Horse Racing : Only Omaha Didn’t Win Horse of Year Honors

A victory Saturday in the Belmont Stakes probably would do more for Alysheba than just make him the 12th horse to win the Triple Crown. It would also probably clinch Horse of the Year honors for the 3-year-old colt.

All but 1 of the 11 Triple Crown champions went on to become Horse of the Year. The only exception was Omaha, who in 1935 won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont as his sire, Gallant Fox, did five years before, but at the end of ’35 the overall champion was Discovery.

Omaha started nine times during his 3-year-old season, winning six with one second and two thirds. He earned $142,000, which was $30,000 more than Discovery. But the 4-year-old Discovery, second to Cavalcade in the Kentucky Derby the year before, had an 11-2-2 record in 19 races, won eight in a row at one stretch and carried an average of 130 pounds a start.

Discovery was bought late in 1932 by Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who spent $25,000 of a $2-million inheritance. Discovery and Omaha met in the Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park three weeks after the Belmont Stakes. Carrying 123 pounds, nine more than Omaha, Discovery set a new American record for 1 1/8 miles as Omaha finished third, eight lengths back.

Omaha ran only one more time in 1935, winning the Arlington Classic in July. Then, while preparing for the Travers at Saratoga, he came up lame and was retired for the rest of the year.

Discovery continued to pile up support, racing all over the country. Even in defeat, Discovery was a hero. Twice, racing secretaries piled 139 pounds on his back and he was second both times, giving 30 pounds and then 22 pounds to the horses that beat him.

In his last appearance of the year, Discovery carried 132 pounds and won the Cincinnati Handicap at Coney Island by 12 lengths.

Meanwhile, it was written of the forgotten Omaha that he was “the best of a bad (3-year-old) lot.”

Sound familiar? Similar things have been written about Alysheba in recent weeks.

Counting bonuses, Alysheba will have earned a nice, round $5 million if he adds the Belmont to his Kentucky Derby and Preakness wins. Compare that to what the other Triple Crown champions earned for their three-race sweeps:

1919--Sir Barton, $57,275.

1930--Gallant Fox, $168,690.

1935--Omaha, $100,330.

1937--War Admiral, $135,670.

1941--Whirlaway, $150,410.

1943--Count Fleet, $139,255.

1946--Assault, $268,420.

1948--Citation, $252,970.

1973--Secretariat, $375,070.

1977--Seattle Slew, $462,380.

1978--Affirmed, $433,680.

Last week, for just a few minutes, there was one of those phony newspaper headlines pasted next to Alysheba’s stall at Belmont Park.

In the mythical Daily Nautilus, there was a big headline that said:

ALYSHEBA

WINS TRIPLE CROWN!

A newspaper photographer even took a picture of Alysheba, who appeared to be reading the headline. But the mock newspaper didn’t stay there for long. It was odds-on that Jack Van Berg, Alysheba’s super-superstitious trainer, wasn’t going to stand for that.

Van Berg, the trainer most in demand by a turnout of more than 500 reporters, is also the most accessible.

Asked by the Belmont press office for the most convenient times for interviews, most of the race’s trainers gave specific hours of the morning. Van Berg, however, just said: “At (their) disposal.”

This is Van Berg’s thinking:

“You read about all these baseball, basketball and football players who don’t talk to the press. Well, I think we need the press. They’re here to inform the public, and if the public isn’t informed, they don’t go to the races, and if they don’t go to the races, I don’t have a job.”

Van Berg does, however, have one complaint about television interviews. He’s seldom around to see how they turn out.

On Monday, for instance, he did a taped interview that was shown on ABC about midnight.

Van Berg watched about 10 minutes of the program, which covered other sports, then fell asleep.

“When I woke up, I sat through 35 minutes of basketball players on cocaine,” Van Berg said. “I slept right through my own interview.”

Van Berg has been known to sleep anywhere, especially on airplanes, since he flies about 50,000 miles a year.

The trainer doesn’t run many horses in New York, and the last Broadway play he saw before this week was “Bubblin’ Brown Sugar,” several years ago.

“I fell asleep in the middle of it, started snoring and my wife got mad at me,” Van Berg said.

Horse Racing Notes Of the Belmont Stakes’ jockeys, Alysheba’s Chris McCarron may have been the hottest rider of May, but Pat Day is the hottest of the moment. Day won Memorial Day’s Metropolitan Mile with Gulch, his Belmont mount, then returned to New York last Saturday to win the Red Smith Handicap with Theatrical in the afternoon and the Garden State Breeders’ Cup with Lazer Show that night. Back in Chicago last Sunday, Day had a five-winner day at Arlington Park. . . .There are reports that Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky has the inside track in landing Alysheba for stud duty when he’s retired from racing.

Alysheba has never run at Belmont. The last horse to win the Belmont without having previously raced over the track was Avatar in 1975. . . . Belmont trainer LeRoy Jolley was away from Gulch and Leo Castelli for a couple of days this week because of his mother’s death in Florida. . . . Gulch and Leo Castelli may not be the fastest horses all the time, but they appear to be the most dangerous. Gulch bit off part of a groom’s finger when he was at Pimlico for the Preakness, and the other day, after winning the Peter Pan at Belmont, Leo Castelli bit the human Leo Castelli on the hand in the winner’s circle. The two-legged Leo Castelli is 80, a prominent Manhattan art dealer who was instrumental in the start of the career of the late Andy Warhol.