California Chrome wins Preakness

Two down, one to go for the Triple Crown.

I'll take the field against him in the Belmont.

 

You won't make any money if he wins, but you'll be killing yourself if you don't put down $2 on a horse with a legit shot at the Triple Crown.

 

I was thinking the same thing. If you win, you make your money back on a triple crown winner, plus a dime or two. And if you lose, you're out two bucks.

 

That's a fast, strong horse. He may not win the Belmont, but Inky's field bet is about the only one I'd make against him.

 

We've seen more impressive horses win the Derby and Preakness and then falter in the Belmont. That mile-and-a-half is a killer for most horses.

That said, hey, he might be the one to end the Triple Crown draught. I've been disappointed so many times that I'm not holding my breath.

 

CC's Preakness win was actually pretty similar to those of Seattle Slew and Affirmed:

But not like this guy:

 

He looked to me as if he was fading the last couple of hundred yards. Maybe it was a pull-up because the race was won, but I even said before he crossed the line "He won't win Belmont. The extra distance will get him."

Hopefully I am wrong.

 

I bet Bayern which got clobbered coming out of the gate, squeezed and bumped on the way to the first turn and never recovered.

As for winning tickets that don't get cashed, I believe the only one my old man, a degenerate gambler who loved the ponies, never cashed was a $2 win ticket on Secretariat in his last race. The ticket hangs in a frame in my brother's place with a picture of the horse crossing the wire.

My brother slipped a winning ticket from the previous day's card at Woodbine into the pocket of the old man's jacket at his funeral so he could leave this world a winner after backing so many losers at the track.

 

It'll prove to be an interesting decision by New York racing officials regarding a nasal strip for CC. Two years ago they said no to I'll Have Another.

 

That was my thinking as well; CC was definitely laboring to the finish line, similar to Seattle Slew and Affirmed (see above); Secretariat in 1973 was just rocketing away at the finish (opened his lead from 1/2 to 2 1/2 lengths in the final 200 yards), in hindsight it was easy to see if the race was another 5/16 of a mile, he was gonna win by 20+ lengths.

 

Would be absolutely dumb to make that mistake again. Certain horses run with tongue ties, shadow rolls, ear muffs and eye screens in a race. How is this any different?

If everyone has the opportunity to use a nasal strip, what's the big issue? They let Asmussen/Dutrow drug up horses from here to Kingdom Come and won't let this in? That would be a real NCAA move.

I feel like this will ultimately be a tempest in a teapot by Wednesday morning, but you never know sometimes with these state jurisdictions, especially NYRA.