Now Sunday Silence Has Them Talking : After Preakness Win, Horse Sets Sights on Belmont and Triple Crown

Easy Goer was transported 200 miles from Pimlico to Belmont Park on Sunday, which means that he beat Sunday Silence to the site of the final Triple Crown race by a day.

It’s the only time Easy Goer has beaten Sunday Silence.

Although heavily favored in two previous Triple Crown races, Easy Goer finished second to Sunday Silence each time. He was 2 1/2 lengths behind in the Kentucky Derby, and on Saturday at Pimlico, he was nosed out of a victory in what may go down as the most rousing Preakness of them all.

Sunday Silence and Easy Goer will meet again in the 121st Belmont Stakes on June 10. Sunday Silence can become the 12th 3-year-old--and the first since another California-trained colt, Affirmed, in 1978--to sweep the Triple Crown. Because of a sponsorship by an automobile company, a Triple Crown title is worth $5 million, which includes the first-place purse money from all three races. Should Sunday Silence not win the Belmont but finish second or third, he would still win a $1-million bonus; Easy Goer could win the $1 million by winning the Belmont and if Sunday Silence finishes fourth or worse.

Ron McAnally, trainer of Hawkster, a horse who has been unable to beat Sunday Silence in the Santa Anita Derby, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, doesn’t need the Belmont to know which horse is best. Hawkster has been fourth, fifth and fifth in those three races.

“Sunday Silence missed two days of training (because of a sore foot) and still won the Preakness,” McAnally said. “There’s no question that he’s the best horse. Because of that, he was about two lengths rather than a nose better than Easy Goer on Saturday.”

Easy Goer’s trainer, Shug McGaughey, thought that his colt’s dull race in the Kentucky Derby was because of the muddy track at Churchill Downs. But there were no excuses in the 114th Preakness, unless you count the foul claim by jockey Pat Day, who thought that Sunday Silence squeezed his mount enough in the furious stretch run to be disqualified.

“Easy Goer fouled Patrick (Valenzuela, Sunday Silence’s jockey) a heck of a lot more than he was fouled by us,” trainer Charlie Whittingham said Sunday morning. “The other horse had his head turned in my horse’s direction and Day was whipping him left-handed on the rail, which made his horse come out some.”

The stewards took eight minutes--a little longer than usual-- to review the race before they officiated Sunday Silence’s victory.

Whittingham said Sunday Silence will be shipped to Belmont Park today and be placed in trainer Dick Lundy’s barn. Lundy worked as an assistant to Whittingham in California for six years before he formed his own stable.

At 1 1/2 miles, the Belmont is the longest of the three Triple Crown races. The Derby is 1 1/4 miles and the Preakness is 1 3/16 miles.

Neither Whittingham nor Day believe their horses will have trouble running the Belmont distance. Although Belmont Park issued a list of eight non-Preakness horses that are possibilities for the race, it remains to be seen how many will actually run.

“Even though we missed two days last week because of the foot, I wasn’t worried that Sunday Silence would be fit for the Preakness,” Whittingham said. “He was plenty fit for the Derby two weeks before and had that under him. On Saturday, he was ready to run half-way to California without using the freeway.”

McGaughey thought that Day moved to the lead too early--Easy Goer took over heading into the far turn--but said that no jockey change is planned for the Belmont.

“I agree with what Pat said,” McGaughey said. “If he didn’t move early, he would have been parked outside the rest of the way. And if he had waited and we still lost by a nose, everybody would have said that he moved too late.”

Pimlico’s record crowd of 90,145 made Easy Goer the 3-5 favorite and sent Sunday Silence off at 2-1. In the Kentucky Derby, Sunday Silence was 3-1 and Easy Goer, coupled with stablemate Awe Inspiring, was 4-5.

Saturday’s betting didn’t surprise Whittingham, but it did amuse him.

“These guys (Easy Goer’s supporters) don’t die very easy,” he said. “It’s the press that makes the odds, and sometimes they get people thinking poorly.”

In talking about Sunday Silence’s second career defeat, which preceded his current five-race winning streak, Whittingham mentioned Houston, the horse that beat him in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance at Hollywood Park last December. This year, Houston has finished fifth in the Santa Anita Derby, eighth in the Kentucky Derby and sixth in the Preakness.

“Houston got good press early,” Whittingham said. “But the race he beat us at Hollywood still told me that I had a very good horse. My horse had just broken his maiden a couple of weeks before, and against Houston he put away three horses early before they hooked up in the stretch.”

Sunday Silence, who lost to Houston by a head, has developed into possibly the best horse Whittingham, 76, has ever had. Whittingham has won more than 500 stakes races, which is a record, and has trained eight horses that have won national championships.

“Right now, Sunday Silence could be the best,” Whittingham said. “For sure, he’s the only one who’s given me both a Derby and a Preakness.”

Whittingham won his first Derby in 1986 with Ferdinand. Their Triple Crown aspirations ended quickly, however, when Ferdinand was second, four lengths behind Snow Chief, in the Preakness, and then Ferdinand ran third in the Belmont.

Now, Whittingham and Sunday Silence are only 1 1/2 miles away. Easy Goer has the early lead, but only because he shipped out of here Sunday.