Triple Crown is longest long shot

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Winning the Triple Crown is horse racing's ultimate long shot.

Three times in the 1970s a horse swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont. It hasn't happened since.

There are several reasons why no horse has won the coveted crown since Affirmed in 1978, though perhaps the main one is that competition between owners and trainers has risen to a fever pitch.

"Everybody wants to do it, that's the main thing," trainer Nick Zito said.

And everybody wants to make sure that if he can't get it, then no one does.

"I never said I didn't want a Triple Crown to happen," said Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. "I said I wanted it to happen to me."

After War Emblem won the Kentucky Derby on May 4, he immediately became the horse to beat in Saturday's Preakness. Several trainers said they would strive to make sure Bob Baffert's entry didn't run away from the field from the start, as he did in his wire-to-wire victory at Churchill Downs.

"He's definitely the one we're going to have to deal with here," said Lukas, who was counting on Proud Citizen or Table Limit to deliver his record 14th win in a Triple Crown event.

But Lukas has never won the Triple Crown, and Baffert was the only one with a chance to win it this year. Baffert was a marked man this week, and he knew that the bulls-eye on his back would become larger if he was fortunate enough to win the Preakness.

"If you win the first two, then they really gun for you in the third one," he said. "Back in the '70s, it was a short field by the time they got to the Belmont. Now everyone jumps on board, like, `Let's go get him.'"

Sometimes, a horse wins the Derby and Preakness but comes up short in the Belmont, such as Charismatic in 1999. Last year, Baffert's Point Given staggered to a fifth-place finish in the Derby before winning the final two legs of the Triple Crown.

But for 23 straight years, no one has managed to win them all.

With so many big races leading up to the Derby, a horse has to have an inordinate amount of stamina to survive the grind.

"Now we've got million dollar prep races, so the guys are bearing down a little earlier. Winning the Blue Grass Stakes or the Florida Derby, those are almost career-making races in themselves," Lukas said. "Consequently the tank gets a little empty when you get to the Kentucky Derby, and it certainly gets empty when you get to the Belmont."

It obviously takes a special 3-year-old to win the Triple Crown. Only 10 horses in racing history have had the speed, endurance and guile to pull off the feat.

"I have a lot of respect for those Triple Crown winners," Baffert said. "They were really tough, good horses. It can be done, but it's got to be done by a tough, fast horse."

War Emblem seemingly fits that description. If he should prevail in the Preakness, the horse racing world will be abuzz in anticipation of the Belmont.

"If he wins this leg, it brings our sport uphill," Baffert said. "Everybody's looking forward to the next one thinking, `Can he do it?'"

Medaglia d'Oro, the 5-2 favorite in the field, arrived at Pimlico Race Course at about 4:30 a.m. Saturday after being shuttled by van from Belmont Park in New York.

There was heavy early morning rain at Pimlico on Saturday, but clearing skies and temperatures in the mid-60s were forecast for later in the day.

 

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