Belmont Stakes Are on the Rise

Jimmy Stone is not averse to cashing a bet. In 1984 at Del Mar, Stone and Ed Friendly raced a 2-year-old named Edjim in partnership, and with a two-day pick-six carry-over, they singled their winning colt with five others that won and collected something like $106,000.

“You would have thought somebody had given Jimmy another oil well,” Friendly said.

Stone, a Louisiana oil driller, still has the picture of Edjim’s victory at Del Mar. It hangs on one of his bathroom walls in New Orleans.

Stone, 74, now owns another horse, Menifee, in partnership with Arthur B. Hancock III.

You might think, after Menifee’s second-place finishes behind Charismatic in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, that Stone would be sneaking into New York for the Belmont Stakes, just hoping to do the best he can with his colt.

Not so. Stone still likes his horse. A lot. He might be buying billboard space along Times Square before the race is run at Belmont Park on June 5.

Short of leasing a big sign, Stone has issued a $100,000 challenge to Bob Lewis, the co-owner of Charismatic. Stone got the idea when he read earlier this week that Lewis had offered to bet trainer Bob Baffert $100,000 if Baffert’s filly, Silverbulletday, ran against Charismatic in the Belmont.

It’s the old racing game of “My horse is better than your horse,” which is as old as the Godolphin Arabian.

Lewis isn’t biting. He’s as confident as ever that Charismatic, considered to be a genuine 1 1/2-mile horse, can beat Menifee again, win the Belmont and become the first Triple Crown champion since 1978, but he won’t be betting Stone.

“The bet I suggested with Baffert was an in-house thing,” Lewis said. “Baffert trains a lot of my horses. I think it would be taboo to be accepting betting challenges from others. I wouldn’t want to detract in any way from the magnificence of the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown. I know Menifee’s a nice horse, and if he beats us on June 5, then so be it, and I’ll be the first to congratulate him for being the best horse on that day.”

Lewis’ challenge to Baffert came with the proviso that the winner turn over the money to an equine charity. Stone’s proposed bet with Lewis is without stipulations.

“The winner could just put the money in his pocket,” Stone said. “What he wanted to do with it after that would be up to him.”

Eight years ago, Carl Icahn, who was running TWA at the time, made a $35,000 bet with Hammer, the rap-music artist, before the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park. That day, Icahn’s Meadow Star beat Hammer’s filly, Lite Light. A month later, Hammer bet $200,000 to Icahn’s $150,000 that Lite Light would turn the tables in the Coaching Club American Oaks, and she did. Both men said they turned their winnings over to charities.

From the 18th post in a 19-horse field, Menifee rallied from far back in the Derby and came within a neck of catching Charismatic at the wire. In last Saturday’s Preakness, Menifee had a better post and better early position, but was 1 1/2 lengths short at the end.

There’s an eeriness to this Belmont, because Elliott Walden trains Menifee and Victory Gallop, who was second in the Derby and Preakness last year before he won the Belmont, costing Real Quiet the Triple Crown.

About Menifee, Walden said, “I felt like he might have been the best horse in the Derby, but [in the Preakness] we were second best. I think he’ll really like those big turns [at Belmont Park]. One thing we know is that he’s run on a different racetrack in all seven of his races, and handled them well.”

Jimmy Stone’s bet against Bob Lewis is still open.

“Let’s put the money up and let the horses speak for themselves,” Stone said. “Bragging about your horse doesn’t prove anything. If all we did was brag about our horses and our children, a whole lot would be left out.”

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Ron McAnally is on fire at the Hollywood Park meet, and he’ll try to turn up the sizzle this weekend, with Olympic Charmer in today’s Railbird Stakes and Aliena in Sunday’s Honeymoon Handicap. . . . Chris McCarron, who missed riding Stephen Got Even in the Preakness when he broke a bone in his foot five days before the race, is back today. Stephen Got Even, 14th with McCarron in the Kentucky Derby and fourth with Gary Stevens in the Preakness, will be ridden by Shane Sellers in the Belmont. . . . Sellers will have ridden a different horse in every Triple Crown race. He was 18th with Vicar in the Derby and eighth with Kimberlite Pipe in the Preakness.

Stevens, headed for England in a deal that might last three years, will finish up at Hollywood Park Thursday and make his last U.S. appearance on Saturday, riding Real Quiet in the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs. . . . If Silverbulletday runs in the Belmont, Jerry Bailey will be her jockey. Stevens is committed that day to Beat All in the Epsom Derby. . . . Trainer Bob Baffert said that if more than 12 horses run in the Belmont, Silverbulletday won’t run.

Two days after the Preakness, the New York Post’s early Belmont line listed Menifee as the 3-1 favorite, followed by Best Of Luck at 5-1 and Charismatic and Stephen Got Even at 6-1. . . . Gene Jacobs, a thoroughbred trainer for 45 years, died in New York. He was 86.