CROWNING BLOWS

Not long after last year’s Belmont Stakes, Southern California trainer David Hofmans received a letter from Oklahoma.

“The guy didn’t seem to be a bettor, but he was a staunch Silver Charm fan,” Hofmans said from his barn at Hollywood Park. “He accused me of spoiling Silver Charm’s Triple Crown and said I was a horrible guy.”

When Hofmans’ Touch Gold came home three-quarters of a length better than Silver Charm in the Belmont, he joined a list of horses that have prevented a sweep of the Triple Crown. Eleven horses--none since Affirmed in 1978-- have pulled off racing’s most difficult feat by winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont, but 13 were beaten in the Belmont after winning the first two.

Real Quiet will join one list or the other Saturday when he runs in a Belmont Stakes that may draw 70,000 fans to the Long Island track.

Since Affirmed’s Triple Crown, only five horses have won the Derby-Preakness double. All five were heavy favorites in the Belmont but were tripped up by the spoilers--Coastal beat Spectacular Bid in 1979, Summing knocked off Pleasant Colony in 1981, Bet Twice outran Alysheba in 1987, Easy Goer beat Sunday Silence in 1989 and Touch Gold defeated Silver Charm last year.

Hofmans lives with no guilt trip about beating Silver Charm.

“The only thing that bothered me was what it cost the other people,” Hofmans said. “I’m talking about everyone connected with Silver Charm--from the owners, trainer and jockey all the way down to the groom who would have shared in the stakes money.”

Touch Gold was running for a total purse of $721,000 and took home the winner’s share of $432,600. Silver Charm was running for the purse and a $5-million bonus that would have gone to a Triple Crown champion.

Here’s a look at the five most recent Triple Crown spoilers in the Belmont Stakes:

He Went Thataway

Bob Baffert, who trains Silver Charm and Real Quiet, said Silver Charm lost the Belmont because he didn’t see Touch Gold and Chris McCarron bearing down on him in the final 50 yards.

Touch Gold was a fresher horse than Silver Charm because Hofmans had withheld his colt from the Derby five weeks before. In the Preakness, three weeks before the Belmont, Touch Gold might have been the best horse: He stumbled so badly leaving the gate that the horse returned with smudges of dirt on his nose. After that, there was a furious three-horse finish, with two heads separating Silver Charm, Free House and Captain Bodgit.

In the Belmont, Silver Charm went off the even-money favorite and Touch Gold, running as an entry with Wild Rush, was second choice at 5-2.

“We sure weren’t going to just give them the Belmont,” Hofmans said. “My colt had a hoof problem all year. It was a big headache before the Belmont, and I had to change the horse’s training schedule because of the treatment that was required.”

The House Horse

There were no nasty letters for trainer Shug McGaughey after his Easy Goer beat the second-place Sunday Silence in the Belmont.

“New York was probably happy with the result, because Easy Goer was a local horse,” McGaughey said Thursday at Belmont Park.

Easy Goer raced for Ogden Phipps, longtime director and current trustee emeritus of the New York Racing Assn.

Both horses have been elected into the Racing Hall of Fame, but in 1989 Sunday Silence usually had Easy Goer’s number. Easy Goer lost only six of 20 starts, and half of the losses were in races won by trainer Charlie Whittingham’s colt--the Derby, the Preakness and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The margins were only a neck in the Preakness and the Breeders’ Cup.

“Sunday Silence was quicker, and he had that excellent turn of foot, but day in and day out I’m still not convinced he was a better horse,” McGaughey said.

Like Hofmans, Whittingham was battling a foot problem with Sunday Silence. Before the Preakness, veterinarian Alex Harthill was called in from Louisville to treat the bruise.

“We missed some training time,” Whittingham said, “and when you’re getting a horse ready to run a mile and a half [the Belmont distance], that’s important.”

Bye, Bye Bonuses

“The bad part about losing $5 million is when you’ve already spent it,” trainer Jack Van Berg cracked, perhaps on the square, after Alysheba was upset by Bet Twice at 8-1 in the Belmont.

Bet Twice, trained by Jimmy Croll and ridden by Craig Perret, was second in the other Triple Crown races, losing by 2 1/4 lengths in the Derby and half a length in the Preakness. In the Belmont, Alysheba not only missed the Triple Crown, he finished fourth, a neck out of third, and that cost him a $1-million bonus that went to the horse with the most points for high finishes in the series.

Bet Twice won the Belmont by 14 lengths, winning the $1-million bonus.

“My horse wasn’t really tired after the Preakness,” Van Berg said. “I thought we were a cinch in the Belmont.”

The New Shooter

Summing was trained by Luis Barrera, whose brother, Laz, had won the Triple Crown with Affirmed. While Pleasant Colony was winning the Derby and the Preakness, Summing was running in softer spots, winning the Pennsylvania Derby and even picking up a victory on grass in a small stake at Belmont Park.

In the Belmont, Summing went off at 7-1 and Pleasant Colony was 4-5, even though trainer Johnny Campo’s colt was battling a rash that covered part of his body.

Jockey George Martens, in sixth place after the first half-mile, moved with Summing on the inside as they ran down the backstretch, taking the lead with three-quarters of a mile to go. Pleasant Colony, difficult to load, was last after half a mile under Jorge Velasquez. He finished strongly, but couldn’t overhaul Summing, who beat Highland Blade by a neck. Pleasant Colony finished third, beaten by almost two lengths.

Pinpointing a Loss

After Spectacular Bid won the Derby and the Preakness, trainer Bud Delp boasted that the colt “was the best horse to ever look through a bridle.”

Ron Franklin, Spectacular Bid’s young jockey, sometimes rode the colt erratically, and Franklin was fired after the Belmont, replaced by Bill Shoemaker.

Coastal, like Summing, didn’t run in the Derby or Preakness. Trainer David Whiteley trained Coastal in California early in 1979, but didn’t run him until late April in New York. Coastal’s prep for the Belmont was a 13-length win in the Peter Pan, but Spectacular Bid, at 3-10, was the biggest favorite for the Belmont since Secretariat.

Franklin sent Spectacular Bid to the lead too soon. Coastal, the second choice at 4-1, was ridden by Ruben Hernandez, who had him in fourth place before they made their winning move at the head of the stretch. Coastal’s margin was 3 1/2 lengths, with Golden Act second, a neck better than Spectacular Bid. Delp’s gray colt lost only three other races, two of them as a 2-year-old, and Shoemaker would say later that Spectacular Bid was the best he ever rode.

The day after the Belmont, Spectacular Bid was shipped the 200 miles from New York to Pimlico, and he was gimpy getting off the van. For the first time, Delp revealed that the colt had stepped on a large safety pin, the kind used to bind leg bandages, in his stall on the morning of the Belmont. Delp said he removed the pin, tested the horse for soundness and decided to run him. Would the Bid have won the Belmont but for the pin? Maybe the Shadow knows.

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The Spoilers

Horses that won the Belmont, stopping a Triple Crown threat that had won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes:

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Year Belmont Winner Triple Threat (Place) 1944 Bounding Home Pensive (2nd) 1958 Cavan Tim Tam (2nd) 1961 Sherluck Carry Back (7th) 1964 Quadrangle Northern Dancer (3rd) 1966 Amberoid Kauai King (4th) 1968 Stage Door Johnny Forward Pass (2nd) 1969 Arts And Letters Majestic Prince (2nd) 1971 Pass Catcher Canonero II (4th) 1979 Coastal Spectacular Bid (3rd) 1981 Summing Pleasant Colony (3rd) 1987 Bet Twice Alysheba (4th) 1989 Easy Goer Sunday Silence (2nd) 1997 Touch Gold Silver Charm (2nd)

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Belmont Stakes

* WHEN: Saturday

* TV: Channel 7, 1:30 p.m. PDT (2:27 post time)

* DRAW: C6

* CROWNING MOMENT: Seattle Slew was at best in clutch. C7

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* RANDY HARVEY

At one time believed to be dead, Victory Gallop could become this year’s Touch Gold. C7