.

Booster shot

So racing does not have a new Triple Crown winner, although the exciting finish may have helped the sport almost as much. More than 80,000 people crammed their way into Belmont Park and they saw as thrilling a conclusion as anything Hollywood or World Championship Wrestling could concoct.

A $17,000 purchase goes for the Triple Crown and gets beaten by a nose -- by a horse who had overcome ringworm and a skin rash for a trainer who broke his ankle the week before playing basketball.

It had all the trappings of a classic tale and the folks at Belmont were ready. There were lines everywhere, be it to bet, to eat or drink. That was to be expected. But the wait wasn't excruciating.

In the huge backyard behind the grandstand, children played, and college kids soaked up the sun. Veteran race track goers studied the Daily Racing Form and glanced at the many tout sheets sold at the track, promising winners and more winners.

For once, the sport actually put its best foot forward without stubbing its big toe. Maybe, just maybe, many of the 80,162 will return without the possibility of a Triple Crown to lure them to the track.

Even though he came up short yet again in New York, Baffert saluted the fans who came out to support his horse's quest for equine immortality.

"Those two horses showed up and put on a great show," Baffert said. "It was a hell of a roll."

Stirring finish

Before Saturday's running of the Belmont, Baffert crowed, "I think the Triple Crown gods are looking down on us."

He was right, until his horse reached the sixteenth pole and took on the appearance of a club fighter at Arizona Charlie's who had taken one too many shots to the kisser.

Real Quiet was four lengths to the good when he had just an eighth of a mile left to negotiate in the grueling 1 1/2-mile test of champions. He had gained the lead on the turn and was starting to open up daylight as he straightened out for the run down Belmont's long home stretch.

Those who packed the track were on their feet yelling, screaming. This is why they had come, to witness history.

What they saw was history. Only it wasn't the kind they expected.

Victory Gallop, who ran second to Real Quiet in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, had been languishing in ninth place when Real Quiet gained the lead.

But jockey Gary Stevens, who lost last year's Belmont and the Triple Crown chances of Silver Charm in the final 100 yards, was on the verge of being the spoiler instead of the spoilee. He shifted into high gear and Victory Gallop gobbled up the real estate in lightning-quick fashion.

Suddenly, Real Quiet wasn't alone anymore. And by the time he knew it, there wasn't anything he or jockey Kent Desormeaux could do about it.

With his charge laboring and drifting out, Desormeaux made contact with Stevens' horse. They collided again. They hit the finish line simultaneously, heads bobbing.

"I don't think he saw him coming," Desormeaux said of Victory Gallop's late charge. "The momentum change was too drastic."

Who won it?

Bump and run

Desormeaux, who had celebrated wildly in the Derby and the Preakness, didn't so much as raise an arm this time. Stevens, who wasn't sure he was the winner, found an outrider as he pulled his horse up and asked to speak to the stewards to file a foul claim.

The stewards had beaten him to the punch. The inquiry sign was going to be flashed once the results were posted. But when they put up Victory Gallop's No. 11 ahead of Real Quiet's No. 8, the inquiry was moot. That was fine with Baffert.

When told the stewards would have disqualified his horse had he won the tight photo, Baffert said, "I'm glad he got beat then. That would've been worse. I would've been throwing chairs."

Instead, Baffert, classy in defeat yet heartsick inside, threw bouquets to trainer Elliott Walden and rider Stevens, the duo that kept him winless in nine tries in New York.

"We talked every day that Victory Gallop was the horse to beat," Baffert said.

There will be debates as to whether Desormeaux moved too early with Real Quiet or if the stewards would actually have had the gumption to take down a Triple Crown winner had Real Quiet finished first.

Baffert said he'll leave history to the historians and try to return to New York next year with a horse good enough to make it to the winner's circle.

"At the eighth pole, I could taste it," Baffert said. I said, 'We're home free.'

"Sure, it was a letdown. You hate to lose like that. You're right there. But I'm not going to look back. That horse was ready to run. He was dead. He was tired. He got beat.

"The Fish floundered and that was it."