The blaming game

Baffert, Desormeaux share blame; Stewards would have denied win

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Posted: Saturday June 06, 1998 08:19 PM

Desormeaux: "He [Real Quiet] slowed down and I slowed down with him. He was looking around to see if anyone was coming." (AP)

ELMONT, New York (AP) -- With an eighth of a mile to go, Real Quiet was in cruise control. To his trainer, his jockey and the 80,162 fans at Belmont Park, he looked like the first Triple Crown winner in two decades.

Jockey Kent Desormeaux gave himself a big share of the blame for losing by a nose to Victory Gallop.

The Belmont Park stewards said that if Real Quiet had won, he would have been disqualified for bumping his rival in the stretch.

Early on, it looked like an easy win for Real Quiet.

"As we broke into the open, he thought he was all alone and so did I -- I could taste it," Desormeaux said. "He never saw the other horse coming. When I started him again, he tried to get it going, but it's hard to get momentum back."

But trainer Bob Baffert, who lost an attempt at a Triple Crown last year with Silver Charm, exonerated Desormeaux: "It's racing. These things happen," Baffert said.

Desormeaux thought his first mistake was with five-eighths of a mile to go. At that point, the only opposition was Chilito, an 85-1 shot who no one took seriously other than as a pacesetter.

By the head of Belmont's long stretch, Real Quiet surged by Chilito and was sixth lengths in front of Victory Gallop, who had finished second to him in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

"I could feel it. But he was in a canter," Desormeaux said. "He slowed down and I slowed down with him. He was looking around to see if anyone was coming."

Way back, Gary Stevens aboard Victory Gallop saw a hole open up and raced through it.

"I didn't know if he could catch him," Stevens said, "but when we got through, he was like a locomotive."

Even some of the other jockeys in the race were awed by the drama of the stretch run.

"I saw Real Quiet alongside of us, and I thought we had a Triple Crown winner," said Robbie Davis, aboard Chilito. "Then I saw Victory Gallop pass us with his ears pricked. When I saw that, I said to myself, 'Oh man!' He made such a powerful move."

When Victory Gallop drew close to Real Quiet, Desormeaux started to get his colt back in gear.

The two raced alongside for 200 yards with Real Quiet moving into Victory Gallop as he tried to restart -- the move that would have disqualified him had he won.

They headed like that for the wire, one head bobbing up and the other bobbing down. As they reached the wire, Victory Gallop's head bobbed down and his nose -- or perhaps half of it -- was ahead of Real Quiet.

Stevens, who rode Silver Charm for Baffert last year when he lost a shot at the Triple Crown in the Belmont, didn't know who had won. It was he who filed the objection.

Stevens, who was in the same position last year with Silver Charm, had plenty of consolation for Desormeaux. "That's how he won the last two races, with that middle move," Stevens said.

So did Chris McCarron, who took the blame in 1987 when he rode Alysheba and lost the Belmont to Bet Twice with a Triple Crown on the line.

"It's a horse race," Desormeaux said McCarron had told him. "There are plenty of others to run."

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