Third Leg, Broken Dreams

For the third consecutive year, the Belmont Stakes began with thunder and ended with a thud, this time 29-1 longshot Lemon Drop Kid waking up on the right day while the Triple Crown aspirant, Charismatic, struggled home third and suffered a career-ending injury.

Shortening his stride 40 yards before the wire, after a fast early pace had run him into the ground, Charismatic bobbled near the finish line Saturday and was saved from more serious injuries when his jockey, Chris Antley, jumped off about 50 yards later and kept the colt from putting more pressure on his broken left foreleg. Antley left the track in tears, but late Saturday, back at trainer Wayne Lukas’ barn, his outlook improved when he learned that Charismatic will be saved for the breeding shed.

Charismatic, an escapee from the California claiming ranks who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, was hoping to win the Belmont and become the first Triple Crown champion since Affirmed in 1978. Also down the chute Saturday was the $5-million bonus that a horse earns with a series sweep.

The winner, Lemon Drop Kid, prevailed by a head over another longshot, Vision And Verse, who was 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Charismatic. The rest of the 12-horse field was more spread out, with Best Of Luck, the fourth-place finisher, followed across the line by Stephen Got Even, Patience Game, Silverbulletday, Menifee, Pineaff, Prime Directive, Teletable and Adonis. Silverbulletday, who could have become the third filly overall and the first in 94 years to win the Belmont, played a major role in the outcome by luring Charismatic into a senselessly fast early pace before she faded to seventh, beaten by about 10 1/2 lengths.

Lemon Drop Kid’s shocker came before a record Belmont Park crowd of 85,818. Trainer Scotty Schulhofer’s colt, ridden by Jose Santos, paid $61.50 to win, becoming the fourth biggest longshot winner in Belmont Stakes history. Vision And Verse, who skipped the Derby and Preakness and won the Illinois Derby for his Belmont prep, was 54-1 and combined for a $2 exacta that was worth $1,537. The trifecta on the first three finishers paid a whopping $5,343.

Lemon Drop Kid, owned by Jeanne Vance and her husband Laddie Dance, was winless in three stakes this year, running fifth in the Blue Grass, ninth in the Kentucky Derby and third in the Peter Pan, which was run at Belmont Park two weeks ago. The Belmont was Lemon Drop Kid’s fourth win in 11 starts and his first stakes win since the Futurity at Belmont in September. From the $1-million purse, he earned $600,000, running 1 1/2 miles in 2:27 4/5.

This was the second time in three years that Bob and Beverly Lewis, the owners of Charismatic, were foiled in the Triple Crown. In 1997, their Silver Charm ran second to Touch Gold after winning the Derby and Preakness. Last year, Real Quiet won the first two races in the series before Victory Gallop beat him by a nose in the finale.

Lukas took a more serious Triple Crown hit in 1993, when Union City, running in the Preakness, was injured and euthanized.

“Chris [Antley] very much saved this horse from more serious damage,” Lukas said at the barn. “A track veterinarian who was with us in the ambulance that took the horse off the track said she had only seen a jockey jump off and do what he did twice in her life.”

Charismatic shattered his cannon bone, which connects the ankle to the knee, and also suffered a sesamoid fracture of the ankle on the same leg. Larry Bramlage, one of the veterinarians on duty, said Charismatic’s career is over. The colt will undergo surgery today, when three screws will be inserted to fuse the cannon bone. Time and rest should heal the sesamoid injury.

Sent off the 8-5 favorite Saturday after bettors lacked confidence in him in the Derby (31-1) and Preakness (8-1), Charismatic became the second Belmont choice to suffer serious injuries in the race in recent years. In 1993, Prairie Bayou, who had won the Preakness, broke down on the backstretch here and was euthanized. The winner of that race, Colonial Affair, was also trained by Schulhofer.

“We accepted the accolades in Louisville and Baltimore, and today was just one of those things that happens,” Bob Lewis said. “What happened today is history. We have been in this position to win the Triple Crown twice, and if we are lucky enough, we will try it again some day.”

After dismounting, Antley held Charismatic’s injured leg above the ground for several minutes until veterinarians reached the horse and put on a pressure cast--which prevents swelling--for the horse’s van ride back to the barn.

“When horses get hurt like that, they go into shock and can’t feel what’s underneath them,” Antley said. “I picked up the sore leg so he wouldn’t put weight on it anymore.”

At the barn more than an hour after the race, Lewis shook Antley’s hand and said:

“The way you got off the horse and got down and tried to help was absolutely magnificent. We’re proud to have you associated with us. It was heroic the way you tried to ease the pain, and I can’t give you enough credit.”

Shackled with severe weight problems and depression, Antley revitalized his career by capitalizing on the chance he got with Charismatic.

“He gave us a lot,” Antley said of the colt. “He gave America a lot . . . but these things happen.”

Charismatic took the lead briefly on the first turn, then dropped back to second place for the run down the backstretch. The early fractions were fast for a Belmont: 47 3/5 for the half-mile, 1:12 after six furlongs and a mile in 1:36 2/5.

“I can’t believe Charismatic ran away with my filly,” said Jerry Bailey, who won four races on the card before he boarded Silverbulletday in the Belmont. “My hand was kind of made for me because I was on the inside. It’s tough to go head and head that far. But I could see that Charismatic was kind of rank. I looked over and [Antley] was trying to get him back, but he couldn’t get him back. There’s not much you can do. You don’t want to stand up and go water-skiing on him. It wasn’t a killer pace, but you just hate to go eyeball to eyeball early in the race.”

Silverbulletday was a head in front after a half-mile, a half-length ahead for the first mile. Charismatic stuck his head in front with a quarter-mile left, but under left-handed whipping he was coming out, and brushed with Stephen Got Even at the top of the stretch, forcing Antley to steady his mount. Lemon Drop Kid, eighth much of the way and 4 1/2 lengths behind with a half-mile to go, moved off the rail to close widest of all and made the lead with an eighth of a mile left.

Since Affirmed’s Triple Crown, there have been seven horses that won the first two races in the series before failing in the Belmont.

“At about the eighth pole [Charismatic] let up a little bit,” Antley said. “At that point, I rode just enough to hang on for third. I had stopped whipping. Heading for the finish, he suddenly dipped underneath me and I could tell he was in pain. He gave everything he had, and ran as hard as he could, but he couldn’t give the people what they wanted.”

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HOW THEY FINISHED

1. LEMON DROP KID

Payoffs: $61.50, 26.00, 10.60

Jockey: Santos

2. VISION AND VERSE

Payoffs: $44.40, 17.00

Jockey: Castillo

Trainer: Mott

3. CHARISMATIC

Payoff: $3.60

Jockey: Antley

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SWEET AGAIN

Lemon Drop Kid’s owners--Laddie Dance and wife Jeanne Vance--also had a share of Secretariat in 1973. Page 12

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NOT SO SWEET

Trainer Bob Baffert says Charismatic’s early pressure on pace-setting Silverbulletday took its toll on the filly. Page 13

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OTHER RACES

Before Silverbulletday’s seventh-place finish in the Belmont, jockey Jerry Bailey was having a pretty good day. Page 13

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Elusive Triple Crown

How horses that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness fared in the Belmont Stakes since horse racing’s Triple Crown was last won by Affirmed in 1978: *--*

YEAR HORSE FINISH 1979 Spectacular Bid 3rd to Coastal 1981 Pleasant Colony 3rd to Summing 1987 Alysheba 4th to Bet Twice 1989 Sunday Silence 2nd to Easy Goer 1997 Silver Charm 2nd to Touch Gold 1998 Real Quiet 2nd to Victory Gallop 1999 Charismatic 3rd to Lemon Drop Kid

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