Not a Perfect Ending

Lost In The Fog was jittery in the six-hour holding barn where horses are sent before they race in New York. He was not his usual mischievous self, nipping at his lead pony in the post parade.

Then the 3-year-old colt ran out of steam in the stretch of Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Belmont Park. He was in the lead, but he wasn’t distancing himself from his rivals the way he usually does. Lost In The Fog finished seventh, his first loss after 10 straight wins, and any thoughts of a horse-of-the-year title also were dashed on a chilly fall afternoon.

Silver Train, giving Edgar Prado his second Breeders’ Cup win of the day, won the Sprint, beating Taste Of Paradise by a head. Garrett Gomez, another double winner on the Breeders’ Cup card, claimed foul against Silver Train and Prado, but the stewards allowed the result to stand.

“Maybe we took one too many steps, maybe we ran him one too many times,” said Greg Gilchrist, the Golden Gate Fields trainer who cares for Lost In The Fog. “You have to take the bad with the good, and that’s just the way it came up today. I’m not big on excuses. We just got outrun.”

Lost In The Fog’s 10 wins had come at eight tracks, one of them Belmont Park in June.

“We got banged around leaving the gate, but he recovered well from that,” said Russell Baze, who rode Lost In The Fog for the 10th time. “At the quarter pole, he surged to the lead. He gave me a little punch, but after about a dozen jumps, he had nothing left. But until he quit at that point, I didn’t know for sure that he wasn’t going to win.”

Although Lost In The Fog was uncharacteristically behind horses early in the race, Gilchrist thought he was still in a good position to win. “When he didn’t open up after he made the lead, I had a bad feeling,” Gilchrist said.

This was Lost In The Fog’s first start against older horses. Gilchrist said that Lost In The Fog emerged from the race in good shape. He and Harry Aleo, who owns the colt, plan to race him two more years.

“If he keeps winning 10 out of every 11 times he runs, I’ll be happy,” Gilchrist said.