For the fifth time in the past six years, there is no Triple Crown on the line in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. The Kentucky Derby winner, Super Saver, isn’t in the race; nor is Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky.
So what, said the connections of the 12 thoroughbreds who did belly up to the Belmont when post positions were drawn yesterday. It’s still the “Test of the Champion,” a Grade 1 classic with a $1 million purse, to be run for the 142nd time at the Taj Mahal of American racetracks, Belmont Park.
“This is the greatest race on earth,” said owner Larry Roman, a die-hard New Yorker whose Spangled Star, at 30-1, is his first Belmont starter. “Secretariat’s 31-length victory . . . the duel between Affirmed and Alydar . . . the courage of the filly Rags to Riches.
“People talk about the Kentucky Derby. As far as I’m concerned, this is the race of the year. [Spangled Star] is a longshot, but there have been a lot of longshots win the Belmont Stakes. I don’t expect him to win, but I’m taking my chance.”
Just like last year, when a previously unheralded colt named Summer Bird began his march to the 3-year-old championship with a victory in the Belmont, so too could one of this year’s dozen launch his own bid for stardom in the 2½ minutes it takes to run the mile-and-a-half once around “Big Sandy.”
The likeliest candidates to assume command of the 3-year-old division are the top two choices on the morning line: Ice Box, 3-1 with Jose Lezcano up from post 5, and First Dude, 7-2 under Ramon Dominguez from post 11.
Ice Box, winner of the Florida Derby, is the only Grade 1 winner in the field. Many felt he was the best horse in the Kentucky Derby, when he closed like a shot for second over the sloppy track after being blocked and steadied in the stretch. Since then, he has been training smartly over the Oklahoma track at Saratoga.
“We tried to duplicate the same training method as before the Derby,” said trainer Nick Zito, who has won the Belmont twice, with six seconds and three thirds. “We sharpened him before the Derby, we’re doing the same thing with the Belmont [four furlongs in :46 3/5 last Thursday] and hoping it works.”
Zito also will saddle 9-2 third choice Fly Down, six-length winner of the Grade 2 Dwyer at Belmont Park.
“Fly Down had the same workout before the Dwyer [four furlongs in :47 3/5],” he said. “Hopefully they’ll have that firepower in the end.”
First Dude has won only a maiden race so far, but he showed potential finishing fifth in the Florida Derby and third in the Blue Grass before his breakthrough race in the Preakness. There, he set a sharp (:46 2/5) pace, then battled back when confronted by Lookin At Lucky in the stretch to finish a close second.
“When Ramon jumped off him after the Florida Derby, he said, ‘The Belmont will be this horse’s race because he wants to go a mile and a half, and he’ll love that track,’ ” trainer Dale Romans said. “You’re not going to skip a classic with a horse like this. He’s a throwback, a big rugged kind of horse, and I don’t think three weeks [between races] is going to bother him.
“With extra distance and a little more experience, we can turn the tables on Ice Box.”