Columnist Ralph Siraco: Real Quiet comes up short in bid to win Triple Crown

Ralph Siraco

Monday, June 8, 1998 | 10:14 a.m.

T] HOROUGHBRED RACING concluded its semiannual drum beating for the Sport of Kings on Saturday. This five-week blitz -- starting on the first Saturday in May with the Kentucky Derby -- wound up in a frenzy with the Belmont Stakes.

The beat was loud and clear, and it was anything but Real Quiet.

Each year, the great game of horse racing makes its way into the consciousness of the American fiber with the Derby and, if that winner captures the Preakness Stakes two weeks later, then the drum beating and banner waving marches nonstop to the Big Apple three weeks later, setting the stage for a new equine hero if a Belmont Stakes victory secures the sport's most coveted prize -- the Triple Crown.

The Triple Crown is special. How special? Well, more men have landed on the moon than there are Triple Crown winners, and there have been a tenfold more attempts at the Crown than the cheese.

Unlike other sports competitions, the Triple Crown is not awarded as a year-end crown to the best accomplishments annually, but rather is earned by a perfect race through a grueling test that each horse gets but once in a lifetime.

Best of seven may be good enough to win the NBA Championship, but two out of three won't win the Triple Crown, even if it's a buzzer beater.

Ask trainer Bob Baffert, owner Mike Pegram and jockey Kent Desormeaux. They will tell you an inch is as good as eternity in the Triple Crown.

The Fish was caught in ELmont, N.Y., after Victory Gallop reeled in the purse and turned the roar heard 'round the country into a real quiet shock at the end of a Triple Crown for the ages.

By the time Real Quiet showed up at Belmont Park on Saturday for a date with destiny, his name was as well known as Monica Lewinsky's.

After bursting onto the scene with a Kentucky Derby victory as the Avis horse in the Baffert barn, the son of Quiet American thrashed his classmates in the Preakness Stakes at Baltimore two weeks later, and a star was born to a horse with the profile of a fish.

It has been well chronicled by now that Real Quiet had crooked legs which required surgery to even be worthy enough to sell. Purchased at a modest price of $17,000, he appeared a bust after a failed attempt at breaking his maiden at Santa Fe.

But Baffert had faith, and the agile colt finally gained his first career victory at Oak Tree last October.

Then Real Quiet got loud.

He won the Grade I Hollywood Futurity and was runner-up to his more famous stablemate Indian Charlie in the Santa Anita Derby, before the Kentucky Derby stamped the Fish a shark.

The road show grew with the legend by the time they reached Pimlico, and his breathtaking sweeping move to win the Preakness Stakes assured personal appearances by the colorful collection of his human supporting cast.

Baffert had been there before with Silver Charm last year, and Pegram was having the time of his life with his bargain-basement investment. Desormeaux was booked on the "Tonight" show, was opening the stock exchange on Wall Street and throwing the first pitch at a Yankee game.

But Real Quiet remained silent.

Saturday saw a beautiful day at Belmont Park and the second-largest crowd in Belmont history, more than 80,000 strong, to see if the Fish could become the first Triple Crown winner in 20 years.

It wasn't that he was going for racing immortality, a $5 million bonus from sponsor Visa and a Triple Crown for Baffert, Pegram and Desormeaux.

It wasn't that he was representative of all the little guys who dream the dream he was living. It wasn't that he was favored to become the 12th Crown winner.

It was all that and more.

When the starting gates opened and the race was on, the roar started.

As he had done in winning the Derby and Preakness, Desormeaux cut his partner loose on the final turn and was sailing through the historic Belmont Park stretch with daylight and a deafening coronation roar -- and then it happened.

Victory Gallop, who had eaten Real Quiet's Derby dust and been his Preakness prey while finishing second in each, was rolling at the destined champion. Under jockey Gary Stevens, the son of Cryptoclearance collared Real Quiet in the shadow of greatness and, after bumping and brushing with a desperately tired challenger, Victory Gallop had pushed his nose out at the finish to deny Real Quiet and company a rare place in history.

So close was the finish, even the riders didn't know; an inquiry for interference added to the drama; and the excruciating moments before the photo and official result seemed like hours at the dentist.

In the end, irony played out its role for the racing gods who would not allow a Fish to swim with racing's historic whales.

But the five-week ride, along with the colorful and unforgettable connections of this Triple Crown, may do as much for this sport as the ultimate victory.

Baffert, Desormeaux and Pegram accepted defeat with as much class as they enjoyed their previous victories.

The excitement and electricity that generated around this Triple Crown quest from Belmont Park to the race books of Nevada will not soon be duplicated.

It is almost certain that Baffert, who has won the Derby and Preakness two consecutive years only to fall short in the Belmont, will be back. Desormeaux is certain to be back and maybe with Baffert, and Pegram will certainly be along for the ride if not as an owner.

And so will we.

We can only hope that, when the second semiannual drum beating in racing rolls for this fall's Breeders' Cup, it won't be Real Quiet for long.