Irish Colt Is Going, Gone in Belmont

The bettors bled Saturday, not Unbridled. The Kentucky Derby winner, running without Lasix, was sent off the even-money favorite in the 122nd Belmont Stakes but struggled home fourth as Irish-bred Go And Go won the Triple Crown finale by 8 1/4 lengths.

Thirty Six Red, who led most of the 1 1/2-mile race, finished second, two lengths better than Baron de Vaux, a 65-1 shot and the second-longest price in the nine-horse field. Baron de Vaux was 2 1/2 lengths ahead of Unbridled, who beat Yonder by a nose. The other trailers, in order, were Land Rush, Video Ranger, Hawaiian Pass and Country Day.

Go And Go, who didn’t arrive in New York until Wednesday and had never set foot at Belmont Park until Saturday, became the eighth foreign-bred horse to win the Belmont, the first since England’s Celtic Ash in 1960. The only other Irish horse to win the Belmont was Cavan in 1958. A minor stake named after him was run earlier on Saturday’s card.

Go And Go, ridden by Michael Kinane and trained by Dermot Weld, two of the biggest names in Irish racing, paid $17, $6.20 and $4.80 and was timed in 2:27 1/5 on a track that went from “good” due to overnight rain to “fast” by race time. However, the Daily Racing Form listed the track as “good” for the Belmont.

Unbridled, who was second to Summer Squall in the Preakness three weeks ago, bled from the lungs as a 2-year-old and had been running all this year on Lasix, a diuretic that is banned in New York. Summer Squall didn’t run in the Belmont because he is also a bleeder, and his managers didn’t want to risk racing him without Lasix.

About an hour after the Belmont, a veterinarian inserted an endoscope in Unbridled’s throat and said that the colt didn’t bleed. Unbridled earned only $41,160 for his fourth-place purse, but his owner, 92-year-old Frances Genter, collected the $1-million bonus that goes to the Triple Crown horse who runs in all three races and totals the most points for his finishes. Because Summer Squall didn’t run Saturday, all Unbridled had to do was complete the course to win the bonus.

Craig Perret, who rides Unbridled, told Carl Nafzger, the colt’s trainer, that the rigors of the Triple Crown--three races in a five-week period--might have caught up with the horse in the Belmont.

Nick Zito, who trains Thirty Six Red, also speculated that Unbridled might have been fatigued. Zito tried to win the Kentucky Derby with Thirty Six Red in the colt’s third tough race in less than a month, and he finished an exhausted ninth.

“My horse looks tired,” Nafzger said Saturday, watching Unbridled being led from the post-race test barn back to his trainer’s barn, where the endoscopy took place.

“He may have been feeling the effects of the first two races (the Derby and the Preakness) the way Thirty Six Red was feeling the effects of the campaign that took him into the Derby.”

But Nafzger offered no excuses. “We hooked a good horse who was dead fit and got beat,” he said. “I said before the race that Go And Go was the horse to beat, just like I said that Summer Squall was the horse to beat in the Preakness. I’m going to stop picking them.

“(Unbridled) scoped clean as a whistle, and that’s a relief. I’m glad--I’m tickled--that he didn’t bleed.”

The scoping convinced Nafzger that Lasix wasn’t a factor in this Belmont. The trainer dehydrated Unbridled by taking food and water away from him 24 hours before the Belmont, supplementing potassium powder to what food the horse did eat, to help prevent bleeding.

Go And Go earned $411,600 for Walter Haefner, a Swiss industrialist who has been breeding horses in Ireland for 25 years. Haefner, winner of the Irish Derby with Assert and the Japan Cup with Stanerra, bred Go And Go through a mating between Be My Guest and Irish Edition. Go And Go’s grandsires were Alleged, two-time winner of the Arc de Triomphe, and Northern Dancer, who was third in the 1964 Belmont after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Go And Go won two of four starts in Ireland as a 2-year-old. He went from grass to dirt racing strictly by accident. Last October, he was flown to the United States to run in the Laurel Futurity on the grass, but the stake was switched to the dirt because of soggy turf.

Go And Go ran anyway, beating Robyn Dancer by a head. That resulted in Weld keeping the colt in America for another dirt race, the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Go And Go was close to the lead early but finished eighth.

Back in Ireland this year, Go and Go won a mile race and ran fourth going 1 1/4 miles in two minor stakes. Weld considered the Kentucky Derby and/or the Belmont as far back as November, choosing not to go to Churchill Downs because shipping the colt to Kentucky was more complicated than getting him to New York.

Wednesday at 6:30 a.m., Go And Go was loaded on a plane at Shannon Airport bound for Paris. From there he came by cargo plane to New York, the whole trip taking about 20 hours.

Go And Go stayed in quarantine at Aqueduct, one of Belmont’s sister tracks, and was vanned to Belmont early Saturday. To help him concentrate, Weld added blinkers for Go And Go Saturday.

Nafzger feared Go And Go because he said he often has seen horses win after such journeys.

“Horses are just like people in a lot of ways,” Nafzger said. “You can get off a plane and be high for a few days, and then not be able to get out of bed for a week. The next time this horse runs, he might not be able to pick his head up.”

The early part of the Belmont was run in quick fractions, with Thirty Six Red and jockey Mike Smith being timed in 23 3/5 for a quarter-mile, 474/5 for a half mile and 1:12 2/5 for three-quarters.

Kinane, 30, Weld’s jockey who won last year’s Arc with Carroll House, had Go And Go in fifth early but not more than five lengths behind Thirty Six Red. Perret and Unbridled moved up from sixth place to fourth after a mile, where Nafzger thought they should be.

On the turn for home, Thirty Six Red began to tire, with Baron de Vaux and Go And Go chasing him. Unbridled was also moving on the outside, and Nafzger became confident.

“He made a move, but then he stopped and I knew we were in trouble,” Nafzger said. “When a horse makes a move and quits passing horses, you know you’re in trouble. You just hope the jockey knows something that you don’t know. But usually you’re both in trouble.”

Go And Go moved past Thirty Six Red with about an eighth of a mile to go. “It got quiet up there (on the lead),” Kinane said. “I was waiting for the rush.”

The rush never came, which is what frequently happens in the Belmont. “The speed didn’t back up in the lane,” Nafzger said. “Go And Go ran a hell of a race and Thirty Six Red hung in there like a trooper.”

The Irish Derby will be run in three weeks, but Weld said that might be too soon for Go And Go. A more likely spot for him is the Travers at Saratoga in late August. Horse Racing Notes

Rhythm is back. Last year’s 2-year-old champion, who underwent throat surgery in March and missed the Triple Crown, won the race before the Belmont, the 1 1/8-mile Colin, by 2 1/4 lengths. It was Rhythm’s second consecutive victory since he ran fifth in his first post-surgery start, and he is headed for the Travers. . . . Craig Perret, who rode Rhythm, also won the Hempstead Handicap at Belmont Saturday with Fantastic Find, who is Rhythm’s stablemate. . . . Shug McGaughey, who trains Rhythm and Fantastic Find, won a third stake on the Belmont card, saddling Adjudicating for a half-length victory in the seven- furlong Riva Ridge for 3-year-olds. . . . Perret won four stakes in three days at Belmont, but missed the big one with Unbridled.

Summer Squall’s next start will be in either the Pennsylvania Derby at Philadelphia Park or on grass in the Secretariat at Arlington Park. Both races are on Sept. 3, and Cot Campbell, who manages Summer Squall, is leaning toward the Pennsylvania Derby. After that, a trip to the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs is planned, and then the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park Oct. 27. . . . Go And Go and Unbridled are other probables for the Classic. . . . Housebuster, the fastest 3-year-old sprinter in the country, is headed for the mile Sheridan stakes at Arlington Park June 23. After that, he might try to run in the 1 1/4-mile Haskell at Monmouth Park.