Photo Finishes Real Quiet

When Victory Gallop was a young horse, one of his playful games was to knock out every lightbulb that was put in his stall.

“He just kept doing it,” said his former trainer, Mary Eppler. “Finally we just didn’t put any more bulbs in there.”

The Canadian-bred colt was up to his old tricks Saturday. He turned out the lights on another Triple Crown bid by trainer Bob Baffert, beating Real Quiet by a head bob in the $1-million Belmont Stakes. The 11-horse club that was last joined by Affirmed in 1978 can close its doors for another year.

The Triple Crown threat is the kind of event that brings out jaded New Yorkers in large numbers, and temporarily props up a national game that has been in an oxygen tent for a long time. This time, 80,162 came to see if Real Quiet could add to his Kentucky Derby and Preakness victories. It was a bigger crowd than last year, when Baffert’s Silver Charm finished three-quarters of a length short to Touch Gold, and bigger than any New York crowd but the 82,694 that watched Canonero II stumble in his Triple Crown bid in 1971.

Gary Stevens, Victory Gallop’s jockey, did a flip-flop in the 130th Belmont, winning the race that eluded him with Silver Charm. Before Saturday, Victory Gallop, his owners and trainer Elliott Walden were looking at a different kind of history--joining Alydar (against Affirmed) as the only horse to finish second in all three Triple Crown races.

Victory Gallop, on the outside, was a nose up and a nose down in the last few strides to the wire, and the late-running colt’s nostrils hit the line at the right time. Only two other Belmonts have been as close--Granville’s win by a nose over Mr. Bones in 1936 and Jaipur’s squeaker against Admiral’s Voyage in 1962.

Real Quiet, meanwhile, became the 14th horse to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but lose in the Belmont.

Kent Desormeaux, trying to get black-blinkered Real Quiet to notice Victory Gallop closing on their right flank, angled his colt’s head that way in the final few jumps, and Real Quiet twice came out, banging against Victory Gallop’s left rib cage. Stevens, not knowing whether he won, claimed foul as he was pulling up. The Belmont stewards indicated that they would have made the toughest of calls, disqualifying Real Quiet and costing his owner, Mike Pegram, the $600,000 purse and the $5-million Triple Crown bonus.

“Really?” the dry-witted Baffert said after the race. “A disqualification? I’m glad we got beat, then. Boy, if that had happened, I would have been throwing chairs.”

In a two-horse race, Victory Gallop finally got the win that he missed by a half-length in the Derby and by 2 1/4 lengths in the Preakness. His giant-killer reputation still preceded him, because of a win in April in the Arkansas Derby, in a race that marked the first defeat for 1997 horse of the year Favorite Trick. The Oaklawn Park race was only the second for Victory Gallop after Jack, Art and J.R. Preston, brothers from Houston, bought him privately for an undisclosed sum last November.

After Victory Gallop and Real Quiet, it was six lengths back to Thomas Jo in third place. The rest of the order of finish was Parade Ground, Raffie’s Majesty, Chilito, Grand Slam, Classic Cat, Limit Out, Yarrow Brae and Basic Trainee.

There were two scratches, Hanuman Highway because of stomach sickness and Hot Wells because his owner, Mike Lasky, hadn’t applied for a state racing license. Lasky, also known as Mike Warren, had been denied a New York license 16 years ago after the racing board labeled him as a “professional tout.” In a telephone interview Saturday, Lasky said he would consider legal action against New York racing authorities.

After going off at 14-1 in the Derby, Victory Gallop was a mild favorite in the Preakness. As Saturday’s second choice, he paid $11, running 1 1/2 miles in 2:29. This was the Cryptoclearance-Victorious Lil colt’s sixth win in 10 starts, his earnings growing to almost $1.5 million.

In the post-race interview room, Desormeaux tried to take the fall for Real Quiet’s loss. He moved from sixth place with the colt down the backstretch, taking the lead near the quarter pole and giving Victory Gallop a moving target the length of the Belmont stretch.

“It was a little bit premature,” Desormeaux said. “I’d like to do it all over again.”

Baffert tried to soften the loss for his jockey.

“We just got beat, Kent,” the trainer said. “You ran out of horse, and that was my fault. The Fish [Real Quiet’s nickname] just floundered. He got dead tired. Sometimes when a horse wants to go, you have to let him go. This was another letdown, but at least we got to cheer all the way to the wire. Last year it was three-quarters of a length, this year a nose. I’ll have to come back next year and win by daylight.”

Chilito, the 85-1 shot, led the race for the first mile, clicking off slow fractions of :23 3/5, :48 3/5, 1:13 2/5 and 1:37 2/5. Victory Gallop was next to last after half a mile, eight lengths from the front. Twice Stevens had to force him between horses, the second time at the head of the stretch. It was only them and Real Quiet at the eighth pole, with Victory Gallop making up four lengths the rest of the way.

“It was difficult to hit the three-eighths pole, see Real Quiet open up and not push the button,” Stevens said. “But this was the strategy. But I had gained so much confidence in this horse after I rode him [for the first time] in the Preakness. At the eighth pole, he just threw me back in the saddle and went for his target.”

The Belmont was a climactic turn-around for the 35-year-old Walden. In the days leading up to the Belmont, the 6-foot-4 trainer broke an ankle playing pickup basketball and then had to carefully treat a Victory Gallop skin rash.

Walden moved into the winner’s circle Saturday as fast as his crutches would carry him. “At the eighth pole,” Walden said, “I had a flashback to Churchill Downs and wondered if my horse would get there. This isn’t a big colt. But in the paddock, you could see him swelling up. He thinks like a big horse.”

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BY THE NUMBERS

11: Number of horses that have won the Triple Crown.

14: Horses that have won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but lost the Belmont.

2: Consecutive years that a Bob Baffert trained horse has won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but not the Belmont.

2:29: Winning time Saturday. Secretariat’s record time in 1973 was 2:24.

$5M: Triple Crown bonus Real Quiet would have won with a victory in the Belmont.

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The Payoffs

Victory Gallop won the Belmont Stakes by a nose to deny Real Quiet’s bid for a Triple Crown. The payoffs:

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Horse Win Place Show Victory Gallop $11.00 $3.60 $3.20 Real Quiet $3.00 $2.60 Thomas Jo $5.30

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Near-Misses

The 14 horses that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but failed to win the Triple Crown in the Belmont--with year, horse, placing lengths behind the winner and the winner:

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Year Horse Place LBW Winner 1944 Pensive 2nd 1/2 Bounding Home 1958 Tim Tam 2nd 6 Cavan 1961 Carry Back 7th 14 3/4 Sherluck 1964 Northern Dancer 3rd Quadrangle 1966 Kaual King 4th 7 1/2 Amberoid 1968 Forward Pass 2nd 1 1/2 Stage Door Johnny 1969 Majestic Prince 2nd 5 1/2 Arts And Letters 1971 Canonero II 4th 4 1/4 Pass Catcher 1979 Spectacular Bid 3rd 3 1/4 Coastal 1981 Pleasant Colony 3rd 1 1/2 Summing 1987 Alysheba 4th 14 1/4 Bet Twice 1989 Sunday Silence 2nd 8 Easy Goer 1997 Silver Charm 2nd 3/4 Touch Gold 1998 Real Quiet 2nd nose Victory Gallop

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ROLE REVERSAL: Gary Stevens, whose Triple Crown bid aboard Silver Charm came up short in the Belmont last year, is the spoiler this time. C15

TRACKING THE RACE: C14