Time to Savor Sarava

Asked Sunday morning at Belmont Park whether he placed any bets Saturday on Sarava, trainer Ken McPeek turned sheepish and acknowledged a small $10 win-place wager.

That’s a ticket that’s worth $962.50, but it’s money that’s going to stay with the track.

“I don’t think I’ll ever cash it,” said McPeek, who checked out his longshot Belmont Stakes winner and shipped him back to his barn at Churchill Downs. Paying $142.50, $50 and $22.40 across the board, Sarava accounted for the highest win price in Belmont Stakes history and gave McPeek his first Triple Crown win.

McPeek may have lost Harlan’s Holiday, who was sent to another trainer, Todd Pletcher, three days before the Belmont, but he still goes into the second half of the year with a double-barreled threat.

McPeek’s other top colt, Repent, won the Louisiana Derby before an ankle chip knocked him out of the Triple Crown. Repent will be back soon, either next month in the Haskell at Monmouth Park or in August in the Jim Dandy at Saratoga.

McPeek indicated that he would try to keep Sarava and Repent--who have different owners--apart as much as possible.

McPeek said that he has never saddled a winner who paid as much as Sarava to win. Before a record Belmont Park crowd of 103,222, Sarava dismantled the Triple Crown aspirations of War Emblem, whose stumbling start led to an eighth-place finish.

“War Emblem’s still done an awful lot, winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness,” McPeek said, when asked about the status of the 3-year-old division. “We probably won’t know about the [3-year-old] championship until these horses start running against older horses later in the year. But I’ve got a couple that might be able to knock off War Emblem again.”

Sarava had run seven times--three in England, four in the U.S.--before making his stakes debut with a win in the Sir Barton, a minor race at Pimlico, on Preakness day three weeks ago. The $1-million Belmont was his first attempt in a graded race.

“He had never danced this big of a dance,” McPeek said. “It was as if I tossed him into the deep end of the pool and said, ‘Hey, kid, swim or sink.’ ”

Bob Baffert, who trains War Emblem, is likely to give his horse a rest before turning his attention to the second half of the campaign. The Belmont was War Emblem’s fourth important race in two months.

“I hope to reload and be back [in the Triple Crown] next year,” Baffert said.

Baffert had won four consecutive Triple Crown races--last year’s Preakness and Belmont with Point Given, this year’s Derby and Preakness with War Emblem--before the streak ended.

“My record’s safe,” trainer Wayne Lukas said Sunday. Lukas won six consecutive Triple Crown races with four horses.

Lukas finished fifth Saturday with Proud Citizen, who suffered a cracked shin in the race and will be shelved for three or four months. Both he and McPeek, typical of most trainers, are already lining up their candidates for next year. McPeek won a maiden race Saturday at Churchill Downs with Risky Cat, who ran five furlongs in a blazing :57 2/5.

“He’s got some breeding,” McPeek said. “By Storm Cat out of an Affirmed mare.”

Lukas thought that besides the Sarava connections, the other big winner Saturday was Belmont Park’s management. The on-track handle of $12 million broke the record by about $1.5 million. Overall $90 million was bet on the 12-race card, breaking that record by about $22 million.

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War Emblem’s unsuccessful Triple Crown attempt in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes generated the highest overnight rating for any horse race since 1992--a 9.2 with a 21 share.

The previous high was a 9.5/26 overnight for the 1992 Kentucky Derby.

Charismatic’s Triple Crown attempt in the 1999 Belmont drew a 6.6/17.

West Palm Beach, Fla., had the highest rating for Saturday’s Belmont, a 17.5. Los Angeles earned a 9.8/22.

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Times staff writer Larry Stewart contributed to this report.