Triple Crown Is a Wearing Task Again

Three years, three false alarms. Silver Charm and Real Quiet, then Saturday the ill-fated Charismatic became the latest colt to fall while trying to snatch the Triple Crown. Will there ever be another Kentucky Derby-Preakness-Belmont Stakes champion?

Not in this century. Affirmed was the 11th and last horse to sweep, 21 years ago. There was once an even longer gap between champions, the 25-year drought that ended when Secretariat bagged all three races in 1973.

Hindsight, which is usually 20-20 vision, suggests that it was too much to ask of Charismatic to sweep the series. There were too many horses running in the races this year. For Charismatic’s opposition, the cliche about strength in numbers made perfect sense. At every turn, there was a slew of horses lurking to derail him.

Had Charismatic pulled off the Triple Crown, he would have beaten more horses than any horse that’s ever swept the series. The record for total opponents in a Triple Crown-winning year is 32, set in 1937 when War Admiral won a 20-horse Derby, an eight-horse Preakness and a seven-horse Belmont. This year, a total of 44 ran--19 in the Derby, 13 in the Preakness and 12 in the Belmont.

Lemon Drop Kid--Saturday’s Belmont winner at 29-1 as Charismatic finished third and suffered a broken left foreleg--fit the profile that some of the other Triple Crown spoilers have had the last 21 years. Seven times since 1978, a horse has won the Derby and Preakness, then lost the Belmont, and in three of those Belmonts--the ones won by Coastal (1979), Summing (1981) and Touch Gold (1997)--the winner was a horse that didn’t run in both of the first two races.

This Belmont was the fifth race in 64 days for Charismatic. Elliott Walden, whose Menifee regressed to eighth after running second in both the Derby and the Preakness, speculated before the Belmont that Charismatic’s heavy racing schedule would be his undoing in the Belmont.

Lemon Drop Kid, by contrast, was withheld from the Preakness after running ninth--but beaten by only 5 1/2 lengths--in the Derby. The morning after the Derby, Lemon Drop Kid’s trainer, Scotty Schulhofer, said he was going to run his colt in the Preakness, but a couple of days later he changed his mind. Schulhofer liked the idea of giving Lemon Drop Kid three weeks off between the Derby and the Peter Pan on May 23, then giving him only two weeks between the Peter Pan and the Belmont. Schulhofer’s first Belmont winner--Colonial Affair at 13-1 in 1993--also used the Peter Pan as his prep race. Colonial Affair ran second in the Peter Pan that was won by Virginia Rapids; Lemon Drop Kid was third in his Peter Pan, behind Best Of Luck and Treasure Island. Best Of Luck was fourth in the Belmont.

The next Triple Crown will have the magical cachet of being the first for the 21st century, and Wayne Lukas, the trainer of Charismatic, foresees the big-field trend continuing.

“It’s not the money [the Triple Crown events didn’t become $1-million races until last year] that’s drawing the horses,” Lukas said. “It’s the desire of the owners to be in the main arena. The purses are secondary. The Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup are the high-profile days for our sports, and everybody in the game would like to be there.”

Lukas said that several years ago one of his Derby-bound owners told him to distribute the entire purse among the stablehands if the horse won.

“It’s plenty difficult just winning one of the Triple Crown races,” Lukas said. “Not long after I switched over [from quarter horses to thoroughbreds], I won my first Triple Crown race with Codex [the 1980 Preakness]. ‘What’s the big deal about winning these?’ I said to myself. But then I went a long time [five years] before I won another one.”

Charismatic underwent surgery Sunday, with veterinarian Stephen Selway putting four screws in his left foreleg to repair fractures of the cannon (shin) bone. Injured during the stretch run of the Belmont, Charismatic also fractured the sesamoid bone at the back of the ankle on the same leg. His racing career is over, after five wins in 17 starts and earnings of $2 million for owners Bob and Beverly Lewis.

Lemon Drop Kid will remain at Belmont Park and be pointed for the premier 3-year-old races at Saratoga--the Jim Dandy Stakes on Aug. 8 and the Travers on Aug. 28.

Horse Racing Notes

Two other Wayne Lukas 3-year-olds, Cat Thief and Quaker Ridge, are possibles for the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park on July 18. Quaker Ridge won an allowance race at Belmont Park on Sunday. . . . Two other Lukas 3-year-olds could be factors late in the year. Tactical Cat could be headed for either the Haskell at Monmouth Park or the Travers, and Cape Canaveral, after suffering sore shins, will likely return to race in the fall. . . . Patience Game, sixth in the Belmont, bled in the race.

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Charismatic’s Leg Injury

Triple Crown contender Charismatic finished third in the Belmont Stakes and suffered a fracture to his left front leg near the end of the race.