Let the hype begin

Crowds gather to watch Triple Crown hopeful work out

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Posted: Tuesday June 02, 1998 10:51 PM

Baffert has declared Real Quiet ready for the Belmont Stakes (AP)

ELMONT, New York (Reuters) -- The magnitude of Real Quiet's upcoming Triple Crown bid started to sink in for trainer Bob Baffert Tuesday, but he declared the colt ready for Saturday's Belmont Stakes.

The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner has been working out at Churchill Downs, far from Belmont Park where Real Quiet will make a run at the history books. Still, Baffert has not been able to completely avoid the media spotlight.

"I came to the barn and saw all those people waiting for us. The Triple Crown really hit me for the first time," Baffert said Tuesday, after Real Quiet's five-furlong workout.

Baffert found himself telling exercise jockey Dana Barnes via radio to slow the horse's pace during the workout.

"He wanted to go off fast, so we had to take a hold of him," Baffert said.

"He's put all his weight back on that he lost after the Preakness. He's ready," Baffert declared.

The amiable Baffert and Real Quiet expect to fly to New York on Wednesday to make final preparations for a shot at completing what Baffert just missed last year, a Triple Crown sweep and the $5 million bonus.

Baffert's Silver Charm last year became the 13th horse to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown but not the Belmont.

The Belmont Park backstretch has been unusually peaceful for a Belmont Stakes week with Real Quiet and a number of other horses remaining in Kentucky until the last possible moment.

It is a calculated gamble that horses working out at Churchill Downs away from Belmont's Triple Crown hype will not be giving away too much of a tactical advantage to rivals employing the conventional wisdom that a horse needs to be familiar with the conditions under which it will compete.

Victory Gallop, runner-up to Real Quiet in both the Derby and Preakness, has been at Belmont getting used to the sweeping turns of the 1 1/2-mile track, the longest test of the three races that make up the Triple Crown.

Those turns can be baffling to a young horse negotiating them at speed for the first time.

While Hot Wells trainer Tom Amoss, like Baffert, has taken the out of town approach, he expects his horse to thrive over the long haul at Belmont.

"My horse is a come-from-behind horse who will benefit from Belmont's sweeping turns," said Amoss.

"He had a little trouble with Pimlico's tight turns," he said of the Preakness venue, where Hot Wells finished fourth.

Meanwhile, veteran trainer D. Wayne Lukas, back at his headquarters at Santa Anita, has yet to decide whether he will enter Grand Slam, which may be the horse with the best chance of denying Real Quiet a place alongside racing immortals such as Secretariat, Citation, Whirlaway and Count Fleet.

Grand Slam, undefeated over the Belmont track, looked good in winning the Peter Pan in his last start.

"I'll probably sit like that until Thursday," Lukas said of his procrastination.

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