When a chestnut colt named Affirmed won the Triple Crown in 1978, he was the third horse to do so in six years, and it seemed that achieving the holy grail of horse racing was no longer so arduous a quest.
But since then the crown has gone unclaimed, tantalizingly so, with one supposed shoo-in after another failing to complete the sweep. Twelve horses have come oh-so-close, finishing first in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness before failing to capture the grueling mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes.
Will California Chrome, the 13th to try, be the lucky one?
The difficulty of Saturday's task is proven by the long skein of woe found in the 12 most recent failures, a dozen sad tales that include a phantom safety pin, a stumble out of the gate and jockeys whose usually sound judgment took a mystifying holiday.
Like California Chrome, each horse went to the post an overwhelming favorite.
Then this happened:
Spectacular Bid (1979) Odds: 3-10 Belmont finish: 3rd, 3 ¼ lengths back Career starts: 30 (26 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third)A victory by Spectacular Bid would have made it three Triple Crowns in a row, something like a hat trick squared. Seattle Slew had won it in 1977, Affirmed in 1978. Spectacular Bid was indeed a spectacular horse, outrunning the field in 12 consecutive stakes races on the way to the Belmont. 'Only an act of God can keep us from winning the Triple Crown,' said the horse's trainer, Bud Delp.
Of course, God works in mysterious ways. Delp blamed the third-place finish on a safety pin that supposedly jabbed the colt's right front hoof as he walked about his stall in the morning. Many questioned this alibi: If the horse was hurt, how did he manage to be out front one and a quarter miles into the race? Delp himself offered an alternative excuse, saying his teenage jockey, Ron Franklin, had hit the gas too soon in the stretch.
Pleasant Colony (1981) Odds: 4-5 Belmont finish: 3rd, 1 ½ lengths back Career starts: 14 (6 wins, 3 seconds, 1 third)Pleasant Colony was nowhere near as classy as Spectacular Bid, but this horse, too, had a cocky trainer, John Campo, who predicted an easy win. This wasn't so much a vote of confidence for his colt as lack of respect for the 10 other horses in the field. 'Garbage,' he called them. However mediocre the competition, Pleasant Colony got in trouble quicker than you can say, 'And they're off.' The horse shied at the gate, delaying the start, apparently spooked by a nearby photographer. Then he settled into last place as others traded the lead. Pleasant Colony eventually got back in the race but flattened out at the finish. 'Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong,' his trainer said. 'But that's horse racing.'
Alysheba (1987) Odds: 4-5 Belmont finish: 4th, 14 ¼ lengths back Career starts: 26 (11 wins, 8 seconds, 2 thirds)Alysheba narrowly beat his archrival Bet Twice in the Derby and the Preakness. But this time around there was nothing neck and neck about it, with Bet Twice the winner by 14 lengths. In the earlier two races, Alysheba benefited from the use of Lasix, an antibleeding medication widely thought to aid performance. At the time, New York racing laws prohibited the drug, and it will be forever debated whether this kept Alysheba from a better showing.
Whatever the answer, jockey Chris McCarron waited too long to urge the horse to make a move and then was briefly boxed in when his mount kicked for home. Alysheba may never have caught the runaway winner, but his fourth-place finish, only a neck out of second, cost his owners $1 million. That was the amount given to the top overall performer in all three Triple Crown races, based on a point system of 5 points for a win, 3 for second, 1 for third.
Sunday Silence (1989) Odds: 9-10 Belmont finish: 2nd, 8 lengths back Career starts: 14 (9 wins, 5 seconds, 0 thirds)Sunday Silence kicked his trainer, Charlie Whittingham, in the head the day before the race. These things happen back in the barn, but the horse would have been more easily forgiven if he had brought home the Triple Crown. This was another year with archrivals. Sunday Silence bested Easy Goer by two and a half lengths in the Derby and a nose in the Preakness. Bettors expected the pecking order to hold up at the Belmont. Instead, the order of finish was reversed, and this time it was not close. Easy Goer scorched the field, covering the mile and a half in 2:26.01, the fastest time ever except for Secretariat's swoosh around the oval in 2:24 in 1973.
Silver Charm (1997) Odds: 1-1 Belmont finish: 2nd, 3/4 length back Career starts: 24 (12 wins, 7 seconds, 2 thirds)New Yorkers felt sure they would witness a Triple Crown this time. A crowd of 70,682 braved a chilly day at Belmont Park, the largest attendance since 71,026 came to see Seattle Slew win the Triple Crown 20 years earlier. A hundred yards from the wire it seemed Silver Charm was certain of victory. But wait a minute! Here comes Touch Gold. (Yes, there seemed to be a precious metals theme to the race.) His jockey, the aforementioned McCarron, this time was the pilot in a sensational stretch run. Touch Gold rushed past on the outside to win by three-quarters of a length.
Real Quiet (1998) Odds: 4-5 Belmont finish: 2nd, by a nose Career starts: 20 (6 wins, 5 seconds, 6 thirds)This time, 80,162 fans showed up, and boy oh boy, did they get their money's worth. Real Quiet, a big bay ridden by Kent Desormeaux, was coasting along with a four-length lead and only a quarter mile to go. Then Victory Gallop, the runner-up in both the Derby and the Preakness, surged to catch him as they raced to the wire. The horses ran in near tandem at the end. The winner was? Actually, no one immediately knew. It was a photo finish: Please hold all tickets. Time ticked by as the crowd awaited the news, and finally the race was given to Victory Gallop, the photo showing a win by a protruding nostril, barely a whisker.
Charismatic (1999) Odds: 8-5 Belmont finish: 3rd, 1½ lengths back Career starts: 17 (5 wins, 2 seconds, 4 thirds)For the third year in a row a horse had a shot at the Crown. Charismatic, though royally pedigreed, was hardly a success before winning the Derby at odds of 31-1. Many thought that win a fluke; he went off at a skeptical 8-1 in the Preakness.
But by the time of the Belmont, bettors were believers, although they were in for a ghastly shock. Charismatic was running comfortably out front when he slowed a bit at the eighth pole and was passed by two horses. But this was not just another Belmont bust; this was heartache. Charismatic had broken his left front leg. 'Heading for the finish, he suddenly dipped beneath me, and I could tell he was in pain' Chris Antley, his jockey, said. The rider pulled up the horse just beyond the wire, scrambled off his back and, in an unforgettable sight, protectively lifted the hoof off the ground. The horse survived but never raced again.
War Emblem (2002) Odds: 6-5 Belmont finish (8th, 19 1/2 lengths back) Career starts: 13 (7 wins, 0 seconds, 0 thirds)This was the trainer Bob Baffert's third crack at the Triple Crown, having lost out with Silver Charm and Real Quiet. A record crowd of 103,222 came to see if War Emblem - something of a runt at under 1,000 pounds - could overcome the Triple Crown jinx. But the unlucky horse stumbled at the start, nearly rubbing his nose in the dirt. Then he struggled to keep up with the leaders, boxed in down the backstretch by heavy traffic. War Emblem briefly took the lead with more than a half mile to go, but by then the horse had burned up too much fuel. He faded as if suddenly towing a burden. The winner was Sarava, the longest shot to win the Belmont, paying $142.50 on each $2 bet.
Funny Cide (2003) Odds: 1-1 Belmont finish: 3rd, 5 lengths back Career starts: 38 (11 wins, 6 seconds, 8 thirds)A hard rain was pounding down on Belmont, but that did not deter a crowd of 101,864. Most came to root for New York-bred Funny Cide, a chestnut gelding owned by six school buddies from Sack Harbor. 'The gutsy gelding,' he was called. Funny Cide had blown away the field in the Preakness by nearly 10 lengths. He took the lead early in the Belmont and remained out front most of the way. But down the stretch he simply could not keep up. The winner was the formidable Empire Maker, the bettors' second choice at 2-1. The Belmont champion had skipped the Preakness after finishing second in the Derby, resting up to play the role of Triple Crown spoiler.
Smarty Jones (2004) Odds: 2-5 Belmont Finish: 2nd, 1 length behind Career Starts: 9 (8 firsts, 1 second)Smarty Jones was the Rocky of racehorses, a blue-collar thoroughbred who got his start at Philadelphia Park. People loved the mere sound of his name, so agile off the tongue.
The horse was hardly an underachiever, though. He entered the Belmont undefeated, and people bet him as if lining up for free money. Cheering from the record crowd of 120,139 turned into a magnificent roar as Smarty Jones rumbled into the homestretch with a two-length lead. But again the Belmont was a big tease. The horse had run an exhausting race, fending off one challenger after another. Birdstone, a 36-1 shot, reeled him in at the end, gaining the lead a dozen yards from the finish. Disappointment hung in the air. Edgar Prado, the winning jockey, apologized: 'I'm very sorry that happened, but I had to do my job.'
(2008) Odds: 3-10 Belmont Finish: last Career Starts: 8 (7 firsts, 0 seconds, 0 thirds)Big Brown, another undefeated contender, another supposed shoo-in, ran most of the race in third place, seemingly primed to vault into the lead. But on the final turn, jockey Kent Desormeaux asked him to make the big move, and the reply was indifference. 'I had no horse,' he said. So, astonishingly, the jockey wheeled Big Brown to the outside and slowly eased him home. It was as if a coach had conceded a blowout by pulling out his first string.
Afterward, there were several theories for the woeful performance: a hoof problem had caused the horse to miss three days of training, he had not been given his monthly dose of legal steroids and might have been in withdrawal; a photo showed a loose shoe, dislodged early in the race. The Onion, the satirical website, said Big Brown had stealthily left the racetrack, wearing a trench coat and carrying shopping bags stuffed with cash. The money was placed in the back seat of the horse's awaiting Rolls-Royce.
I'll Have Another (2012) Odds: None Belmont Finish: scratched Career Starts: 7 (5 firsts, 1 second, 0 thirds)The most recent failure required no humbling on the homestretch. I'll Have Another was scratched 30 hours before the race with a sore tendon in his left front leg. The horse then went on to a lucrative second career as a stud.
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