On Surface, Ward Is Puzzled

Driving to Pimlico from his hotel Sunday morning, trainer John Ward was thinking about how to explain Monarchos’ poor performance in the Preakness.

Ward agreed with his jockey, Jorge Chavez, that after winning the Kentucky Derby easily, Monarchos didn’t handle Pimlico’s racing strip. Point Given may have run well enough Saturday to win the Preakness anyway, but there was never any high drama between the standouts of the 3-year-old division. Finishing sixth, Monarchos never threatened and was soundly beaten, dashing racing’s hopes for another Triple Crown champion for the 23rd consecutive year.

At Monarchos’ barn Sunday, Ward searched for analogies that the layman might comprehend.

“It’s like trying to run in deep snow,” the trainer said. “Physically, you just can’t get it done. It’s like a golfer in a sand trap. No matter how hard you hit the ball, if you’re not using the right club, it doesn’t work. My horse used a lot of physical exertion Saturday, but he just couldn’t get going. His effort probably took more out of him than any race he’s had this year. That’s one of the reasons the Triple Crown is so hard: It’s run over three different surfaces.”

Monarchos was one of the early Preakness arrivals at Pimlico, showing up four days after the Derby. Point Given, badly beaten in a fifth-place Derby finish, did all of his serious work for the Preakness at Churchill Downs and didn’t hit town until three days before the race. Based on the way Monarchos trained at Pimlico, Ward had no reason to think that his gray colt wouldn’t be competitive.

“You can’t really tell, based on how a horse trains, whether they’ll handle a track in a race,” Ward said. “This comes from someone very familiar with training horses at Keeneland and then getting hit between the eyes when they run at Churchill Downs.”

The third chapter in the Point Given-Monarchos rivalry will be written in the Belmont Stakes in New York on June 9.

“Point Given will be tough there,” Ward said. “Nick Zito’s horse [A P Valentine] will be tough, and then there’s a whole new bunch of horses, including Invisible Ink. Who knows? We’re liable to see a third horse winning the Belmont.”

That’s what happened last year. Fusaichi Pegasus won the Derby, was considered invincible for the Preakness before Red Bullet beat him, and then, with neither Fusaichi Pegasus nor Red Bullet running, trainer Wayne Lukas’ upstart, Commendable, won the Belmont.

That Belmont will be remembered as one of the weakest in years, but this year’s edition--No. 133--will be a reunion of Triple Crown veterans spiced with the inevitable new shooters that sometimes win the race. The Preakness proved again, for the 17th time in 18 years, that to win at Pimlico you have to run in the Derby, but the Belmont’s history of winners is not nearly as clear-cut.

All this year, Zito talked the good game about A P Valentine, even though the top 2-year-old had fallen out of favor, and it took the colt’s second-place run in the Preakness, 2 1/4 lengths behind Point Given, to validate the trainer’s boasts. Is A P Valentine up to the demanding 1 1/2 miles of the Belmont? Look no farther than his sire, A.P. Indy, winner of the Belmont in 1992.

“I think my horse would have done what he did Saturday in the Derby, but he didn’t get any breaks,” Zito said. “I thought my horse showed as much steam as Point Given going down the backside Saturday, but the difference was that Point Given was running along so easily and had a lot more left. I’m very excited about our chances going into the Belmont.”

Although the Brooklyn-born Zito has won the Derby twice and the Preakness once, the hometown Belmont has been his albatross. Second four times in the race, Zito has never won with the 10 horses he has run.

Bob Baffert, trainer of Point Given, has won five Triple Crown races (two Derbys and three Preaknesses), but he’s also winless with four starters in the Belmont, a fact not lost on Richard Mulhall, who was in a joshing mood in the immediate aftermath of the 126th Preakness.

Mulhall is the general manager of the horse operation of Prince Ahmed Salman, owner of Point Given. On Saturday, Mulhall looked over at Baffert and said: “The only thing I’ll worry about now is how many Baffert has won going a mile and a half.”

Laughing himself, Baffert said: “Maybe this is my breakout horse.”

Two of Baffert’s Belmont defeats were especially galling, Silver Charm and Real Quiet losing the Triple Crown with their New York losses in 1997-98.

Baffert’s other top colt, Congaree, will get a rest after finishing third in the Derby and the Preakness. He won the Wood Memorial three weeks before the Derby.

“He ran his guts out,” Baffert said. “The Wood, the Derby, every race he’s run has been really good. He’s a very good horse.”

Monarchos’ stablemate, Hero’s Tribute, will run Saturday in the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park, but skip the Belmont Stakes. Several other Belmont possibles are also eligible for the Peter Pan, including Thunder Blitz, Invisible Ink, Balto Star, Buckle Down Ben, Dayton Flyer and E Dubai. In 1999, Lemon Drop Kid finished third in the Peter Pan and then won the Belmont two weeks later.

Depending on how he recovers upon his return to Churchill Downs, Dollar Bill, fourth in the Preakness, could also run in the Belmont. For the fourth consecutive race, Dollar Bill had an excuse.

“The rider of Griffinite [Shaun Bridgmohan] looked up to drop his goggles down, and his horse veered right into my horse,” said Dallas Stewart, who trains Dollar Bill. “It wasn’t my horse’s fault, it wasn’t [jockey] Pat Day’s fault. Fortunately, my horse has come out of all these races without so much as a cut or nick. He’s like Superman. He’s the Teflon horse. Nothing sticks to him.”

After missing the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, trainer Wayne Lukas could resurface with Buckle Down Ben in the Belmont. . . . An intriguing Belmont horse is Dr Greenfield, who was bought by the Team Valor outfit after he broke his maiden in England last year. Dr Greenfield, a winner in Chester, England, recently, will be making his U.S. debut in the Belmont. Team Valor, based in Versailles, Ky., brought the longshot My Memoirs from England in 1992, supplemented him into the Belmont and ran second to A.P. Indy.