The WinStar team of Walden and soon-to-be Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, held the grey son of Tapit from from the Peruvian mare Morana out of the Preakness and awaited the Belmont. A different horse won each leg this year.
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Creator also had a stablemate blazing the trail in the Belmont. Puerto Rico-born Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., pointed to the sky as he rode Creator to historic win at the 148 Belmont Stakes Saturday afternoon, June 11, 2016.
Destin began to separate from the field before Creator was able to shake free, splitting horses in mid-stretch and responding under Ortiz’s urging to get his nose down on the wire.
AFTER his Dubai World Cup flop, last year’s Belmont Stakes runner-up Frosted (Kiaran McLaughlin/Joel Rosario) had plenty of questions to answer – and the Godolphin four-year-old answered them in no uncertain terms when he annihilated a good field in the $1.25million event better known as the Met Mile.
Asmussen has won more than 7,300 races, including the Preakness with Curlin in 2007 and Rachel Alexandra in 2009. He was taken off the Hall of Fame ballot past year because of allegations made by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals about the way he treated his horses.
For the past two years, the New York Racing Association stages a three-day racing festival from Thursday-Saturday, with on-track entertainment, food truck courts and plenty of first-class racing.
There will be no Triple Crown this year in horse racing. Derby victor Nyquist was back in California, leaving Preakness victor Exaggerator as the 6-5 favorite.
There is some provincial thinking when you watch one of the national races and pull for a horse who ran at Oaklawn Park.
Exaggerator went off as the 7-5 favorite in the Belmont, the race dubbed the “Test of the Champion”. He moved into contention at one point but just didn’t have his usual finishing kick. He wound up 11th.
However, Exaggerator, who had finished second in Kentucky, edged him out at Preakness, with Nyquist dropping back to third place.
“I’m glad to see him put that number up”, Asmussen said.
“I thought Irad gave him a dream trip”, the trainer said. In all, 18 horses have swept the final two-thirds of the Triple Crown, including seven that did not run in the Derby.
Creator, sent off 16-1, returned $34.80, $14.60 and $9.40. Lani paid $6.60. The winning time was 2:28.51. He’s won five of 11, with three second-place finishes and earnings of almost $3 million.
After leading the field early on, Gettysburg dropped back after a mile and Destin took charge into the stretch.
I just waited for somewhere to go.
One could say it took a village to get Creator in position for his redemption run.
“As for the Triple Crown this horse was as fresh as a horse can be”, said Kent’s brother and the horse’s trainer, Keith Desormeaux.
“I nursed him to the quarter-pole”, said Desormeaux, who recently had a brief stay in an alcohol rehab treatment facility. Lani improved each time, running ninth in the Derby and fifth in the Preakness.
The race was run on a fast track although the threatened rain on a hot, humid day began to fall after the start.
Destin was a stubborn second, 1 ½ lengths ahead of late-running Japanese import Lani.
Destin inherited the lead when Gettysburg’s set-up work was complete and fought gamely while trying to hang on to that lead. He improved his record to 10-3-4-1.
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