Elmont, N.Y. – There are some who are billing Saturday’s Belmont Stakes as a rematch between Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo and Preakness winner Afleet Alex. Actually, the Preakness was the rematch.
And it wasn’t close.
“In my own mind, I know who the best horse is,” said Tim Ritchey, Afleet Alex’s trainer. “I’m sure that the owner and trainer of Giacomo think they have the best horse. I respect them for that.”
So, this will be the rubber match, not a rematch. Giacomo did win the Derby, but the red-hot pace really set that up. The Preakness was more definitive.
As the horses were running down the backstretch at Pimlico, Giacomo was just outside Afleet Alex. When Alex started to move around the turn, Giacomo, who ultimately finished third, simply could not keep up. The final margin was 9 3/4 lengths. If Alex had not almost gotten knocked down at the head of the stretch, the margin might have been 15.
Somebody might say, well, Giacomo finished first in the Derby and third in the Preakness while Alex finished third in the Derby and first in the Preakness. Technically, that makes them even. In terms of raw talent, they are not close.
The Belmont is the final exam for Ritchey’s unique training approach. When he arrived at Oaklawn Park on Dec. 1 with Afleet Alex, he planned a campaign that was to culminate on June 11. Several days a week, Alex went to the track twice, once to jog lightly, once to gallop strongly, often going 5 miles a day.
“A lot of people thought I was a little crazy,” Ritchey said.
Because it is not done, everybody was thinking Ritchey had lost his mind – until they saw the “Immaculate Recovery” in the Preakness.
Those final 300 yards were a testament to all the work Ritchey had done with Alex.
“I do think all the miles of training had to help that horse,” Ritchey said.
Alex logged all those miles because Ritchey was thinking beyond the Derby. He was thinking about the entire Triple Crown series, one that annually enervates unfit 3-year-olds.
“You can’t just train to one race,” Ritchey said. “You’ve got to train so they come through every race and build with every race. I wanted him to be so physically fit and healthy going into the whole thing that we could get through all of the races.”
Ritchey took a colt that was raw speed when he got him and taught him to conserve his energy.
How often do you get a horse with the talent and intelligence to go with it?
“First one I’ve come across,” Ritchey said. “I’ve trained an awful lot of horses in 30 years. A lot of horses have the talent, but they don’t have the mental ability to just relax. I’ve seen some horses that could relax, but they couldn’t run very fast.”
