Just Say Whoa

What Bob Lewis remembered best about Chris Antley’s heroics in last year’s Belmont Stakes was the jockey’s position after he jumped off the distressed Charismatic.

“Take a look at the pictures,” Lewis said. “When Chris hit the ground, he was between the front feet of the horse.”

And hanging on to Charismatic’s bridle.

“His mind wasn’t on his own safety, it was concerned with the well-being of the horse,” Lewis said. “[Lewis’ wife Beverly] and I couldn’t be more appreciative. There’s no question that Chris’ quick action prevented our horse from thrashing around and perhaps injuring himself much more seriously.”

Charismatic, who suffered multiple fractures of his lower left foreleg, settled for third place in the Belmont, after his wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness left him one win away from a Triple Crown sweep, but the Lewises, who are from Newport Beach, still threw their post-race Belmont party at a hotel not far from the track.

“We were all real down right after the race,” said Antley, the California-based rider who stayed over Belmont night to attend the party. “But things picked up at the party. At least the horse was all right, and we had that to celebrate.”

At Will Farish’s Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky., the celebration of Charismatic continues. To say that Lewis’ colt has become a breeding machine in his first year at stud would be an understatement.

The breeding season, which began on Feb. 15, is almost over, and Farish clicked off the current numbers: Charismatic has been bred to 90 mares, 79 of whom he has gotten in foal.

“We’ll go to the end of June with him,” Farish said. “Mainly it’s just cleanup, breeding him to the mares that didn’t catch the first time. But his 90% in-foal rate is wonderful. He’s off to a great start as a stallion.”

Charismatic’s stud fee per mare was $35,000. Rather than syndicating their horse, by taking in partners who would have made an expensive one-time payment for lifetime breeding shares, the Lewises decided to keep the horse and sell breeding rights on an annual basis. They have bred only two of their mares to Charismatic.

Farish closed the horse’s book with 90 breedings after Lane’s End had turned down about 100 other applicants who wanted to breed mares to the son of Summer Squall (the 1990 Preakness winner) and Bali Babe, a Drone mare.

Although Charismatic’s career ended prematurely, he was also voted horse of the year for 1999. The Lewises, who bought him as a weanling for $200,000, twice could have lost the slow-starting chestnut for claiming prices of $62,500, but no one put in a claim and Charismatic won five of 17 races for them, earning $2 million.

The Lewises, who ran second in the 1997 Belmont with Silver Charm after he had won the Derby and the Preakness, will be running a 20-1 shot, Commendable, in Saturday’s Belmont. He’s trained by Wayne Lukas, who also trained Charismatic.

But Antley isn’t riding Commendable or any other horse in the race. Weight problems continued to plague him late last year, and he also underwent knee surgery. He quit riding in March, but is still hopeful of another comeback.

“Maybe by Del Mar [a meet that opens July 26], I’ll be back out there,” said Antley, who married Natalie Jowett, an ABC sports field producer, in April.

Antley said that he and Natalie are overdue in sending Lukas a thank-you note.

“Wayne was the guy who introduced us,” Antley said, “when Natalie came around the barn inquiring about interviews pertaining to Charismatic.”

The Lewis’ also have a minority interest--about 23%--in Impeachment, who is the second choice, at 9-2, on the Belmont’s morning line. The California couple, who began racing horses in 1990, never seriously thought about the breeding end of the business at the start, but they are also standing Silver Charm and Exploit at stud in Kentucky.

Silver Charm, whose opening fee was $25,000, is at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, and Exploit stood at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville for $30,000. Exploit, undefeated in his four starts as a 2-year-old, was a Triple Crown prospect last year, but injuries ended his career after only two starts as a 3-year-old.

“Those three horses have been bred to about 350 mares,” Lewis said. “There are 240 of those mares in foal for sure, and when all is said and done, 50 or 60 more could be added to that list.”

The Lewises gave Antley a lifetime breeding right to Charismatic. He said that he sold his breeding to the stallion for this year.

“Chris is more than a jockey,” Bob Lewis said. “He’s a full-fledged horseman, and it showed in last year’s Belmont. He’s worked around the barns all his life, and that experience paid off when he was called on in an emergency to tend to Charismatic.”

Lukas also called attention to what Hemingway once defined as grace under pressure.

“The veterinarians were very complimentary toward Chris,” Lukas said. “One of them said that she’d only seen what he did twice before in her life. By jumping off, he immediately made sure that he didn’t put any extra weight on the horse. That probably kept the injury from being much worse.”

Antley’s dramatic reaction came a few steps past the finish line. A year later, the jockey, who sensed that Charismatic might have been traveling under duress a sixteenth of a mile before the wire, still kind of wonders what all the fuss was about.

“It’s a lot like driving along in a car and feeling that you’ve gotten a flat tire,” Antley said. “Common sense tells you that you’re going to have to do something quickly. It’s not exactly the time when you might reach over for your cell phone to make a call.”

Antley, 33, began riding quarter horses in South Carolina when he was 16. He rode his first thoroughbred winner the same year. He has won almost 3,500 races and his horses have earned $92 million.

“I’ve ridden a lot of horses,” he said. “One of the first things you’re taught is to get off that horse if he’s hurting, so you can take some of the weight off his legs. A horse’s adrenaline is really flowing when they’re in that kind of a spot. They’re in temporary shock, and may not even know they’ve been hurt. They’re vulnerable to hurting themselves in that kind of a situation. Charismatic had already given me a lot. He came along at a special time in my life, after I had been away from the game for a long time. The least I could do was make him comfortable at a time like that.”

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Belmont Field

The field for Saturday’s 132nd Belmont Stakes. Weights: 126 pounds. Supplemental entry: Unshaded. Distance: 1 1/2 miles. Purse: $1 million. First place: $600,000. Second place: $200,000. Third place: $110,000. Fourth place: $60,000. Fifth place: $30,000. Post time: 2:27 p.m. PDT.

PP Horse: 1. Appearing Now

Jockey: Mike Luzzi

Trainer: Juan Ortiz

Owner: John Valentino

Odds: 30-1

*

PP Horse: 2. Postponed

Jockey: Edgar Prado

Trainer: Scotty Schulhofer

Owner: Jeanne Vance

Odds: 6-1

*

PP Horse: 3. Commendable

Jockey: Pat Day

Trainer: Wayne Lukas

Owner: Robert and Beverly Lewis

Odds: 20-1

*

PP Horse: 4. Unshaded

Jockey: Shane Sellers

Trainer: Carl Nafzger

Owner: James Tafel

Odds: 5-1

*

PP Horse: 5. Aptitude

Jockey: Alex Solis

Trainer: Bobby Frankel

Owner: Juddmonte Farms

Odds: 8-5

*

PP Horse: 6. Globalize

Jockey: Mike Smith

Trainer: Jerry Hollendorfer

Owner: Hollendorfer, Litt and Todaro

Odds: 20-1

*

PP Horse: 7. Curule

Jockey: Jerry Bailey

Trainer: Saeed bin Suroor

Owner: Godolphin Racing

Odds: 15-1

*

PP Horse: 8. Impeachment

Jockey: Craig Perret

Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Owner: Dogwood Stable

Odds: 9-2

*

PP Horse: 9. Wheelaway

Jockey: Richard Migliore

Trainer: John Kimmel

Owner: Kimmel & Solondz

Odds: 5-1

*

PP Horse: 10. Hugh Hefner

Jockey: Jorge Chavez

Trainer: Marty Jones

Owner: King Edward Racing Stable

Odds: 50-1

*

PP Horse: 11. Tahkodha Hills

Jockey: Eibar Coa

Trainer: Ralph Ziadie

Owner: Centaur Farms

Odds: 30-1