THE BELMONT : Easy Goer Has Last Laugh on ‘Silence : Second-Fastest Time Leaves Triple Crown Eight Lengths Short

Two horses ran the race of their young lives Saturday in the 121st Belmont Stakes. But Sunday Silence, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, was soundly beaten by Easy Goer and became yet another Triple Crown aspirant who got gasps instead of glory in the 1 1/2-mile finale to racing’s most important series.

Easy Goer, second to Sunday Silence in both the Derby and the Preakness, turned his finest race into one giant redemptive act, overtaking Le Voyageur, a French import who had never seen Broadway, let alone a race run over dirt.

Easy Goer won the $689,200 Belmont by eight lengths, and his time of 2:26 was the second fastest in stakes history, behind Secretariat’s world record 2:24 that completed his Triple Crown sweep in 1973.

Before a crowd of 64,959--the largest to see a Belmont since Affirmed became the 11th and last Triple Crown champion in 1978--Easy Goer flashed past Le Voyageur and Sunday Silence coming out of the far turn. Pat Day, criticized for his ride when Easy Goer lost by a nose in the Preakness, hit his colt twice from the left side at the top of the stretch, and they accelerated.

In midstretch, Day hit Easy Goer four more times left-handed, then looked over his left shoulder to see if anyone was challenging.

There was no one. Sunday Silence hung on for second place by a length over the gritty Le Voyageur, who was 12 lengths ahead of Awe Inspiring, Easy Goer’s stablemate. After that came Hawkster, who ran fifth in all the Triple Crown races, followed by Rock Point, Imbibe, Irish Actor, Triple Buck and Fire Maker.

Despite rain most of the week and showers that didn’t end until well after midnight Friday, Belmont Park’s track crew had the running surface in fast condition in time for the first race Saturday.

While Ogden Phipps, the 80-year-old owner and breeder of Easy Goer and a former track trustee, was still savoring his first Belmont win, it was suggested that he take the track crew to dinner. Phipps said that wasn’t a bad suggestion, as Easy Goer had shown in the Derby and last year’s Breeders’ Cup that he abhorred mud and Sunday Silence has reveled in it.

Easy Goer, a son of Alydar, who ran second to Affirmed in all three Triple Crown races, was favored in the Derby and Preakness, but with his entrymate went off the 8-5 second choice Saturday. New York horseplayers, aware of trainer Charlie Whittingham’s prediction that Sunday Silence would win the Triple Crown, made the California horse the 4-5 favorite.

Easy Goer paid $5, $2.80 and $2.40. The other prices were $3 and $2.60 on Sunday Silence and $4.60 on Le Voyageur.

Easy Goer took the $413,520 winner’s share of the purse, but because of the $1-million Triple Crown bonus, Sunday Silence had the biggest payday, even though second was worth only $151,624. The horse with the most points for the three races (five for first, three for second, one for third) wins the bonus, and Sunday Silence wound up with 13 points to Easy Goer’s 11.

A Triple Crown sweep would have been worth a total of $5 million to Sunday Silence’s owners, but instead the colt became the 12th horse to win the Derby and Preakness and then fail in the Belmont. Spectacular Bid (1979), Pleasant Colony (1981) and Alysheba (1987) also failed to win the Belmont after Affirmed’s sweep.

The 76-year-old Whittingham, who has won nearly 530 stakes races and is considered the master at preparing horses to run long distances, said after the race that Easy Goer might be the better horse going farther than 1 1/4 miles, the Derby distance.

“When Easy Goer made his move, he was running like a mile-and-a-half horse, and we might have hung a little,” Whittingham said. “Easy Goer loves this track, too. I’ve been in this game long enough to know that you get beat more times than you win. (Trainer) Shug McGaughey ran the best horse today, but fortunately we got the most money.”

Having had trouble leaving the gate in the Derby and the Preakness, both Easy Goer and Sunday Silence broke smoothly in the Belmont. McGaughey envisioned Sunday Silence taking the lead for lack of other early speed in the field, but instead the pace-setter was Le Voyageur, who had won only one of six starts in France and had arrived in New York last Tuesday.

Whittingham said that Le Voyageur’s speed wasn’t a factor in Sunday Silence’s defeat. The well-bred son of Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown champion, led Sunday Silence by a length after a half-mile and two lengths after a mile, in good fractions of :47 and 1:35 4/5. That was the third-fastest opening Belmont mile in 32 years.

Randy Romero, Le Voyageur’s jockey, said that his mount began tiring with a quarter of a mile to run. “With a half-mile to go, I thought we might win,” Romero said. “My horse was the only horse in the race who had run 1 1/2 miles, and I thought he ran a good 1 1/2-mile race. But by the three-sixteenths pole, he got leg-weary.”

Pat Valenzuela, Sunday Silence’s jockey, shook Day’s hand as the two were pulling up their horses. Day said later that he didn’t think Valenzuela would be “contemplating suicide,” probably alluding to the losing jockey’s 10% of the $1-million bonus.

Day was right. Valenzuela handled Saturday’s defeat much the way he would react to a second-place finish in a lesser race at Hollywood Park.

“I’ve got no excuses,” Valenzuela said. “The only excuse I have is Easy Goer.

“I still think I have the better horse. My horse was feeling good, but he didn’t accelerate when I asked him. When Pat came by me, I could tell that he had plenty of horse left. My horse just didn’t finish as strong as he has been. He ran a good 1 1/2-mile race, but it wasn’t his best race.”

Day said that he called on Easy Goer to run with three-eighths of a mile left.

“He responded beautifully,” Day said. “And even at the finish, he wasn’t running all out, which he had to in the Preakness, because that was a real dogfight.

“Le Voyageur was an unknown horse, and all I wanted to do was keep Sunday Silence in my sights. I knew my horse would have the kick when he was asked.”

Day said that when he got about a three-quarter-length lead on the outside of Sunday Silence, he turned his whip up.

“That gave my horse encouragement,” Day said. “I didn’t want my horse to have to look Sunday Silence in the eye again, because he had done that for a quarter of a mile in the Preakness. When I put my stick up, my horse picked up a full head of steam and showed us that he’s the powerhouse that I knew he was.”

Both McGaughey and Whittingham went to sleep when it was still raining Friday night. At 5 o’clock Saturday morning, Whittingham went out to look at the track.

“There was slop all over the place,” Whittingham said. “We would have had a better chance if it had stayed that way. But you know what (Harry) Truman said--if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. He wasn’t a bad President, for a Democrat.”

Late Saturday, Whittingham still had a red bruise on his right temple, lingering proof of the nick he got Friday morning when Sunday Silence reared up as his trainer led him to the track for a gallop.

“The kick I got Friday smarted,” Whittingham said. “The kick (loss) today just kind of makes you lonely.”

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