Good Luck at Belmont Continues for Stephens

Thirteen years ago today, legendary trainer Woody Stephens, 72, saw Chris McCarron ride Danzig Connection to victory in the Belmont Stakes--Stephens’ fifth consecutive win in the race.

Afterward, McCarron said the most surprising part about it was that it was so easy. All he did, he said, was ride the horse. He didn’t even have to use the whip.

McCarron, winless in 11 previous Triple Crown races, was Stephens’ third choice. After learning both Pat Day and Laffit Pincay were unavailable, Stephens recruited McCarron.

McCarron talked about being in traffic at the turn for home with Ferdinand, Mogambo and Johns Treasure.

“I wasn’t concerned because I knew I had a lot of horse left,” he said.

“Any time I needed acceleration, I felt it would be there. I chirped to the horse at the eighth pole and he moved. Then I moved my hands on the reins at the sixteenth pole, and there was an immediate response.

“I’ve never been in a race this big, where it was so easy and I could just sit on a horse. . . I was just a passenger.”

Danzig Connection paid $18, $8.20 and $5.40, and McCarron finally had a win in a Triple Crown race. He had not ridden a winner in six mounts in the Kentucky Derby, four in the Preakness and one in the Belmont.

Stephens’ Belmont streak ended at five. He died at 84 in 1998.

Also on this date: In 1930, Gallant Fox became the second horse to win the triple crown when Earl Sande drove him to a four-length win at the Belmont Stakes. . . . In 1941, Eddie Arcaro rode Whirlaway to a four-length win at the Belmont, securing the Triple Crown. . . . In 1958, Round Table won Hollywood Park’s Argonaut Handicap by a nose over How Now. . . . In 1983, Steve Carlton passed Nolan Ryan--who had broken Walter Johnson’s 55-year-old career strikeout record earlier in the season--but just temporarily. Ryan, who pitched far longer than Carlton, wound up with 5,714 strikeouts to Carlton’s 4,136. . . . In 1930, in Chicago, USC’s Frank Wykoff, running without starting blocks, ran 9.4 in the 100-yard dash for a world record.