Belmont Numbers on Bet Twice Didn’t Add Up : Kentucky Derby and Preakness Runner-Up Was the Fifth Choice of Bettors

As the horses were going into the gate Saturday for the 119th running of the Belmont Stakes, the odds board showed some mystifying numbers.

Alysheba, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and with a victory in the Belmont would have become the 12th Triple Crown champion, was the 4-5 favorite.

There was nothing wrong with that. The 64,772 fans at Belmont Park were as confident as Alysheba’s jockey, Chris McCarron, who had said: “I knew we were going to win. I never say that, but I thought this horse was a cinch.”

After Alysheba, however, the next set of odds was puzzling. Cryptoclearance, fourth and third, respectively, in the Derby and Preakness, finishing a collective 5 lengths behind Alysheba, was the second choice at 9-2.

Yet, Bet Twice, who had led in deep stretch in both the Derby and Preakness, finishing a cumulative 1 lengths behind Alysheba, was the 8-1 fifth choice in the nine-horse field. Gone West, who had never won beyond a mile and was now trying to run 1 1/2 miles, was 5-1, and the entry of Leo Castelli and Gulch, New York horses with solid Belmont Park races on their records, went off at 7-1.

How does all that figure? New York horseplayers consider themselves the world’s most savvy handicappers, and in truth there is no larger contingency that studies the subtleties of the game more diligently.

Cryptoclearance may have gained support because of the jockey change, three-time Belmont winner Laffit Pincay replacing Jose Santos, whose ride in the Preakness was criticized.

In Gone West, the crowd was betting the trainer, not the horse. Woody Stephens was hoping that Gone West would give him his sixth straight Belmont win.

Leo Castelli and Gulch were two horses for one. Moreover, Leo Castelli would have beaten Alysheba in the Blue Grass Stakes if he hadn’t been fouled, and after a far-back finish in the Derby, the colt was a winner at Belmont in the Peter Pan two weeks ago. Gulch was unbeaten at Belmont and defeated older horses in the Metropolitan Mile on Memorial Day.

Still, 8-1 on Bet Twice looked like a sweet price, if you thought the horse could rewrite the results of the Derby and Preakness.

Those who bet twice on Bet Twice were rewarded for their persistence. He paid $18 to win, set up a $77.80 exacta with second-place Cryptoclearance, and triggered a $472 triple with Cryptoclearance and Gulch. All of the money--$1.5 million in the win, place and show pools at Belmont and throughout New York’s statewide off-track system--went out the window on Alysheba, who got the worst of a photo finish with Cryptoclearance and Gulch and finished fourth.

The odds would have been even greater that Bet Twice--or any horse--would win the Belmont by 14 lengths. But Bob Levy, the president of Atlantic City Race Course and one of Bet Twice’s owners, was also surprised that his horse was so ignored in the betting.

“There was no way our horse should have been 8-1,” Levy said. “I look at races just the way a lot of the handicappers do, and it didn’t make sense.

“Just to look at one horse, consider Gulch. The other day, Harvey Pack (Belmont Park’s cable-television handicapper) was talking about how Gulch had never lost at Belmont. But in four races (including the Derby and Preakness), our horse finished ahead of Gulch every time. I thought our horse should have been the second choice.”

Post-Belmont plans for Bet Twice revolve around three races--the United Nations Handicap on July 15 at Levy’s track on the New Jersey shore; the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 1; and the $1-million Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 22. In all likelihood, Bet Twice will run in two of the three. The U.N. would mark the colt’s first start on grass.

A trainer who may not be aboard for any of Bet Twice’s races is Woody Stephens.

“He’s the only horse who ran big Saturday,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll go looking for him too often. He won like Conquistador Cielo did (Stephens’ first Belmont winner, in 1982, also won by 14 lengths).

“This horse might be better than them all (in the current crop of 3-year-olds). He sure got all the money.”

Bet Twice’s win was worth $1.3 million, $1-million of it for accumulating the most points toward the Triple Crown bonus. The Sportin’ Life-Golden Dust colt has now earned more than $2.3 million.

Instead of collecting the last $3.6-million of a potential $5-million pot that would have gone with a Triple Crown sweep, Alysheba earned only $32,916 in the Belmont.

Alysheba, who will join Van Berg’s 40-horse division at Arlington Park near Chicago later this week, is expected to run in the Travers, which would give him another chance against Bet Twice. Other races on Alysheba’s long-range schedule are the $1-million Super Derby at Louisiana Downs on Sept. 27, the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 10 and the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Hollywood Park on Nov. 21.

At Alysheba’s barn Sunday morning, trainer Jack Van Berg called for precautionary X-rays, which proved negative. Often when a good horse runs badly, its handlers will look for a physical explanation.

“There’s nothing wrong with him,” Van Berg said. “He’s acting good and playing around in his stall. He’s feeling better than I do.”

Earlier, Van Berg and one of Alysheba’s owners, Texan Clarence Scharbauer, watched a taped replay of the Belmont several times.

At one point, Scharbauer tried to break the gloom by jokingly saying: “Where’d you get those (purple) blinkers? They’re not pretty.”

“They were pretty ‘til yesterday,” Van Berg said.