6/11/2011
The Belmont is contained on the Belmont Power Page as Race #11.
Friday’s super–duper Long-Shot came in the 7th race when Top – Rated “Unforgetable P J” won paying a whopping $124.50 and get this, 2nd rated Proud George ran 2nd, completing a phenomenol exacta of $1,423.00 for a simple $2.00 wager… And those prices are OKAY and I’m in a pretty good mood to boot!!!
The Belmont:
Let’s get a little serious byfinishing our discussion of the Belmont Stakes. This is the same race Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed stamped themselves as horse to be remembered- remembreed as great forever (4 Triple Crown winners since 1948). While horses such as Spectacular Bid, Alydar, Real Quiet, Silver Charm, Charismatic, Sunday Silence, Smarty Jones, Funny Cide, War Emblem and Alysheba (and others) left themselves just a step shy of that special place — almost Great. No doubt Alysheba and Specatcular Bid did great things on the race track, phenomenal in fact, yet they couldn’t manage that 1 1/2 mile run in June after two hard races in May. It’s really amazing that it was 25 years between Citation and Secretariat, which was considered a very long time but that is not as amazing as the 33 years since the GREAT Affirmed last accomplished this incredibly difficult feat. Affirmed may have been the most amazing, because he actually beat a Triple Crown winner in runner-up Alydar. That’s a bit of a riddle, right — or was Alydar a Triple Crown winner as well, for it is simply — no doubt — that he would have accomplished the feat easily if fortune was such that Affirmed was born at some other time. The distance in pounds between Affirmed and Alydar was maybe a 1/10 of a pound at 1 1/2 miles. But the difference between Alydar and Believe It (and he as tremendous) the next best in the year of 1978 was probably near 10 pounds. What makes Affirmed so amazing, as the goose bumps rise on my arms and legs as I write this, for every horse who lost by a the width of a waffer, a flailing nostril, or a special hair (such as Silver Charm, Real Quiet or Smarty Jones ) thE GREAT AFFIRMED would have none of that business. He simply – maybe at the peril of death – stuck his nose in front of ALYDAR. I can still remember the names of the nice horses that beat most of the others, but in a few years, I won’t remember them at all, but I will never forget the great horse ALYDAR. So of course, from now on, when I refer to Triple Crown winners, such as Affirmed, Seattle Slew, Secretariat and Citation, they will have the word GREAT inserted in front of their names…. And I will only use the word GREAT when referring to TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS (and Alydar)…
Saturday’s edition of the Belmont contains no horses that have done anything near great, yet. If you have read along with me this week,, you know that I fully believe that Nehro will dust these. The only horse I will have a small reverse exacta with is Shackleford. Also, for numerous handicapping reasons, I do not like Animal Kingdom and will use him only in the 3rd and 4th position and fully expect him to be off the board. If his trainer wasn’t such a specially talented man, I wouldn’t even use him at all. So on my exotic tickets I might include Santiva, Brilliant Speed and Prime Cut to fill out my exotics… But this race, with NEHRO at 3/1 or higher has so much win price value — to me, that I don’t have to do much more that peel off a few crisp Benjamins and see if Nehro can use his superior talent all the way around the 1 1/2 mile oval as a winner. While he will never be a great horse, Nehro has some real chance to be a good horse…And in this field a good horse is all I need…