Stories to watch in the absence of a Triple Crown bid

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Ten lingering thoughts, now that two legs of the Triple Crown are in the books:

1. No Triple Crown again this year.
For the third consecutive year, we don't even get a Triple Crown attempt in the Belmont Stakes. Twenty-nine years and counting since Affirmed held off Alydar on the endless Belmont homestretch. (Digression: In the week leading to the Preakness, I interviewed Street Sense jockey Calvin Borel while preparing to write a story for Sports Illustrated if Street Sense won the Preakness and came to New York with two legs under his belt. We talked about Affirmed's win in '78 and Borel said, "The kid who rode Affirmed, Steve Cauthen, he was one of the greatest riders I've ever seen. So young to ride a horse like that. Why, he was only a few years older than me.'' True: When Affirmed won the Triple Crown, Cauthen had just turned 18; Borel was 12 and riding match races on Louisiana bush tracks; Cauthen, of course, is long retired).

What conclusions do we draw from the drought? I'm going to go with two:

• It's only happened 11 times in history, in more than 125 years. Ergo -- stepping out on quite the limb here -- it's difficult. By comparison, the rarest of baseball occurrences, the unassisted triple play, has been achieved 13 times. Pitchers have thrown 17 perfect games. I have heard all arguments about the weakening of the thoroughbred breed, but those arguments did not surface when there were no Triple Crown winners between 1948 (Citation) and 1973 (Secretariat). History demonstrates that racing's Triple Crown is among the most demanding achievements in sport. Period.

• Those three horses in the '70s -- Secretariat ('73), Seattle Slew ('77) and Affirmed ('78)? They were good.

2. So what if there's no Triple Crown?
I am sooooo tired of hearing some variation of this question posed on the Derby-Preakness-Belmont trail: "So, Mr. Trainer/Owner/Jockey, isn't it true that racing needs a Triple Crown winner?''

Listen, I love covering horse racing for a portion of the year. I love meeting the genuine folks who populate the sport (as opposed to the many entitled blowhards who populate mainstream sports). But horse racing will never return to the glory days of Seabiscuit and War Admiral, when a nation hung on the outcome of big races. Racing is a niche sport that rises to the public consciousness for big races. Had there been a Triple Crown winner this year, the broader public would have embraced him for a few days and then moved on.

A Triple Crown winner would be nice. I'd like to write the story when it happens. But it won't change anything.

3. Calvin Borel rode a terrific race in the Preakness.
Much was made of old Bo-Rail's fortuitously ground-saving rail trip in the Kentucky Derby. Many experts suggested that Borel wouldn't be so "lucky'' again in the Preakness.

So what did Borel do in the Preakness? He saved ground early, attacked the front with a ballsy inside move on the far turn through a much smaller hole than in the Derby, took a clear lead and appeared safe. As trainer Carl Nafzger said afterward, "Calvin rode a perfect race.''

4. The same cannot be said for Mario Pino on Hard Spun.
One one of the interesting pre-Preakness subplots was Pino's intimate familiarity with Pimlico. He lives a few miles away from the track and has won more races in Maryland than any other jockey in history. "This is Pino Country,'' said Hard Spun's trainer, Larry Jones, before the race.

Then why in the name of Stewart Elliott did Pino gun Hard Spun to the lead after running comfortably behind a scorching three-quarters in 1:09.8? Why didn't he sit longer? Jones let his rider off the hook after the race when he suggested that Hard Spun had to move because C P West was moving from behind him. I don't buy it. I think Pino panicked and might have cost a very good horse the Preakness.

Owner Rick Porter has been critical of Pino's ride and it will be interesting to see if Pino keeps the mount for the Belmont Stakes.

5. Curlin is a serious racehorse.
I know: You think? Before the Kentucky Derby, racing minds fell into two camps on Curlin, who had not raced as a 2-year-old and just raced three times before the Derby.

A) He's too inexperienced; throw him out.

B) He's a freak and the best of this bunch.

Um: How about B? I still don't think Curlin's Derby trip was as troubled as advertised. He had traffic early (most horses do in the Derby) and was wide on the far turn. But even Street Sense's trainer, the estimable Nafzger, pointed out to me between the Derby and the Preakness: "Curlin did something very impressive in the Derby: He didn't quit with everything that happened. He learned in that race.''