In Pursuit of a Triple Crown

In the past, a Triple Crown in thoroughbred horse racing has referred to a horse winning all three races — the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont.

It is not possible for the same horse to win all three races this year, but it is still possible for the same jockey to win all three races, and that is what Calvin Borel will seek to do this afternoon. They're calling this unprecedented achievement the "Calvin Crown."

Borel rode Mine That Bird to victory in the May 2 Kentucky Derby, then he switched horses and rode filly Rachel Alexandra to victory in the Preakness two weeks later. Today, he's back on Mine That Bird.

Oddsmakers have established Mine That Bird as a 2–1 pick to win, but Charitable Man is a 3–1 pick and Dunkirk is 4–1. Based on the odds, Mine That Bird can expect some stiff competition today.

As Ed Gray observes in the Boston Herald, today's race represents a new challenge for Mine That Bird.

Borel and the horse will "will have to adjust to the 1–mile oval with wide sweeping turns and long stretches," Gray writes. "The pace of the Belmont is usually slower than it is in the first two legs of the Triple Crown, which may not play into the hand of a drop–back, one–run closer like Mine That Bird."

The Belmont track may be a challenge for Mine That Bird, but SI.com observes that the jockey has the confidence he needs.

" 'Like I have been telling you, he will win,' Borel said" in a Namath–like guarantee, reports SI.com. " 'Winning a Triple Crown might not be on the same horse but it'ts very good for me and my career.' "

Wallace Matthews writes, in Newsday, that the Belmont "separates the merely good from the great."

As anyone who has been looking for work in this economy knows, confidence is a significant part of the battle. We'll find out today if it can carry Borel to a "Calvin Crown" — and establish him as "great" as opposed to "merely good."

The 1½–mile track does, indeed, pose a challenge for Mine That Bird. If Borel can ride his mount to victory, it will be quite an achievement.

I hope he can do it. But my guess is that he won't. I'm thinking that Mine That Bird will finish second, just as he did three weeks ago, even though he has a talented jockey riding him.

Here are my picks in today's race:

1. Charitable Man


2. Mine That Bird


3. Chocolate Candy

You can see the race on ABC. Coverage begins at 4 p.m. (Central), but the race won't run until more than an hour later.

The Battle of the Sexes

Well, that is what they are calling today's 134th Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore.

The battle of the sexes.

In a way, I suppose, that's an appropriate label for today's race, matching as it does the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Mine That Bird, and the fabulous filly, Rachel Alexandra, that apparently has stolen the hearts of the betting public along with Mine That Bird's jockey.

And the guys in the pressbox seem equally taken with Rachel Alexandra. The filly, writes Tim Layden in Sports Illustrated, could be the fastest horse in the field, regardless of gender. And she has Calvin Borel — her regular rider who rode Mine That Bird to a stunning win in the Derby.

In fact, Borel rode Rachel Alexandra to a 20–length victory the day before the Derby

For some reason, it just doesn't seem like the battle of the sexes to me, perhaps because the battle features animals and not humans. If one of the jockeys was a girl, I might feel differently about it. But Mike Smith will be aboard Mine That Bird today.

Kevin Van Valkenburg of the Baltimore Sun says this is Mine That Bird's moment of truth. And indeed it is. In a couple of hours, the horses will run and we will resolve the storyline that I think is the real theme of the day: Is Mine That Bird the real deal? Will he reward the believers? Or will he confirm what the skeptics have been saying?

And there are plenty of skeptics who feel that a 50–1 shot got lucky when a "perfect storm unfolded" on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs two weeks ago.

The odds haven't changed much. According to the Morning Line, Rachel Alexandra is a 8–5 pick. Pioneerof the Nile, the second–place finisher in the Derby, is 5–1. Mine That Bird is 6–1. So is Friesan Fire, which was a favorite at the Derby but ended up far back in the pack. Musket Man, the show horse in the Derby, is 8–1.

All the other horses — there are 13 running today — are getting odds of 10–1 or higher.

I'll be honest. I would like to see a Triple Crown winner. When I was a teenager, they were commonplace. Between 1973 and 1978, there were three Triple Crown winners — Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977) and Affirmed (1978). Great horses. I remember watching them run.

Is Mine That Bird worthy of becoming only the 12th horse to win the Triple Crown? We'll find out a lot in less than two hours now.

I'm going to predict that he is. I was impressed with Borel's work as the jockey two weeks ago, but I've seen Smith ride before, and I think he is capable of riding Mine That Bird to victory.

I'm not convinced of Rachel Alexandra's speed, but I've never seen her run. If I was at the track today, I would put $2 on her to show. If she has a duel with Mine That Bird that conjures memories of the epic Affirmed–Alydar battles, I'd be willing to bet her higher at the Belmont in three weeks.

But I'm going to pick Musket Man to come in second.

So my picks are:

1. Mine That Bird


2. Musket Man


3. Rachel Alexandra

Enjoy the race.

Betting on the Bird

I don't know what the odds will be on each horse when the Preakness field bursts through the gates at Pimlico tomorrow.

But I do know one group that will be virtually unanimous in its support for Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird — the folks who are affiliated with the Belmont.

The Belmont, of course, is the third jewel in horse racing's Triple Crown. If the winner of the Derby doesn't win the Preakness, the Belmont becomes primarily an afterthought. TV ratings are down, wagers are down, everything is down.

So, every year, the folks who are connected to the Belmont want the Derby winner to prevail in Baltimore on the third Saturday in May. It doesn't matter to them if that horse proceeds to win the Belmont in June as long as there is a chance that there will be a Triple Crown winner.

Because that means more bets, a bigger crowd, more food and drink sales.

And that can only happen if the Derby winner also wins the Preakness.

The Belmont folks always have motivation to pull for the Derby winner in the Preakness. But this year, with the economy decidedly down, there is more motivation than usual.

Mason Levinson reports, for Bloomberg.com, that the New York Racing Association estimates that, if Mine That Bird enters the Belmont with victories in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, it can mean "as much as $3 million extra from ticket sales, concessions and betting."

That's quite an incentive. It's been more than 30 years since there was a Triple Crown winner. If there is a chance that the winner of the Belmont will be the one who ends the Triple Crown drought, obviously a lot of folks will want to be there to see it.

"The most recent of horse racing's 11 Triple Crown winners was Affirmed in 1978," Levinson observes. "Eleven horses have won the first two legs since then — seven in the past 12 years — and all have failed to win on the 1½–mile Belmont track just outside New York City in Elmont. The Derby is 1¼ mile, the Preakness is 1 3/16 mile."

According to George Vecsey of the New York Times, Mine That Bird is the Rodney Dangerfield of horse racing.

"Sometimes there is no respect," Vecsey writes, "even for a Kentucky Derby winner."

Vecsey says there are at least four reasons why Mine That Bird "is being played down" on the eve of the Preakness — "the suspicion that he got lucky in the Derby; the entrance of Rachel Alexandra, the wonder filly; the defection of Calvin Borel, who took such an audacious ride in the Derby; and the apparent insecurity of his ownership."

My guess is that, if Mine That Bird wins tomorrow, he'll get plenty of respect in New York in three weeks — and the folks at the Belmont will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Will There Be a Triple Crown Winner in '09?

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In a thrilling finish, Affirmed edged Alydar in the 1978 Preakness
and captured the second jewel in the Triple Crown.

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There hasn't been a Triple Crown winner in thoroughbred racing since 1978.

There have been several near–misses in the last three decades. Last year's was noteworthy. Big Brown won the first two races and was proclaimed by racing observers to be a virtual lock to win the Belmont and wrap up the Triple Crown. But fate intervened.

Nearly two weeks ago, Mine That Bird, with jockey Calvin Borel aboard, ran to the second–biggest upset in Kentucky Derby history, and racing fans have been wondering if he can capture the elusive Triple Crown. But if he does, he will have to win at least the Preakness with a different jockey. Borel won't be riding Mine That Bird this Saturday. He will be riding Rachel Alexandra, the controversial filly that is currently a 9–5 pick to become the first filly to win the Preakness since 1924.

Jockey Mike Smith will be riding Mine That Bird, presently a 9–2 pick, in Saturday's race. Even though Mine That Bird is one of the favorites in this race — unlike the 50–1 shot he was two weeks ago — the filly has been turning some heads.

Rick Maese writes, in the Los Angeles Times, that Mine That Bird's chances seem slimmer than the existence of UFOs. Whatever one thinks of Mine That Bird and his chances of ending the Triple Crown drought, it's an appropriate comparison, given his connections to Roswell, N.M.

You can find out more about the 13–horse field, as well as the weather and track conditions at Pimlico, here.

Longshot Wins the Derby

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Well, as my friend who wrote about horse racing for the Arkansas Gazette used to say, there's no such thing as a sure thing.

Need further proof?

In spite of the talk of the number of horses in this year's Kentucky Derby who were getting odds of 20–1 or better, jockey Calvin Borel rode 50–1 shot Mine That Bird to a convincing win this afternoon.

The only reason the other horses weren't left in the "cloud of dust" I wrote about earlier is because the track was wet.

It's the second–biggest upset in the Derby's 135–year history. In fact, the only thing that might have been more dramatic than a 50–1 shot winning the race might have been if someone who has been out of work for several months and badly needed a break had put down about what remained of his/her life savings on win, place and show tickets on Mine That Bird. For $2 tickets, Mine That Bird paid $103.20, $54 and $25.80.

I doubt that Mine That Bird will be a 50–1 shot in the Preakness two weeks from today, but I have to wonder what affect the presence of I Want Revenge will have — assuming that I Want Revenge will be completely recovered from the condition that kept him from running in today's race.

On another note, the Louisville Courier–Journal posted a video clip of comedian Joe Piscopo, along with photos of Piscopo and other celebrities who were spotted at Churchill Downs today.

Piscopo is 57 years old. It's been 25 years since he left "Saturday Night Live." He hasn't had a particularly noteworthy career since leaving SNL, and I don't recall seeing him in anything, although I probably have and I just don't remember it. So what struck me was how ordinary he looks.

The actors and/or comedians who seem to be really famous, really legendary are the ones who look distinctive throughout their lives — and who are instantly recognizable, whether they are 25 or 55. It goes without saying, I guess, that they have talent. But people know who they are when they see them. Humphrey Bogart was like that. So was George Carlin. Ditto Johnny Carson.

But I could walk by Joe Piscopo on the street and not know who he is — unless he opened his mouth and started talking. He looks like a fairly typical, middle–aged businessman, and I would have to look at him for a minute or two before I realized who he was.

Does Piscopo look ordinary to you, too?