Lack of Star Power Is Problem for Final Leg of Triple Crown

Without the winner of either the Kentucky Derby or the Preakness in today’s Belmont Stakes, the so-called “test of the champion” is taking its share of jibes.

“The test of leftovers?” trainer Bob Baffert said.

Horse racing’s latest hero, Barbaro, won’t be anywhere near Belmont Park, but that won’t keep ABC from featuring him today via a live feed from the veterinary hospital in Pennsylvania where the Kentucky Derby winner is recovering from a career-ending injury in the Preakness.

The Preakness winner, Bernardini, is here, in the barn of trainer Tom Albertrani, but he isn’t running in the Belmont because his connections decided to rest him and point toward other races leading to the Breeders’ Cup in November.

With a lackluster field that doesn’t include any horse that ran in both the Derby and Preakness, this Belmont has inspired yet another round of what’s-wrong-with-the-Triple-Crown analysis, even though six times in the last nine years a horse has come into the Belmont with a chance to win the Triple Crown, and there was a near-frenzy over Smarty Jones two years ago.

One reason for the talk is that Pimlico Race Course officials are discussing the possibility of moving the Preakness to three, or even four, weeks after the Kentucky Derby, instead of the traditional two.

That prospect is being met with enthusiasm by some who think it’s been too long since the last Triple Crown was won by Affirmed in 1978, as well as those who think two weeks is too soon for modern horses to come back. The Belmont would probably remain three weeks after a rescheduled Preakness.

“You’ve got to put an extra week in after the Derby,” said Barry Irwin of Team Valor, the syndicate that owns Oh So Awesome, a 20-1 shot in the Belmont.

Irwin contends that today’s thoroughbreds are more prone to injury, in part because of breeding selection. Some dispute that, among them Dean Richardson, Barbaro’s surgeon.

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who has two of the favorites in today’s race, says he doesn’t like to run horses back in two weeks. He means it: He held Bluegrass Cat out of the Preakness, even though that colt finished second in the Derby.

Now, Bluegrass Cat is back as the 3-1 morning-line favorite in the Belmont, with top jockey John Velazquez aboard again after recovering from injuries suffered in April when another mount broke down.

Pletcher also has the 4-1 second choice, Sunriver, who was only 3 1/2 lengths behind Barbaro in the Florida Derby but was excluded from the Kentucky Derby because of insufficient earnings. Instead of taking on Barbaro again in the Preakness, Sunriver ran in the Peter Pan, a traditional Belmont prep, and won.

Yet Pletcher isn’t adamant that the Preakness needs to be moved.

“I’m not necessarily an advocate of changing the five-week schedule,” he said. “I just think, as far as the Preakness and Belmont, if they’re going to entice the horses that are not winning the Derby, they’re going to need to create something that is going to make people want to run back. Some sort of incentive.”

A $5-million bonus from Visa for a Triple Crown winner ended last year, and a previous incentive program that gave a $1-million bonus to the horse with the most points based on order of finish in the Triple Crown races was discontinued after 1993.

That year, Belmont favorite Prairie Bayou broke down and was euthanized after the race. Derby winner Sea Hero, fifth in the Preakness and seventh in the Belmont, claimed the bonus in a scene many considered unseemly.

“They should put the points system back in there. They need incentives,” said Baffert, who trains Bob And John, an early Derby favorite who skipped the Preakness after he’d had a bad trip in the Derby and finished 17th. He returns for the Belmont at 5-1 odds.

All told, five Derby horses skipped the Preakness to come back in the Belmont, including Bluegrass Cat, Steppenwolfer and Jazil -- second through fourth in the Derby -- and Deputy Glitters.

Deputy Glitters, trained by Albertrani, is intriguing at 15-1 odds because he is ridden by Barbaro’s jockey, Edgar Prado, and because he beat Bluegrass Cat in the Tampa Bay Derby, though Bluegrass Cat lost a shoe in the race.

Albertrani had said he would scratch Deputy Glitters today if the track turned up muddy, but the recent rains abated and today’s forecast calls for only 20% chance of rain.

Albertrani and Nick Zito, trainer of Hemingway’s Key, third in the Preakness, both say they’re against changing the Triple Crown schedule.

“Sports is tough in general,” Zito said, noting how long it has been since baseball had a triple crown winner. Carl Yastrzemski was the last to sweep a league batting title, home run title and RBI title, in 1967.

“I say, leave it the same, even though I’m a preacher of giving horses more time between races,” Zito said.

“Make it difficult, and when a great, great horse comes along, you’ll know for sure it’s a great, great horse.”