NEW YORK (AP) – Billy Turner, Steve Cauthen and Ron Turcotte all know what it takes to win the Belmont Stakes with the Triple Crown on the line.
A little luck, a whole lot of heart and a horse physically ready for the most grueling test in the sport.
“I don’t think the Belmont is that difficult a race – it’s the Triple Crown that’s hard,” said Turcotte, who rode Secretariat when he broke a 25-year Triple Crown drought in 1973.
Turner, the only living trainer of a Triple Crown winner, saddled Seattle Slew to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in 1977. Cauthen was aboard Affirmed when he beat Alydar in the 1978 series to become the last Triple Crown winner.
While each of those champions had different personalities and styles, they were alike in many respects.
All three were blessed with superior builds, well-planned training programs and tremendous natural ability. The horses also had the unrelenting drive to win three races of three different distances at three racetracks, all in five weeks.
On Saturday, the world will find out whether the New York-bred gelding Funny Cide has what it takes to be the first Triple Crown winner in a quarter-century.
Turner recalled the incredible will of Seattle Slew, the front-running dark bay colt who died in May 2002.
“He would run all day if you let him,” he said. “You’d have to shoot him to get him to stop running. Good horses all want to win, but he just had to win.”
Looking back at the Belmont Stakes, Cauthen spoke of the courage his exhausted horse showed in the final stretch run with Alydar breathing down his neck.
“He dug down deep somewhere and pulled it off,” Cauthen said. “That, to me, was a sign of greatness.”
Turcotte recalled his thrilling ride through the stretch as Secretariat pulled away for an incredible 31-length victory.
“I was just riding a super machine. There was nothing that could come close to him,” he said. “He was the greatest racehorse of all time.”
There have been 16 horses who have come close to winning the Triple Crown, only to have the ultimate prize snatched away in Belmont’s grueling 11/2 miles, a distance at which horses rarely compete in the United States. Of the 134 winners, only 11 also won the Derby and Preakness.
Eight horses since Affirmed have tried it, and all have failed.
In Spectacular Bid’s case in 1979, it was a sore foot. For War Emblem last year, it was a stumble at the start. The others unable to pull off the Triple were: Pleasant Colony (1981), Alysheba (1987), Sunday Silence (1989), Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998) and Charismatic (1999).
While racing luck can play a role, Triple Crown winners prove that greatness is far more important.
Secretariat, Affirmed and Seattle Slew were all beautifully engineered racing machines, able to carry their ability with them over the surfaces at Churchill Downs, Pimlico and Belmont Park.
And, said Turner, Funny Cide appears to have the same ability as those past champions.
“The thing that this horse has, and all of the Triple Crown winners had it, is that he’s a better mover than any of those others who recently tried for the Triple Crown,” he said. “It’s just a way of going, that means a whole lot, particularly in the Belmont.
“The easier you slip over the ground, the farther you can go because it takes less energy to go every stride than the next guy. The most perfect stride for going long in my lifetime was Secretariat.”
Funny Cide has also gotten stronger in his workouts and has shown no fatigue from the first two legs of the Triple Crown.
Funny Cide’s trainer Barclay Tagg has known Turner since the 1960s when the two were steeplechase riders in Pennsylvania. They both have barns at Belmont and chat often – but never about the Triple Crown.
“He doesn’t want to hear about that,” Turner said. “And I don’t really want to talk to him about it. That’s just the way it is.”
Tagg believes he already knows what it takes to win the Triple Crown.
“There’s no mystery, no secret,” he said. “Just hard work and perseverance. You keep an eye on them, you feel their legs every day, you take their temperature every day, you ride them every day, and you try to keep them eating every day.
“And then you hope they run their race.”
AP-ES-06-02-03 1745EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
